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beagle
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Location: Vienna, Austria
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 Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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Efficiency wins over brute force every time.
Look at any elite musicians, and in fact those at the top of their field in pretty much any endeavour and you will see purpose, economy and precision in everything they do. Finger placement is so precise that any extraneous movement is eliminated, there is barely any movement in the face and no trace of tension. The trumpet does not require much strength to play, even in the high register. Look at yourself in the mirror when you play, if it looks messy or frantic, or your head looks like it might explode, you are not playing efficiently and are wasting energy, air, and movement in places where they are not needed.
You do need repetition and reinforcement of correct technique, but never use excessive force however tempting it may be. Always look for the way which uses the least power and movement.
Rob
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Selmer Paris Chorus 80J |
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Trumpetingbynurture
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Joined: 18 Nov 2015
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| Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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Question... If you can produce a clear, good tone at all dynamics, how is it possible to become more efficient physically?
Sure, if you have an airy sound, you're not playing efficiently... If you can't play quietly with a clean sound, you're not playing efficiently. If your sound is forced.. okay.
But if you have a good, resonant sound, you are, by the nature of how the trumpet works, playing with the greatest possible efficiency for your equipment, right? And if you aren't, it should show up in the various places where your sound isn't resonant, right? |
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beagle
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Joined: 18 Dec 2006
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Location: Vienna, Austria
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 12:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Trumpetingbynurture wrote: | Question... If you can produce a clear, good tone at all dynamics, how is it possible to become more efficient physically?
Sure, if you have an airy sound, you're not playing efficiently... If you can't play quietly with a clean sound, you're not playing efficiently. If your sound is forced.. okay.
But if you have a good, resonant sound, you are, by the nature of how the trumpet works, playing with the greatest possible efficiency for your equipment, right? And if you aren't, it should show up in the various places where your sound isn't resonant, right? |
You can still sound good without being efficient. You may be manipulating your embouchure or facial muscles, or using excessive pressure, or using too much air. All of which might then affect your endurance and ability to get around the horn quickly, or even cause long term damage.
Even if your tone production were perfect, you may still have inefficiencies in your tonguing and fingering for example. There are so many different variables.
You may never achieve perfect efficiency but it should always be your goal. Even if you sound good but are using excessive force, tension and/or movement, you will sound even better (and for longer) if you can manage to play more efficiently.
For me, one of the keys to playing more efficiently has been to look in the mirror and also to record myself to hear how I sound. There are also many great books which can help to achieve more efficiency. My current favourites are the books and videos by John Daniel and Greg Spence.
Rob
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Selmer Paris Chorus 80J |
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Trumpetingbynurture
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Joined: 18 Nov 2015
Posts: 898
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| Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2016 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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| beagle wrote: | | Trumpetingbynurture wrote: | Question... If you can produce a clear, good tone at all dynamics, how is it possible to become more efficient physically?
Sure, if you have an airy sound, you're not playing efficiently... If you can't play quietly with a clean sound, you're not playing efficiently. If your sound is forced.. okay.
But if you have a good, resonant sound, you are, by the nature of how the trumpet works, playing with the greatest possible efficiency for your equipment, right? And if you aren't, it should show up in the various places where your sound isn't resonant, right? |
You can still sound good without being efficient. You may be manipulating your embouchure or facial muscles, or using excessive pressure, or using too much air. All of which might then affect your endurance and ability to get around the horn quickly, or even cause long term damage.
Even if your tone production were perfect, you may still have inefficiencies in your tonguing and fingering for example. There are so many different variables.
You may never achieve perfect efficiency but it should always be your goal. Even if you sound good but are using excessive force, tension and/or movement, you will sound even better (and for longer) if you can manage to play more efficiently.
For me, one of the keys to playing more efficiently has been to look in the mirror and also to record myself to hear how I sound. There are also many great books which can help to achieve more efficiency. My current favourites are the books and videos by John Daniel and Greg Spence.
Rob |
Hi Rob,
I agree with everything you said. Although, it's still overall a kind of confusing thing to discuss because the term efficiency as it relates to trumpet playing means different things to different people.
So playing with a very relaxed face might be very efficient in terms of muscle use. But if produces the wrong sound, it's not effective.
You know, conversely if you look at Roger Ingram playing, his face looks anything but relaxed to me, but at doing what he is doing, he's very effective. He is probably then also efficient for a certain definition of efficient.
So I think when most people about this, there are these two things... Efficiency and Effectiveness. I guess you can be one without the other, but we ideally want to be both.
However, I kind of see it in terms of maximum resonance. So for any equipment + player there is a 'maximum resonance' balance, which should correspond to both a resonant sound (whatever that means for the combo) and the maximum ease of playing possible for that person on that equipment.
I guess we can talk about changing the embouchure form to improve efficiency, but I don't think that's really what most people mean. It seems like they more often are just saying "Don't blow so hard".
And in so doing, they fall back into the instrument + player sweet spot of maximum resonance, and realise that the extra 5% output they were getting was not worth the extra 50% effort they were using to achieve it.
So in my mind, efficiency is about moving towards the point of maximum resonance for the combination of your body + instrument.
I have both of Greg Spence's books and have seen the John Daniels videos although I don't have his book.. I've even heard Greg Spence play the most unbelievably loud Double As. My ears are still bleeding... I wish I could work out how he does it! hahaha
Interesting examples though because they're both on different ends of the spectrum in a lot of ways. Greg plays very efficient equipment I believe (Shew mouthpieces and Shew Horn). John Daniels plays orchestral equipment which is no where near as efficient. But both are efficient relative to the maximum resonance of their bodies + the equipment.
Not sure if that makes any sense? |
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vieira.thomas
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Joined: 04 Nov 2016
Posts: 5
Location: Lansing
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| Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| efficiency, to me, is much more important than power at first. Power will come with practice and time, but efficiency will increase the longevity of your playing career. I've heard of too many professionals whose careers have been cut short by playing too big of equipment |
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