I will group the “Old School” approach to improving high range as any method using traditional methods which would include improvement one half-step at a time over a period with constant repetition.
The highest note in the entire Arban Method is only a high C. Did you ever wonder why this appened.? Why was such a popular and authoritative work so limiting in the upper register? I’m not sure anyone would have the real reason for many factors affected the material at that period of time. It is interesting to read the review of Arban’s material when he submitted it to the Pasis Conservatory’s Committee on Music Study. Their replay stated, “This work is rich in instructive advice, is based on the best of fundamental principles, and omits not a single instructive point which might be needed for the development and gradual technical perfection of a player.” The Arban Method contains three hundred and forty-seven pages and, when considering the amount of material, there is a complete exclusion of anything above a high C.
It is not to say that the cornet was not playing the notes above high C for the virtuosic soloists of that period were regularly pushing the highest limits during their solo performances. Even with today’s standards, they are considered some of the greatest high note players, and on some of the most primitive instruments when compared to what we have today. If they could play that high, why did it not reflect in their method books? Arban died in 1899 and within a relatively short time, material to study in the upper register began to change. In nineteen twenty-four Walter M. Eby published his book “Eby’s Scientific Method for Cornet and Trumpet. Within his method were some of the most humbling high range exercises ever written to paper. On the first page in his Part 4- Professional book, the first exercise includes its first high C and on page three-hundred ten you are served your first double C and further down the same page you are shown what a triple high C might look like. That must have been a real shock to the players back then! I highly recommend adding this method to your library but unfortunately, it is no longer available in stores. If you happen on a copy or notice it on sale on Ebay.com, be sure to make a bid, for it will be a sought after collectable in the future.
I can recommend a book for your study which will help with a traditional approach to high range development. This material was published years ago by the well known high note player Bud Brisbois. It is Bud Brisbois’ Trumpet method Today.