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Stamp Strip - Thinking Down While Going Up



 
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holeypants
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Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 996

PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 7:14 pm    Post subject: Stamp Strip - Thinking Down While Going Up Reply with quote

Hi everyone,

Many of you have probably read Craig Morris' excellent three-part series Stamping It Out.

His three articles have really helped me implement Stamp's ideas more successfully. In particular, for the last couple of years I've been using his suggestion of imagining a brick wall with each note on the trumpet represented by a brick, with pedal C being the top brick in the wall and double C (or the highest not you can play) occupying the lowest brick. This has really helped me put Stamp's "think up while going down and think down while going up" idea in more concrete terms and keep my playing centered.

Because this concept has been so useful for me, I recently created a "Stamp Strip," a paper strip one can print out and hang in their practice space to recreate the "brick wall" idea. It's been a great visual aid in my own practice. Here's a picture, and I'm posting a link to the PDF here, in case any of you would like to try it out.

If you'd like to read the full article on my blog, please feel free!

http://lipripblues.com/2014/09/21/stamp-strip

Jonathan
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Jonathan Vieker
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My ongoing recovery from a torn lip muscle, updated regularly!
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trumpet56
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Joined: 16 Jun 2010
Posts: 623

PostPosted: Sun Sep 21, 2014 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for your interesting post. I think its great when people like yourself actually create their own spin on these valuable studies. I have played Stamp warm ups for many years and have used it successfully with my students, especially for correcting intonation.

My own take on these studies is to think and blow in a straight line with the notes telescoping further away as they get higher, much like making the aperture of a hose nozzle smaller. A variation on a theme.
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Gate
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Joined: 28 Feb 2013
Posts: 25
Location: Baltimore

PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 8:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I agree with trumpet56. While I thought the three-part series was enlightening, I found the wall visualization to be unhelpful and maybe even misleading.

My own take on the Stamp "think x to go y" is that the goal is to minimize movement between registers. And simply flipping the mental model of your playable range on its head, without shrinking its size, doesn't do anything towards achieving this goal. I do think such a visualization has its uses - maybe more for making a natural and useful pivot, but it's less helpful if your goal is making it feel like a two octave slur is no bigger than a fifth.

The way I've been approaching Stamp (informed much by Roy Poper's book) is the following: "thinking up to go down" is less about visualizing "movingupwards to go down", and more about visualizing "staying up to go down" (or vice versa).

On Stamp 3, first bar, from C to D, it must feel as though the only work you are doing is pressing the first valve (you think to stay down on the C while you go up to the D). This observation, I think, I learned from the Stamp threads here on TH. I think the importance of this sensation cannot be overstated. I use it as a test to see if my embouchure is in order; if I play a C and can get that D just by pressing the first valve, I know my lips, tongue, and wind are in balance, and I don't worry about mechanics any more. If I drop to a B-flat instead of popping out the D, I reset the horn, listen mentally, and then try again. I don't bother moving forward unless this is right.

So, now I'm on the second note - half note on D - from Stamp 3. I think of staying on this D to slur down through the C and to the G. The big idea here is to fight against the instinct to "put on the brakes" as we slur downwards. The airstream has to be strong all the way through in order to connect the notes, and thinking of staying on that D aids in this.

Next you've moved onto the half-note A. These half notes allow you to reassess where you are. The extra beat gives you time to mentally place "the up at which you are staying" on the A, so that you can stay there while you slur down through G to C.

This approach DOES increase the sensation that the registers are not spread out, so you don't feel like you're jumping around the horn. If you also pay careful attention to the square corners (which signify that there is no glissando in any of the slurs; they happen strictly in time), then you will have felt that the interval of a ninth (D to C) is on the exact same level. This is what trumpet56 means by blowing in straight lines.

When you move to Stamps 4 and 5, the distinction between this approach and the upside down wall becomes even more apparent. I can't tell you how exciting it is for me to do Stamp 5 and go from low F# to G# above the staff with so little effort and such a full sound.

Different things work for different people, and, as I said, I found a lot of helpful info in the Stamping It Out trio. But I really believe that what makes Stamp's warmups special is that, rightly done, they drastically reduce the feeling of vertical distance between any two notes. The upside-down-but-still-as-tall model seems to miss this all important point.
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holeypants
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Joined: 22 Apr 2006
Posts: 996

PostPosted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to respond! Gate, I think you have an excellent point in regard to "think up while going down" vs "stay up while going down." Your interpretation is probably closer to Stamp's original intention, and I actually hadn't thought about it in those terms.

trumpet56, I am also familiar with the "think of high notes as further away" visualization, and if I'm not mistaken, both Bill Adam and Don Jacoby also encouraged thinking about range in this fashion. Not bad company to be among.

Gate, I too really got the hang of Stamp from Poper's book and threads on TH. In my case, it was janet842's "Dissecting Stamp" threads that drove home the idea that one should be able to move from C to D, for instance, only by pressing the first valve down. If the C is resonant and full, no embouchure movement is necessary. I totally get what you're saying, and probably need to once again pay closer attention to whether or not this is working in my daily warm-up.

For me, it's been useful to augment Stamp's ideas with the inverted brick wall concept. But, I think you may be right that it's probably an addition to/extension of Stamp's ideas, not part of the what he himself taught. At any rate, I am going to pay closer attention to my C-D movement in tomorrow's warmup.
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My ongoing recovery from a torn lip muscle, updated regularly!
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