Scales?

[dbacon]

DB

[lakejw]

[Pops]

[Pops]

[Mr.Hollywood]

I won't mention any names but many have stolen from Reinhardt.

He started teaching in 1928 and kept on until he died in 1989. He taught over 5000 students in his life. Many, many famous players.....

A few examples....

Red Rodney
Buddy Childers
Lin Biviano
Johnny Madrid
Bud Brisbois
Ray Wetzel (not to be confused with my friend Rich)
He had the entire Air Men of Note trumpet and trombone sections at one period.
in 1939 the great Harry James asked Reinhardt to "coach" his brass section.

And that's just "some" of the trumpet players. There are loads more like Wallace Roney, Bernie Glow, and John Swanna.

Just a few of the bone players...

Kai Winding
Bill Harris
Trummy Young

He never put out any of his routines for the general public. You could buy his masterpiece "The Encyclopedia of the Pivot System" but there is no music in it and just a few explained routines.

If you wanted his stuff you had to go see him in person and take a lesson.

Now for what its worth he had his name stamped all over everything. He had "copyright by Donald S Reinhardt 1942, 1956, 1975" etc. written all over every available empty space on the page..... But he also never minded if you shared his drills with other players .

He would always say just "give credit where credit is due".

Chris LaBarbera

[TrpPro]

"The Middle C, E or G on top of the Staff should ALWAYS be your starting point."

Caruso started at least 90% of his routines from the G below middle C. He used this approach, which he called "long setting," to relate this lip setting to all notes above the second line G... double C and beyond. OTOH, he had exercises that would start on a double C and others that would start on a double pedal C. But the second line G was the most common starting point for him.... see Musical Calisthenics For Brass for more discussion of this approach.

[Pops]

[Mr.Hollywood]

Well Clint,

I knew this day would come someday......We agree on something (just kidding).

Reinhardt's biggest "hard on" (excuse my language) was that EVERYTHING should be played on ONE EMBROUCHURE.

He used to say that if you wanted a reliable usable high G on the gig your first note of the day should be a middle C (NEVER middle G or low C).

Next was if you wanted a DHC on the bandstand your first note (or as he would say the "hub" of your range) should be G on top of the staff.

And if you wanted the notes above DHC on a regular basis your "hub" should be high C.

I tried the high C thing for a while and it just made me way too stiff, all I could do was play high notes. He was talking about guys like Brisbois, Biviano and Nicholson (specialists). I always considered myself an all around player with a better than average range, but never a high note specialist.

I'm here to tell you now that Reinhardt had drills that were taken right from the Clarke Books. He would even write on the bottom of the page "Many thanks to Herbert L for this....."

One embrouchure.....that's the ONLY way to play the trumpet.

Chris LaBarbera

[Pops]

[jiarby]

Kenny Smukal (USAF AoN lead player 68-86) says he benefitted greatly from the teaching of John Coffey and Reinhart. He likes to play more jazz than lead now In Tucson, but in a lesson with him I was played a range exercise to a DHD... Expecting kudos, but he says " is that it?"... Then he picks up his horn and STARTS on the D where I stopped and goes up to a G (above DHC) and then descends to low G.

Whatever he was doing with those teachers in the 60's and 70's is still working for him today!

[Mr.Hollywood]

The "augmented" version came out around 1973. He considered it his greatest work. He felt it was a book that anyone could buy and "fix" their own chops.

As we both know, that book reads like an assembly manual for a Sherman tank. Without somebody who actually studied with Reinhardt for some time and really knows whats going on a novice doesn't stand a chance of wading through all that text.

I'll never forget my first lesson March 15 1979. I left that studio with a whole list of things I was doing wrong, and the worst part about it was that I really didn't understand half of them.

I'll tell you what though......I started with him at 15 years old and by 16 and a half he had me playing pretty good DHC's. Once I caught on it all made sense.

I really do believe he was a genius in his own way. He could fix ANYTHING, and 90% of it he could fix right there at your lesson.

Carmine seemed like a really nice man, but I KNEW that I had chop issues that needed to be addressed. He almost never talked chops (he was a tenor sax player) his mantra was- "The body will find the way".

And Roy Stevens......well he was brilliant in his own way. He could get ANYBODY who walked through that door to play little squeaky DHC's on the palm of their hand. Now mind you, guys would go in there for a lesson who had never hit a high C before in their lives. In ten minutes Roy's got them playing these (musically unusable) DHC's on "the palm". It was like a card trick......totally dry lips, upstream, etc... Well after that Roy OWNED THEM. They thought he was the second coming. If you can play a DHC with no pressure on the palm of your hand then just think how great you'll sound once you really "get it". He completely destroyed a few players I knew. Clint, you know as well as I do that if a player was not meant by Mother Nature to play Roys way it will NEVER work. Not in a hundred years.

So these guys would run around playing "climbs" up to DHC all day on the "palm" but ask them to play 'Jingle Bells" and they would have big problems.

I'll say this about Roy....you and I should make the money that he made back in 1978. He had 6, 7 , 9 students at a time ALL DAY LONG. His book (Embrouchure Self Analysis) way back in 75' cost 45.00 (it was "made" on a copy machine. He used to buy STOCK Jet-Tone Studio Model B's from Bill Ratzenberger for around 9.00 and sell them for 40.00 bucks. I used to watch Bill cut the little "steps" into the Studio B's for Roy.

He really knew how to make money.......

Chris LaBarbera

[MFaddicted]

Good point. I think I have heard recordings of Roy at a master class popping off some double a's, but i can't seem to find him playing along with Maynard, Miles, Dizzy, Maurice, Adolph, or any of the greats....NOT ONE RECORDING!
Now, why is that?

