J.-E. De Wolf was born in Wilrijk (Belgium) and learned to play trumpet at the age of 14 in the "Concordia" harmony band. Here his talent was noticed by the conductor, Jos van Hove, and eventually he was led to study at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp.

From the mid-fifties he worked at the Municipal Music School of Mortsel as a teacher of music theory and brass instruments. For this, he devised this 120-page Method for Trumpet, originally published in 1962 and dedicated to his teacher at the Conservatory of Antwerp, Emiel Maes. The method is in four languages: Dutch, French, English and German.