Welcome to Trumpet4Fun

Ivan Hunter teaches music through teaching melodies. Each melody contains a trough of musical wisdom. When working with it the student will gain musical knowledge and a well rounded playing technique.

Ivan uses melodies, particularly from his book Music 4 Fun. These melodies are deliberately laid out one to a page with a minimum of printed instruction to avoid distractions. No bar numbers, no chords, no dynamics, no tempo indications. These printed pages are designed to be an aide-mémoire rather than an urtext. Every melody has been specially selected for its musical, social, or historical significance.

We ask Ivan "what happens in a lesson"?

"I love opening students’ ears and eyes to what is going on musically. I am interested in what they have been playing and listening to and will use this information together with new materials as a stepping stone to learning. I might, for example, talk about the first note in the Bach Air – a note that is 9 beats long. What is happening during these 9 beats in the overall orchestration of the piece? I ask them to hear in their mind the bass line walking down to the note C that finally puts so much pressure/tension on their note that they must change it and continue through the melody. Why has the opening note of Wagner’s Rienzi Overture such a completely different feeling despite being such a similar long note? What is the difference and how can the student's playing reflect this difference?

Or we might look at the Dvorak 7 slow movement to show the importance of knowing what key the melody is in. It is not G minor which may be suggested by the first few notes, but it is really Eb Major which becomes clear further on into the excerpt.

To play brass you have to know where the note is in order to be able to play it. A keyboard player presses the key, but a brass player uses their whole body to make the sound.  Singing is essential. It gives the player a natural feeling of note placement.

Brass players must know what key they are in at every moment. I am not talking key signatures, I mean that they must be aware of where they are in the key of the moment: tonic, mediant, dominant, etc. These notes all play/sound/feel different and require a different approach. This will propel the student's musicality and technical ability."

What about range and technique?

"Rather than concentrating on destination points,  I focus on the journey. Every lesson offers new discoveries and tips on playing technique. Range extension is the inevitable result of getting the basics right. The student will gain range and technique by having fun in the process!"