[Pops]

Chris:
I got that book in 75 I think. A few things like the timed breathing hit me instantly. Don Jacoby helped me with others like 1 set.

I have had some students that I put back together that were destroyed by the DHC squeaks on their palms. The book must still be popular. LOL

One was the trumpet professor at a conservatory before going to see Roy. After a month he couldn't play in any of the ensembles anymore and they fired him at the end of the semester. He came to see me after 15 years of not playing. It took a year but he returned to playing and a few years later he went back to teaching at a small college.

I have a friend that had a rich dad. He took over 100 lessons from Roy and he was toast after that. That upstream switch is a real killer for so many people.

You are right though that DHC squeak is like cocaine. They will use multiple embouchure sets and trick mouthpieces and make facial farts to try to get it.

I absolutely refuse to let people use tricks to play higher. I have turned down giving lessons to some people who just wanted to hit a DHC. They didn't want to practice, play or sound good. I'm lucky because my wife is OK with me NOT catering to the junkies.

Some people just don't understand that range is useless unless your sound and control is good enough that people WANT to hear you play. Don't get me wrong I have DHC and THC students but I made them correct their tone, intonation, tonguing, flexibility...first. I'm a little tougher than Don Jacoby was but lots of people need a good shock to get moving.
_________________
Clint 'Pops' McLaughlin
You can always Google me.
50 years Teaching. Teaching and writing trumpet books is ALL I do.
7,000 pages of free music. Trumpet Books, Skype Lessons: www.BbTrumpet.com

[Jerry Freedman]

To Chris' point:

I have no real experience of Stevens but I have studied with Caruso, Merian, now Pocius and have studied Reinhardt's books and Pops' books carefully and periodically. To clarify further I teach math to troubled high school kids. I know that some kids like teacher A and can't stand teacher B. Others love B and are bored stiff by A. I think its the same for trumpet teacher. Some students are temperamentally well suited for Reinhardt's analytical taxonomy while others do better with Caruso's "don't think just do" ( or Adam for that matter ). Its not that Reinhardt is better than Caruso or Gordon is better than Stamp. Its just that some teacher/student matches are better than others.

[Mr.Hollywood]

Clint,

I have a GREAT story for you.....

Like I said I took my first lesson with Reinhardt in 1979 at the age of 15. Well at some point I started on my own (without Reinhardts consent) to fool around with that type IV upstream. I found that I could "squeal" G above DHC and sometimes even triple C's. All I could think about was that I was going to be the next Cat Anderson at 16.

So on my next lesson with Reinhardt I showed him my "triple C". The first thing he had me do was pull a page out of the Arban's book. He said "I want to hear you tongue with that setting in the middle register". Well needless to say it sounded like sh!t. He stopped me and said ..."That's enough, this will never work for you, now lets move on with our lesson".

I just wouldn't let it go, I kept nagging him telling him that I didn't care about my middle register and that even if it took 5 years of hard work to make the switch that I was willing (remember, I was a stupid 16 year old).

Well after just so much nagging he was ready to throw me out of his studio. He said "I WILL NOT RUIN A GOOD TRUMPET PLAYER JUST SO THEY CAN PLAY A TRIPLE C". He said if you really want this go see Roy Stevens, and that he would have no part in "destroying" me.....

I'm very grateful that he yelled at me that day and broke my triple C "trance". Who knows how I might have ended up. Probably a mess like so many other ex Stevens guys.

I'll leave it at this...... Roy Roman was probably Roy's greatest student. He had that stuff down better than any of Roys other students. That's to me says it all......

Chris LaBarbera

[Avan]

[Mac Gollehon]

While Reinhardt and Stevens were both complex and comprehensive systems as a whole I found them both a benefit. The greatest pitfall in any system with a lot of rules is lack of understanding and lack of patience to put it to practical use.Study and discipline can be deciding factors for success in application. Then it is the players task how far to take it in making music. Technical proficiency can be attained while musicality can be quite another issue. I feel the Stevens concept was a failure for most looking for a quick fix or not having a dental or bone structure,jaw etc to maintain position. I think both Reinhardt and Stevens had to be genius level or close to it.

[Mr.Hollywood]

Hi Mac,

I remember once you posted that Reinhardt typed you as a IV upstream. If indeed that's what you are/were than the Roy Stevens method would come very naturally and easily for you.

You would already have the physical attributes needed to play "Roys way".

Correct me if I am wrong. Did you have a tough time converting the "statics" and the "palm" into your normal playing situations?

I'd be interested to hear you story.

Chris LaBarbera

[Mac Gollehon]

Chris yes type 4 was what Doc said and thats the reason Stevens was a good fit for me. As for the statics on palm I found that for me that alone had a way of presenting a tendency to be tempted to pre set low corner tension(depressors} and the problem with pre setting can be too much too soon. Thats why you would hear some players get "locked out" at the top. I used the palm very little but would use excercise 2 specific target notes on the palm going for building depressers and masseter while focused on accuracy. I could never understand why some of the guys would tighten themselves up with statics all day long and many were doing them much too loud. I basically did air to nose,held the formation and used very slight jaw motion and air pressure adjustments to change register and dynamics but tried to minimize jaw movement. One problem most players had was plying too loud and eventually they lost grip and thinned out. Another problem others had was sluggish attacks which were often from the habit of overblowing, and too much emphasis on the palm cyclonics. When doing Stevens I felt it was important to bring the setup to practical use immediately.

[Mr.Hollywood]

Makes sense Mac,

Pretty much all the Stevens guys I knew hung around the house all day just doing the cyclonincs and the climbs. Never heard them try to play "Stardust" of "Can't Get Started" on that Stevens setting......

CLB