James Stamp

Supplemental Studies

This book is a supplement to the original James Stamp Warm-Ups and Studies (Editions Bim, Switzerland), and all of James Stamp’s concepts and instructions presented in the original volume should apply to these studies as if they were included in this book.

The Stamp Warm-up No.6 from the original book (page 10) constitutes the main body of these studies (II, 1-6, pages 18-35). In his studio teaching, James Stamp had his advanced students play No.6 in the natural minor, harmonic minor, 'jazz' melodic minor, whole-tone, and diminished scales, versions of which are included in this volume.

The philosophy of the Supplemental Studies, to which James Stamp agreed many years ago, was to fill in some of the blank pages of his legacy, to wit: to show his advanced scale exercises and some of his pedagogical 'roots.' One cannot do this without mentioning Max Schlossberg (1873-1936), whom many consider to be the father of the American school of trumpet playing, and who had a great influence on James Stamp’s work.
James Stamp was a student of professor Schlossberg, and he used, especially during his formative years as a teacher, some of Schlossberg’s original unpublished materials in his work. Schlossberg’s concepts also greatly influenced the development of the now world-famous original published Stamp materials (Editions Bim).
The Supplemental Studies include four preparatory scale exercises (I, page 8-16) and five attack-air flow studies (III, page 36-39) used by James Stamp, both sets of which have their origins in the concepts of Max Schlossberg and the members of the so-called Schlossberg School.

Thomas Stevens