Flute to trumpet transition?

Question:I have played the flute for nine years and the piccolo for one. I love woodwind instruments, but to grow more as a musician (and for fun!) I would like to learn trumpet. I have several questions. Will learning trumpet somehow ruin/taint my flute embouchure (lips)? How long will it take me to get good at it? I will be getting help with blowing into the instrument in the beginning and then try to learn fingerings independently over the summer (before college starts again in the fall)... can I learn the fingerings and everything alone?

Oh, one more thing... I am in four school bands, and I would like to probably continue playing flute/piccolo in three of them and trumpet in one next year... will it be tough going back-and-forth between the instruments?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have played the flute for nine years and the piccolo for one. I love woodwind instruments, but to grow more as a musician (and for fun!) I would like to learn trumpet. I have several questions. Will learning trumpet somehow ruin/taint my flute embouchure (lips)? How long will it take me to get good at it? I will be getting help with blowing into the instrument in the beginning and then try to learn fingerings independently over the summer (before college starts again in the fall)... can I learn the fingerings and everything alone?

Oh, one more thing... I am in four school bands, and I would like to probably continue playing flute/piccolo in three of them and trumpet in one next year... will it be tough going back-and-forth between the instruments?

You shouldn't have any problems. Many flautists end up taking up a brass instrument as well because the embouchure and breath support required are about the same. But since you also play piccolo, I'm going to recommend never playing the tuba; that can really mess up your embouchure. Not for flute, though, just piccolo. Don't get the logic behind it (I think it might have something to do with how sloppy the embouchure is), but after playing tuba for a while, it just dies.

Since you can already read notes, I'm sure that picking up the fingerings and such should be fairly easy for you. I'd never played a wind instrument before flute and yet taught myself the Bb scale pretty much overnight. Fingerings are the easy part.

I've never gone back and forth between two wind instruments, but I have for percussion and flute. It wasn't that hard, but then again, I didn't have two sets of fingerings and embouchures and such to remember. However, many of my musical friends do it with ease and will even change instruments in the middle of a concert, sometimes even in the middle of a song.

good that u are learnig boath in marching band trumpts are a +. also it wont mess up your embousher. what i sugest is that if u play trumpet for 1 hour play the flute for 10-15 min. so u wont forget