When I played screech trumpet

When I was in high school I played horn (French horn, for the uninitiated), but at least a couple of years during marching season I played trumpet, since horns are difficult to play while marching. I did OK with it, but the very top of my range was a high C, which I could hit with difficulty. We played the old popular number “Horse” that required a high C in several places.


After that I did not play trumpet for several years, until I was the choral director at Clarksville High School for two years. While I was there, Mark McKeller, the director, would let me sit in at trumpet in with their little jazz ensemble. While I was fooling around with them, I suddenly found that I could play notes well above high C, which I never had been able to do before. Their big number was “Gonna Fly Now,” the theme from the movie Rocky. Mr. McKeller let me play the second time through on the theme an octave higher, which allowed me to hit an F-sharp above high C. We called that playing “screech trumpet,” because that is a little what it sounds like. In serious circles, “screech trumpet” is not necessarily a complimentary term, since really good lead trumpeters can play well enough that it does not sound like a screech. But for me, just to be able to hit notes that high was great fun. I loved it.

Here is a LINK to the movie theme.


Doc Severinsen, all-time great band leader