Reddit mentions: The best orchestral songbooks

Ok. I'd definitely recommend buying a book of exercises to work through. In my experience, most technical playing improvement comes from exercises, not concert pieces. Without hearing you play, it's a bit hard to recommend a particular book. But you might try Alwin Schroeder's book. Just the first volume has a large number of exercises that span a wide difficulty range. Another book at roughly the same level is Sebastian Lee's 40 Melodic Exercises, which I just found out is available for free (!) here.

The key to these exercises is to progress slowly and methodically. Try to figure out the particular techniques each one is focused at, and be aware of that as you practice. Maybe set an initial goal of conquering one exercise per week (as they get harder, they will take more time). You don't have to do every exercise, but try to really master the ones you do work on. And don't skip the harder ones. ;)

One nice thing about exercises imo is that you can really see your progress. Six months in, you can count the pages of all the exercises you've worked through and you'll be playing stuff deep into the book that there's no way you could have played when you started.

If you need harder stuff we can talk, but I think those two books should get you going again. Don't forget scales and arpeggios; they really help keep your fingers limber.

Good luck!

I like Claude Gordon's approach, so I recommend his Systematic Approach to Daily Practice. It will be too much for you at the outset, but that's ok— most exercises will have a "play as much as you can" deal; move on after you've missed three times in a row.

Good books for specifically lip flexibility are Collin and Irons.

And of course, you can't go wrong in general with Schlossberg or Arban's.

Either Clarke or Arban's will be good for technical facility/etudes, once you're there, but really the only way to get there is to play them so start now. Play them way downtempo if need be, but you're not going to wake up one day out of the blue and be good enough to start playing out of the Clarke book full speed.

That being said, I also agree with the stuff /u/awashsound said; I just felt like giving you options if you want to go deeper, or if you—you know—prefer dead trees to computer screens.

practice etudes too. they’re beneficial like scales but they are more fun to play / sound a little prettier! here is a nice book of them if you don’t mind shelling out. it also may help to have occasional lessons to make sure your posture is still on point— makes a much bigger difference than you’d think

First, if you can get a teacher, you will make faster and safer progress. I know that is not an option for everyone. Next, mouthpieces will not be a substitute for fundamentals.

There are several good recommendations on here. I heartily agree with the Caruso 6-note exercise. I also recommend the second exercises from the Chicowitz Flow Studies, and finding a copy of Irons Slurs.

The Irons is invaluable, as it brings attention to the position and movements of the tongue arch, and this is the key to regulating your air speed.

As you ascend in range, your air speed increases through increasing tongue arch, similar to whistling. It is common for players to interchange increased air speed with increased air volume. Be careful of this mistake. Even the most powerfully developed embouchure is still much a smaller set of muscles than the diaphragm, and can easily have the aperture blown open with excessive air volume. This in turn, can lead to the player pressing their mouthpiece into the embouchure with excessive pressure to counter. This limits range, endurance, flexibility, and tone quality. The key to increased range is faster air, focused through a smaller aperture.

If that sounds complicated, that is because it is - at least in the beginning. It is one of those things you look back on later and wonder why it was so hard to get. If you can at all, a teacher will be the most effective way forward.

Feuillard (free on IMSLP is absolutely my bible. I don't use anything else any more for technique work. For etudes, everyone should have Popper - then, depending on your level, I would add Duport and/or Piatti collections. I spent years and years working my way through the Three Volume Schroeder Collection, it covers a great range of material. Probably 10-20% of the etudes there are a little thin, good to play through a few times but not worth real work. But I definitely became a good sightreader by just plowing through lots of it, and it contains gems from other collections (the aforementioned Duport and Piatti, for example).

There's also a very neat scales book called The Art of Scales. It's no Flesch or Galamian, but it has an interesting approach where each page is devoted to a key and you're presented with a variety of arpeggios, double stops, excerpts, etc for each key. It keeps things varied and covers lots of bases once you've already got your foundational work down.

Practicing your endurance is the key. When you practice on your own, I'd recommend the Irons book which will help both flexibility and endurance, and try working up a few of the Arban's Characteristic Studies or the Charlier Etudes. Being able to play those etudes top to bottom have helped me a lot. Good luck!

You're right that breathing is not just about bringing in more air. You could take the biggest breath in the world, but if you don't have any breath control and you only use a thimble-full of air to play, it's not really doing you any good.

Language is weird and typing about this stuff can lead to confusion, but I would not use the word "push" to describe how we use air when we play trumpet.

Here's a few book recommendations that have good information and exercises:

The Breathing Book, by David Vining

The Buzzing Book by James Thompson

27 Groups of Exercises by Earl D. Irons

I also recommend checking out the Breathing Gym:

The Breathing Gym (Book & DVD) by Sam Palafian and Patrick Sheridan

What I'm going to say, I'm not saying maliciously. You need to stop being short-sighted and wanting instant gratification. You're not very good right now and you're not going to be good for a while. You need to make a practice schedule and stick to it. The tone, range, dexterity, and reading skills will come eventually through hard-work and dedication.

This is a great website for ear-training: http://www.musictheory.net/exercises

Beginning books: Clarke, Irons, Schlossberg

Good beginning pieces to work towards, (I've included links to videos and purchasing sites): Charlier Etudes 1 & 2, Leroy Anderson's Trumpeter's Lullaby, Handel's Aria Con Variazioni, Jules Levy's Grand Russian Fantasia

One quick look through your video's comments reveal it is "The Hanover Hornpipe," a traditional drum and fife tune. And one quick search on Google and there's some sheet music. And another quick search on Google and you can find a CD. And a quick search on Amazon and you can find a book to teach you how to play it (flute not included).

get this book and practice out of it every day. your lip slurs will be powerful.

https://www.amazon.com/27-Groups-Exercises-Earl-Irons/dp/1581060572

My bad!

https://www.amazon.com/27-Groups-Exercises-Earl-Irons/dp/1581060572