Adam's Carburetor!

Quadruple C · Heavyweight Member Joined: 28 Nov 2001 Posts: 1448

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-09-20 16:38 ]

Lee Adams · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 12:00 am Post subject:

HHHMMM Carburetor and trumpet playing.

A carburetor is a metering device (embouchure) in gasoline engines that mixes fuel and air for efficient combustion (vibrations and sound).
An engine can not start or run properly without the proper fuel and air mixture as predetermined by the carburetor settings (embouchure settings). Take away either of the equally important elements the air or the fuel and the engine will not run. Improper adjustments of the metering jets (embouchure) too much air or too much fuel results in poor combustion(vibrations and sound)

I could go on and on with rich and lean mixtures etc. But the metering device the carburetor (embouchure) that brings the essential elements of combustion together Fuel and Air(vibrations and sound) certainly indicates that optimum performance requires proper settings of the metering device(embouchure).

Just some fun stuff to think about.

As always AAtozhvac@cs.com 706-347-2429

Lee Adams

Emb_Enh · Veteran Member Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Posts: 455

Dave!!!
thanks for the extra info on the Adam's Carb!!...I never knew that.

PS...why does the gent above refer to you as 'Bacon' ...this is your surname [last name] is'nt it?...is this some old quaint Americanism?

Roddy Lewis

1st Trumpet 'Old Vic' Theatre. London
1st Trumpet 'Prince of Wales' Theatre. London
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[Self Analysis and Diagnostic Trumpet Method]

PH · Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2002 8:53 am Post subject:

Some of the other posters are correct about the priority of the facial muscular as it relates to the air and the sound in other systems of playing and pedagogy.

However, since this is an Adam forum let's try to keep this focused on how Adam and his students think about the issue. Other methods may be just as good for their adherents, and many of those methods have their own dedicated forums on this site. That is where they should be advocated. On this forum let us try to understand THIS approach.

Questions are welcome. Challenges or problems with understanding the Adam approach are totally cool...as long as they are presented in the light of trying to understand what we are doing here. Criticisms (and flames) are inappropriate.

All any of us are trying to do is broaden our understanding, right? This isn't theology or politics (for most of us)!

The Adam approach is primarily focused on 1) what the player thinks as they play (90%) and 2) the air (5%). The player is encouraged to obsess on these things and trust the unconscious mind to bring all other playing aspects into line through repetition. Of course, the teacher must understand how the entire system (including the chops) works. The teacher helps the student's embouchure evolve over time into a balanced and efficient playing mechanism through a combination of prescribed exercises (that the teacher understands will effect certain changes), demonstration of a sound model to emulate (that will also be an indispensible part of these changes), and certain mental images and koan-like stories that change the student's thinking & approach subtly.

The entire process is designed to keep the player music, tone, and energy oriented and eliminate self-consciousness and physical obsessions.

As such, it really isn't a method. Many people who try to teach the Adam method can't because they think that it IS a method. This is probably where some of the misconceptions have come from (and from where people like Mr. Lambordino's criticism's arise). Some Adam students do a pretty darned good job of teaching from a similar orientation to our mentor. A great many others don't understand the approach as teachers, only as players.

Adam once said to me that, "People come into this studio and they take one or a few lessons and then they leave. They never give me a real chance to help them evolve. It's like they gave Michaelangelo a big piece of stone and he used the chisel to take a few pieces off of it. Then part way through the sculpting they took the rock away and declared that it was a ****ty statue!"

Now then...

In many ways an embouchure is like a hot air balloon. It changes shape and assumes its true function only in the presence of the warm air. Take away the air and it might look like an embouchure on the outside, but the business part (inside the mouthpiece and inside the mouth) is only in its proper position when airflow and sound production are involved.

Mr. Adam's definition of the perfect embouchure is an embouchure that "allows us to play as high as we need to, as low as we need to, as loud as we need to, and as soft as we need to...with a beautiful sound."

Everything else about the embouchure is superficial (how it looks). Everyone's chops should look different because everyone's physical attributes and musical goals are unique.

Remember, we get paid to sound good. Many of the greatest trumpet players (Faddis, Ray Crisara, Randy Brecker, Liesl Whitaker....) have chops that would be deemed (upon visual inspection-not aural) messed up to most "embouchure specialists". This isn't a beauty contest!

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2002-03-25 11:55 ]

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2002-03-25 11:57 ]

dbacon · Heavyweight Member Joined: 11 Nov 2001 Posts: 8592

razeontherock · Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2004 12:03 am Post subject:

Thank you Mr. moderator for bringing this back in line!

Interesting how those on this forum - myself included, and probably foremost - think on MORE air. But I've seen ample evidence that that's not what's happening with great playing at all! The idea of more air is like mother's milk to me. I was raised on it. But the best playing occurs with "right" air. And the attitude in the heart as well as behavior in all aspects of life somehow has at least as much to do with "right" air as how much we use. I can't understand the relationship, or explain it very well. But Mr. Adam has certainly taught that religiously. And the truth of it is readily observable.

Anyway, Mr. Adam plays very gently. And the first time I heard him play my horn which is exceptionally bright, it was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. He certainly wasn't moving more air than I was! I got introduced to a concept by Greg Black, an extraordinary mouthpiece maker now in N.J. He referred to the (then) lead trumpet player for Liza Minelli (wish I remembered his name) as playing with visible vapor coming out of his bell. Not just the condensation forming on the inside of the bell I was taught was a sign of good playing and air flow. VAPOR!! The point is the air moved so slowly the heat and humidity at the bell came close to that in the lungs/mouth. And this on extended passages at FFF, above high C, sometimes by an octave or more, as well as all ranges and dynamic levels. This guy had volume, endurance, range - you name it.

I'd love to hear Mr. Adam's response to this. Could it lead to improvement?
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