extreme hesitation on initial attack

[Ryan12345678]

Hey guys can somebody anybody help me! I am studying trumpet at a university level my range is fine (3octaves) and have ok flexibility and can play some big repertoire but after moving the horn from the side of my face playing on quite a downward angle to the middle of my face with lesser angle 3yrs ago i have developed a problem which no teachers have ever seen before. when i go to play a note any note under about a f on the top line of the stave i have this massive hesitation which i cant stop. sometimes its so bad i physically can't release the note at all. it feels like my throat closes to create compression and my tongue just wont move down and my lips then pinch together. My tongue is not between my teeth and a try to relax my whole body. Its at the point know where i cant stop thinking hesitation before i play. My breath attacks are fine and don't seem to help me any. This problem doesn't happen when i play in a group and at a loud dynamic. I also have problems playing and articulating at a piano dynamic. however once i play a fake test like note the initial attack works fine for the time before i take the horn off my face(i guess that makes it not a true initial attack). I spend every day trying to set my chops differently in order to solve this problem but nothing works. This is really difficult as i get paid to play part time and often need to resort to breath attacks for initial attacks. So my question is how do i fix this? and on a side note, whats the best way to set your chops before you play? and should you use closed or open aperture? P.S i never had this problem with my playing when i was a child, but my embouchure change has fixed endurance.

[zackh411]

open or closed? good question... I've asked myself this question quite a bit. I keep coming back to "relaxed." Try to keep manipulation of the aperture to a minimum.
For a practical way to solve this problem, I might suggest timing drills. Set a metronome to 80-120ish, and playing in 6/4. Pick a note, say, top-line E, then simply play a half note on the first beat, then remove the horn from your face, then reset and repeat over and over until your attacks start lining up well. Once you get it comfortable and relaxed and in time and centered, move down a half step. Just practice attacking notes on time and try to relax.
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[american boy]

Ryan; I have had students that have this problem,and I have had success by assigning them this..go to play a middle g but play it just as the mouthpiece is arriving at the lips..dont hesitate and dont ''care"..just play g for 1 beat..take off,and repeat MANY times until you get the feeling that the note will start without you setting the chops..this takes many times,and after the g feels good,move to c top space and repeat that..later,do arban interval studies slowly the same way..this way of practicing is great for getting secure and confident in the attack..good luck

[Irving]

It sounds like a breathing problem, not an embouchure problem. You could be closing off your glottis, inadvertently triggering the Valsalva maneuver. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

http://www.valsalva.org/valsalva.htm

You could get one of those tubes with a ping pong ball, and practice your attacks on that, making sure that the ball doesn't drop between the top of your inhalation, and the beginning of your exhalation. Then, try to transfer the same feeling to your trumpet. Easier said than done. Pretend that the tube is your trumpet, and then pretend that your trumpet is the tube.

[loweredsixth]

Hmmm. This might not apply to you, but I've lived with this problem for 28 years playing the trumpet. I had a problem stuttering when I was young, and most people who have this problem have a history of stuttering. This hesitation normally does not happen while playing with group.

Try using a metronome ALL the time. It helps. When not using a metronome always imagine a strict count off before you have to play.

This problem comes and goes for me, but practicing with a metronome (to count off my initial attack) for a few weeks usually fixes it.

Good luck.
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[trpt.hick]

Whenever a change occurs in playing (different mouthpiece, embouchure shift, different placement of mouthpiece on lips, change in horn angle, articulating from a different position, et. al.) there is a mental "cross circuit" because the brain is sending out old and new signals at the same time. This is extremely common, but don't worry...it WILL go away all by itself as soon as the new signals become ingrained a bit more. Student and teacher need to be very patient, and avoid being critical of hesitant attacks. This is a natural process.

Because the hesitation occurs on the first notes after a rest (couple of beats or more...usually a few bars rest), it may help to do something so that the first note of a phrase feels like a later note. "Conducting" yourself with the bell or a foot, or moving the tongue to the beat (like tonguing, but without making any sound) inside the mouth just prior to the real first note often helps a lot. Anything you can do to think about the sounds you want to produce will help with this temporary stutter.

I have had about a dozen students with this problem. It goes away as quickly as it appeared, but the amount of time can be a couple of weeks to several months. It is 100% mental, but concentrating on air movement may help, too.

Hang in there!

David Hickman

[Bill Dishman]

This is 99% of the time a breathing coordination / tension problem.
I wrote an article/paper on just this situation.

If you would like a copy, e-mail me at afn54653@yahoo.com

There was an article on this in a recent ITG Journal as well.


