Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2015 6:52 pm Post subject: Don't Want to be the Florence Foster Jenkins of trumpet
Been working over a year trying to get my chops back after teaching band for 31 years. I'm not bad, but have always found it difficult to believe compliments and easy to get bummed over perceived weaknesses--which there are several: endurance, range to name a couple. Taking lessons from absolutely great players--symphomy guys that everyone would know. Getting good advice, great concepts--a few conflicts in pedagogy but nothing drastic. Main concepts are mutually accepted by all of them. So I'm going to pose some questions that I continue to struggle with (some major, some not so much) to see what others think.
First two: 1) what is the most effective approach to build strength in the embouchure without tenseness? What is it specifically about long tones that seem to be the first suggestion? What do they accomplisa that other exercises do not? 2) How concerned should I be about an air leak from the side of my chops that happens only periodically, usually during warm up? I was told that someone who sat next to Herseth said that Bud leaked like a sieve at times. If I played like Bud played, a little leaking would bother me at all.
Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 2665 Location: sunny Sydney, Australia
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 12:05 am Post subject:
If you've been working for only 12 months, then the main thing you'll need to develop more strength, endurance or stamina is more time. Just keep going.
Long notes. What ARE long notes? Holding a static pitch, or sustaining sound? If the latter, lip slurs are long notes, slurred passages are also long notes.
Leaking. If this happens early in one's practice, maybe it is related to a lack of warming up properly. Maybe some free buzzing may help both create a lip setting that doesn't leak, and isometrically build some strength.
Or not. Only time, practice and patience will tell.
cheers
Andy _________________ so many horns, so few good notes...
Joined: 17 Mar 2002 Posts: 10204 Location: The Land Beyond O'Hare
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 5:03 am Post subject:
Lots of very short sessions throughout the day. Alternate soft long tones, scales, flexibility studies with music you love. In that way you can enjoy as well as rebuild. _________________ Jim Hatfield
Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 2123 Location: Atlanta GA
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 6:33 am Post subject:
I think it's better to concentrate on improving skills needed to play well. Let range and endurance be a secondary priority---they will come along as your playing improves. Just give it time. Play-rest-recover-repeat, and you'll gradually get stronger.
I like to imagine how an audition committee might react to hearing a candidate who has developed his playing with stamina as his overarching priority:
"Wow, he doesn't sound very good---no feel for the music."
"Yeah, but he's strong as a bull. He can sound terrible all day long."
Long tones help assess and develop your ability to produce a focused, centered, resonant sound without hitches, wobbles and other junk. It's helpful as part of a well balanced program of exercises and musical development. _________________ Bb Yamaha Xeno 8335IIS
Cornet Getzen Custom 3850S
Flugelhorn Courtois 155R
Piccolo Stomvi
Joined: 28 Feb 2015 Posts: 673 Location: Cincinnati
Posted: Tue Jun 30, 2015 8:10 am Post subject:
Long tones even support a stronger emboucheur and help with breath support. And just mentally hearing the tone correctly for a long time helps to nail the proper tone when slurring up and down. And probably fix your leak _________________ a few different ones
Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:32 am Post subject: Florence Foster Jenkins
I remember listening to recordings of FFJ in Music Literature class decades ago. Apparently she was quite serious and her numerous followers believed they were witnessing great art. Best example of the Emperor's New Clothes I can possibly imagine.
Don't forget Anna Russell. She was in the same league as FFJ but she specialized in Wagner Opera. But I think she actually was a comedian.
To me the take away for the discussion is what Arnold Jacobs used to say that "the horn in your hands is only as good as the one in your head."
As for wanting to not sound like her or Anna, start simple. Make the very basic sound good. Start with the "F" descending exercise in Foundations of Superior Performance. Then move perhaps to Cichowicz long tones. Then maybe Arban opera melodies in the back of the book.
I personally believe that range and endurance come with time, and playing as correctly as possible. I don't believe you can force development.
Good questions. I think you are already on the right track, you want to play without excess tension. I would like to make what should seam a most obvious suggestion that if anyone that wants to play trumpet with greater ease they should practice with greater ease. Most of us, me included, want it to sound right and end up with some degree of forcing.
Simply put, if you practice with greater ease, or in the negative, lack of tension, you may not sound as good initially. If you can get yourself to be ok with sounding a little or perhaps even quite a bit worse initially you will get somewhere new that you could not found while still forcing.
Think it won't work? Well, think about it. If you require ease, and you try again and again all the while focusing on that great Bud Herseth sound (you mentioned him as a sound model) in your head, won't you get closer and closer and you will not be holding excess tension, will be playing with greater ease than before. Try it even for a single line of music for a minute. Just focus on playing a beautiful Herseth sound on whatever your working on while demanding that you play with ease. Do it several times. The first time might be worse, but what is the general trend after that? Listen, I firmly believe that if you go about it that way, you will keep improving just as long as God gives you health and time and you put the time in. That is almost inevitable as He has given you all the tools to succeed, great teachers, equipment, strength, great sound examples, a body that literally does your bidding, and a working human mind, which is the most amazing thing in all of Creation. We have little excuse not to succeed. We just try to make it happen instead of focusing on that beautiful sound and letting it happen.
Endurance and range are so important to us. When you work on endurance and range. You must hold to the same rule - the rule of ease. You must insist that you will play with increased ease while you think that great Herseth sound. The thing that keeps people from playing high, other than not practicing on progressively higher tone ranges, is that they just can't drop the forcing, so that their body can figure out how to make things happen for them. If you take this advice, your actual range might initially be lessened in that you will find that you have included notes as being in your playing range that are actually forced tones. That makes the advice seam wrong, but see it through and keep at it, you will find the knack. Same with endurance. Work for endurance by including something in your practice that makes you keep the horn on your face a while. Play it while keeping that ease of playing requirement in place. Think that Herseth sound in your head.
As to long tones. Long tones are the beginning of every other skill on the trumpet. They are great! I prefer playing music that contains long tones, so I play vocal literature for warm-up/focusing instead of long tones. That keeps me thinking musically. Others find that they think quite musically when doing long tones. Still others prefer flow studies as has been mentioned. All the same kind of stuff. When you are working on your sound, during your warm-up/focusing time, the music has to be slow enough so that you are not bothered by anything but tone, tone, tone. You can focus on ease of sound when you are playing something that is for easy for YOU (not just what others say you need to play or what you hear others doing.)
Again, the sustain is related to high range and endurance and every other thing in trumpet playing. Once you can play one great tone on one note with ease, you add another up and another down. Continue and you have a range, continue by adding other skills like tonguing, skips, slurs, dynamics. It all starts with one great sound first thought of in your mind, executed with ease. Routines are built on that, progressive methods are built on that, that is how it is done. It matters little whose routine or whose methods you use as there are so many that cover what it takes to play, it matters what you focus on and how you do it. Focus on ease of playing and the sound you want to make.
If you don't rest enough when practicing and between sessions you will find you can't practice with ease. You must hold to the rule of ease.
As far as the leak, does not sound like it is an issue to be of concern. Don't get wrapped up in a little physical thing. That can get you into all kinds of garbage. I had a double buzz when I had to relearn trumpet playing. I followed the steps I have outlined above and ignored the bad sound. It took some time, but it has been gone for years. I think your leak is best ignored at this point. Your teachers will likely tell you if it is any real issue.
I have not mentioned anything about air. Since you say you are studying with accomplished players, I am assuming you are getting good teaching on that subject.
So here it is in a nutshell: Require ease in all your playing. When playing think sound and blow air.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
