LeeC Heavyweight Member
Joined: 25 Feb 2003 Posts: 5730
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2003 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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Got my copy os BE the other day. After reading through it I took special notice to the articulation exercises. Simple, but very helpful.
A long time ago I shifted to tonguing at the back of my lips in addition to tonguing behind my top teeth. Prior to that (then) new way of tonguing my range was very good however I didn't have a lot of confidence attacking a high note without playing up to it.
So when a phrase started with a high E or something a certain fear would nearly overcome me. I knew I could hammer the note once I got there. The problem was which note would come out first?
What I noticed was that after I incorporated the tongued lip method my acuracy improved significantly. A hah! So why did this happen?
Smiley probably answers that in his book somewhere. Will have to skim through it later.
I can think of at least two reasons why my accuracy improved from the tongued lip approach. The most important one is that by putting some tongue pressure against my lips I'm placing the chops closer to the position they're going to be in once the air pressure hits them when the tongue does release the air. That's sorta like being able to walk over to the target and pin the dart right in the bullseye without taking a foul.
The other is that by applying tongue pressure to the lips I get the embouchure to set further inside the mouthpiece. At that point I can feel more of the mouthpiece cup against the outer portion of my lips. I'm one of those cats that actually likes to "botton out" my chops a little in the mouthpiece. The slightly bottomed chops help me gain greater leverage when harnessing the higher air pressure while playing in the upper register.
Lee |
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