I began the class with a short discussion about overtones and the harmonic series. This was a brief and practical introduction to the acoustics of wind and brass instruments. After a few demonstrations on the natural trumpet, finger-holed trumpet, and piano, pairs of students practised playing pure intervals on their own instruments (such as major thirds) and they listened for resultant tones (which evince pure intonation). Thereafter, the students played Anthony Holborne’s ‘The Fairie-round’, which became the basis for further discussion on the subject of tuning, and introduced further complexities such as reading from mensural notation, interpreting musical metre, and uncovering other implied conventions in earlier musical styles. These students are among the brightest and most advanced young musicians in the country, so I was advised to delve as deeply as possible into the subject in the time available.

The middle part of the class took the form of a recital-masterclass: three students had a performance platform with an excellent accompanist. While this part of the class did not necessarily directly relate to the earlier themes of the class, it became an iterative class with a great amount of input from the students in attendance as well as those performing. This was a conservatoire-level masterclass in all aspects, and it led to short discussions of practice techniques, musical semantics, musicianship, stagecraft, interpretation, musical influence, musical intention, music history, harmonic language, and many other interrelated topics. All three performances were exemplary.

The final part of the session was exclusively for the trumpet players. I brought four natural trumpets with me to enable them to play together in a natural trumpet ensemble. This was a great opportunity to use my book, ‘Just’ Natural Trumpet, with the students of the Junior Guildhall. We began with music from c.1598 and progressed to rehearse Monteverdi’s well-known Toccata from L’Orfeo. This was a whistle stop introduction to the natural trumpet, but it has hopefully given them an idea of what it is like to play this instrument and some of the basic techniques involved. It is a great joy for me to introduce people to the natural trumpet and I feel a great sense of fulfilment when my book is put to good use. Well done to everyone who played the natural trumpet for the first time and thanks to the Junior Guildhall for the invitation!