Bill Dishman
Gainesville, Florida

[pepperdean]

I believe you might just be overthinking the whole situation. I've had several university students/professional players who have shown dramatic improvement when we stopped setting the embouchure. The body is an amazing thing and putting the lips together and blowing will cause the appropriate set to form. Just like balancing on a bicycle or reflexively pulling your hand away from being burned by something hot, the body knows what to do. We cause ourselves many tension and balance problems by thinking we can analyze the proper setting.

Just relax and play.

Alan

[Shipham_Player]

[DR S]

Lots of great advice.
The technique I'm about to suggest might be a little hard to understand since I can't demonstrate it in person.

Try forming your lips as if you had the mouthpiece in place, then begin tonguing and blowing air through your formed lips as if you are playing one of your etudes, or any song you need to rehearse. Don't let the lips buzz.
Actually sing the music with your air (no vocal sounds) passing through your lips. When you can begin any of your songs this way without hesitation, then try it by buzzing your lips. If this becomes successful, move to using the mouthpice and again play your music through the mouthpiece. (As stated earlier, it's a mental thing which becomes worse the more you think about it.) If the above works well, and you can start doing the above without hesitation, transfer to using the trumpet, close your eyes, and just do it. It won't work over night, but it may help you get past your mental block when you realize it's doable.

Don't be afraid to experiment with many of the great suggestions above, and/or mix and match suggestions. It may take a combination of things to help you out. But mainly, you know it can be done, and you have to get over the mental roadblock and believe it's attainable.

Good luck!
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[mcgovnor]

Excellent advice here..St. Louis person:) and Davis Hickman..all really. Very helpful. Thank you so much.

[TrpPro]

Since your attacks get good after the initial one, your embouchure seems quite capable of physically being able to perform. Getting the embouchure set for the first attack the way it is after the first attack is the goal.

The more you think about what to do (to correct the condition) will only make it worse. You've derailed your first attacks by thinking about them. For the answer to this problem, check out The Inner Game Of Tennis by W. Timothey Galwey.

[jwtrumpet2207]

All great replies. I dealt with this problem for a while and it got really bad when I was in school. There are a few things that helped:

1. Shuebruk attack exercises. All are good, but I especially like the first attack exercise in grade 2. Follow the instructions carefully!
2. Not breath-attacking my long tones (or whatever you play first in your warm-up). I use breath attacks all the time, but I found that when I switched from breath attacking all of my long tones to tonguing them, I got more confident with the attack. I think it had something to do with me playing for about 20 minutes (on long tones) before I ever articulated a note. Now I get the attack going right away.
3. Try to always have a really clear pulse going on in your head so you can just join in on the beat that is already there. This really helped when I counted myself off for my long tones, then once the note was started, I forgot about the time and just listened to the sound, centering, etc.

Lots of this has already been said, but hope it helps!
And on top of all that I do believe it is mainly mental.
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[TptZ]

This may be going in the wrong direction, but how much do you practice with a metronome? We all risk botching attacks and whatnot, but it's possible to calibrate ourselves away from it. As a challenge to yourself, how honest can you be about the clarity and placement of your attacks when it comes to doing them perfectly in time? The majority of us are going to suck, and pretty bad.

[Billy B]

A classic example of analysis creating paralysis. Your solution lies in your detailed example of the physical sensations you are experiencing.
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[Jerry Freedman]

Two things that helped me:

Swallow just before you play. This will relax your face, eliminate some tension.

Count..not with a metronome but with your foot, and subdivide in your head.

These are very easy but, for me, very successful fixes

[trombahonker]

Metronome + tap your foot/internalize + Schuebruk Lip Trainers.

Read the text in the book.
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[MikeyTpts24]

What I always tell my students that helps is the fact that the trumpet is simply a megaphone for what we do with our bodies. Try to do simple breathing and tonguing attacks with airstream ONLY away from the horn. If anything, use the horn ONLY to understand how fast the air is blown to play a specific note (3rd space, for instance). Start in a comfort zone and gradually work your way up the range, but do nothing with the horn for a while. Just exercise the muscle and get the memory of the movement. Good Luck!
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[wvtrumpet]

I struggled with this back in college and every now and then it returns. What I found was doing a series of breath attacks (no tongue) just to get the comfort level going. As Mr. Hickman said above, it's all mental.

I always felt that I developed this problem worrying about getting the perfect attack (if there really is such a thing), but removing the tongue and just doing some breath attacks, it gets me away from that level of thinking and I can be more free to make music.
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[Don Herman rev2]

Don't think of starting the piece; start the first bar in your head, then join in on the repeat.
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