Ode to My Savior Beginner Trumpet Trio

Ode to My Savior

By Eddie Lewis

Beginner Trumpet Trio

MTR 0311 4152

I have said this in the description for other pieces, but it’s worth mentioning again. I believe that trumpet students should begin performing from the start of their careers. The problem with this belief is that there isn’t much good music written for the beginners to perform. Most of what is published is “dumbed down” and doesn’t sound like real music.

I have been trying to fill that cap by composing pieces for the beginners that I would be proud to perform in public. My objective with these compositions is to write music that sounds like real music, but functions within the limitations of the beginners’ trumpet skills.

My first compositions of this nature were the three bird solos, Bird March, Feathered Friends and The Purple Parrot (which I let my then current students name). One of those students performed the Bird March solo at a school assembly only three or four months after she started playing the trumpet.

That student eventually quit trumpet to pursue a busy performance career in theater (she was an elementary school student) but performing the Bird March for her fellow students is a memory she will always fondly look back on.

That is part of why performing early in the learning process is so important. You don’t know when students will continue, and which ones will not. For those students whose trumpet careers end up being no longer than a year, the one or two performances they have in that year are all they will have to look back on. Unfortunately, those who do not perform at all will only ever remember the drudgery of pointless practice and rehearsals.

But there’s more to my early performance philosophy than just that. For those students who do continue their trumpet careers for many years, the earlier performances have a mental benefit that cannot be replaced in any other way. Their future progress on the trumpet is greatly enhanced by each performance they present in the first two years of their trumpet careers.

Thematic Content

Sometimes naming the composition is more difficult for me than composing it. One trick that I use to choose a title is imagine lyrics that would go with the main melody. That’s how I came up with the title, Ode to My Savior.

Ode to My Savior Beginner Trumpet Trio is written in the style of a hymn. I am a Christian and unashamed to reference Jesus Christ in my work. The words I heard at the beginning of this “hymn” were Ode to My Savior.

Merriam-Webster defines an ode as “a lyric poem usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style”. The most famous of odes in our modern times is the Ode to Joy, used in one of Beethoven’s symphonies.

Skill Level

The skill level for Ode to My Savior is beginner. In our seven-level system, this is the first of two beginner skill levels. We call it the Trumpet Pioneer skill level.

Music in the Trumpet Pioneer skill level is very simple. There are no smaller rhythmic values than quarter-notes. The time signatures are simple. The keys are limited to one flat or sharp. The length of the pieces is also limited. The highest note allowed at the Trumpet Pioneer level is third space C.

These simplifications are meant to make the music accessible to most beginner trumpet students. Some people have told me that their beginners could not perform music at this skill level. I understand that. The way I teach, my students are ready to play this music within two or three months of their first day playing the trumpet. So you could say that these compositions are part of my overall trumpet pedagogy.

Practice Recommendations

The first step in learning Ode to My Savior is in mastering the key of one flat. There are B flats in the first and third parts and progress will be halted if the students need to keep fixing the key signature notes.

We recommend using Trumpet Pioneer Tonalization Studies to master the key.

The harmonies in Ode to My Savior Beginner Trumpet Trio are very simple, mostly I, IV, and V chords. It might serve as a good vehicle to expose the students to the theory behind those chords.

Each student has a one measure solo in this piece. Encourage your students to play those solos boldly. I believe it is those solos that make the piece.

Free Trumpet Play-Along Video

We have a free trumpet play-along video for this composition in our You Play First Chair video series. The series was created to give trumpet students an opportunity to practice sight reading and ensemble skills, but it also works well as a way to give you a chance to take the composition for a test drive. Click on the following button to access the trumpet play-along video for Ode to My Savior:

Ode to My Savior - You Play First Chair - Trumpet Play-Along