Many have loved the duet arrangements found in the original collection of 12 Christmas Duets for Trumpets arranged by Kenneth Baird. Volume 2 is now available! As in the original collection, this is a delightful collection of intermediate to advanced-intermediate level duets based on traditional Christmas carols. They are challenging at times (not for beginners) without being overwhelming; at times joyful, at times uplifting, at times serene. There's even a very jazzy version of Go Tell It on the Mountain! In addition to being a joy for friends to play together, they are a great resource for teachers to play at lessons with their students, they are are suitable for informal Christmas performances, and many are appropriate for church services. Note: the duets in this collection have NOT been arranged to be fully compatible with Mr. Baird's duet collections for other instruments. Instead, these have been arranged specifically for trumpets. This collection does include the duets found in previously released Five More Christmas Duets for Trumpets by Mr. Baird. Included in Christmas Duets, Volume 2, are: Carol of the Bells, Ding Dong! Merrily on High, the First Noel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Jingle Bells, Joy to the World (a more traditional version than found in the original duet collection), We Three Kings, Angels We Have Heard on High, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and In Dulci Jubilo (Good Christian Men Rejoice). If you are looking for simple harmonizations of Christmas Carols, this collection is not for you. If you are looking for something more, you've come to the right place.

The Concone vocalise studies have been used by brass performers for many years now as a way to perfect a beautiful legato, lyrical technique and sound. The 15 Lyrical Duets for Trumpet, beautifully arranged by Matthew Mitchell are easy to easy/intermediate level and are also valuable to more experienced performers to build a singing lyrical sound.

Here is what Mr. Mitchell writes about his arrangement:

The source material for this collection are Concone?s original studies for high voice. The melodies are presented in the first trumpet part for each duet. The harmonic integrity for these duets has been preserved by using Concone?s original accompaniments as a basis for the second trumpet parts. The second trumpet parts have many similarities to Concone?s original accompaniments in regards to rhythm, melodic ideas and style.

The keys, articulations, markings and dynamics for this series of duets mirror those unutilized by J.F. Sawyer in the Brass Press Edition of Concone?s Lyrical Studies for Trumpet. The user is encouraged to experiment with their own articulations, markings and dynamics. The player may also want to take liberties with note lengths at the ends of phrases, often playing notes longer than their printed values, creating a more satisfying musical experience.

The 15 Lyrical Duets for Trumpets are great tools for teachers to use in the studio as well.

Trumpet Pro Pentatonic Tonalization
Introduction
Pro Pentatonics is a new book from the constantly growing Total Tonalization Series. It is book number five in the pentatonic series.

Technique in the form of pentatonic scales is most enthusiastically sought after by jazz musicians. Although the scale and its compositional uses are not limited to jazz, the practice of those scales is almost exclusively a "jazz thing." Not only is the pentatonic scale the root of the blues scale, but it is also used to varied degrees by most modern jazz musicians.

That said, there are certain benefits to practicing pentatonic scales that apply to all musicianship. For example, I believe that the best way to begin to learn and understand quartal harmony is via practicing the pentatonic scales. Pentatonic scales are constructed in perfect fourths. Let's look at the C pentatonic as an example:

E - A - D - G - C

Five notes a fourth apart from each other, beginning on E, produces all of the notes of the C pentatonic scale:

C - D - E - G - A

For this reason, the traditional scale patterns come alive with the sound of perfect fourths when applied to the pentatonic scale.

Quartal harmony is not limited to jazz compositions or improvisation. Many musicians since the early twentieth century have written compositions utilizing quartal harmony, and I believe that the first step to understanding those compositions and performing them is in practicing the pentatonic scales.

Aside from the theoretical applications of the pentatonic scale, there are also technical reasons to practice them. The removal of the fourth and seventh scale degrees (the tritone) creates a scale and inherent patterns which become far clumsier to perform than the traditional major scales. The agility and flexibility required offer the diligent practicer an edge over those who do not practice such things.

Here Comes the Sun first appeared on The Beatles? 1969 album, Abbey Road. It was written by George Harrison on a warm spring day whilst walking around Eric Clapton?s garden. The recording of Here Comes the Sun was one of the first British songs to feature a Moog synthesiser. In the digital age, Here Comes the Sun is the most streamed Beatles song by some distance.

This version of Here Comes the Sun is arranged as a duet for two Trumpets.

This arrangement of Here Comes the Sun is ideal for musicians at an intermediate level. There are syncopated rhythms in both parts throughout and the changing time signatures may present a challenge for some. The overall performance time is around three minutes. The full length YouTube performance above is the Clarinet version of this duet.

Petros Shoujounian, an Armenian/Canadian composer has written Twelve Duos for Trumpets based on the folksong collection of the Armenian priest Komitas, known as the founder of the Armenian national school of music and one of the pioneers of ethnomusicology. Below are comments from the composer about his inspiration in writing these Twelve Duos for Trumpets.

My interest in the collected works of Komitas's ethnographical songs was aroused when I was introduced to Bela Bartok's similar works followed by Alan Hovhaness's huge creative world. Bartok completed his project having at his disposal a large collection of ethnographic music, while Hovhannes studied the wealth of Komitas's music with great interest. It is difficult to say to what extent the Armenian underpinning of Hovhannes's works is nurtured by Komitas's musical world, but his classical interpretation of the Armenian ethnographical music created a huge interest in the listener. Needless to say, there is also Aram Katchaturian's legacy, which at its core has the ardent presence of the Armenian spirit, nurtured by Komitas's very existence.

Komitas has left a collection of about 3,000 cleaned versions of the ethnographic song and dance pieces, of which 1,700 has reaches us, about 400 of which have been activated. I believe that in those beautiful musical fragments reside the power to be revived, once we enrich them with colorful musical instruments and unbounded polyphonic imagination.

This is the motivation behind my own work and these Twelve Duos for Trumpets: to make the essence of our ethnographic music accessible through Komitas.

These Twelve Duos are appropriate for advanced performers and are written for C Trumpets, B-flat Trumpets, Cornets, B-flat Piccolo Trumpets, and Flugelhorns.