Help---Throat Noise.

[ScottA]

I am looking for some help with a private student. He has been having quite a time lately with noise from his throat while playing. I am fairly certain that it is being caused by a tounge position that is too far back. He is quite a good player but this does seem to be causing some consistency problems. Is sound is nice and open but will sometimes stop abruptly usually below the staff or above it.

A little background: before he came to me he undertook a rather drastic embouchure change. He somehow learned to play in the old "setting-in" style with the bottom rim of the mouthpiece placed on the rolled out inner part of his lip. He was able to make ALL-State in this competetive state (Florida) and play a strong lead trumpet (G's + A's) in his High School jazz band. He understood the limits his set-up would have down the road as he already had very limited endurance and now has a picture perfect (??!) set up. He just can't quite seem to get over the hump. His range is an inconsistent "C-D"

We have been working with breath attacks. Stamp studies and a few other things. Anyone out there have experience with this?? Thanks in advance.

Scott

[trumpetman4Jesus]

Could the noise also be from tension? Opening up might help.
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Bb Bach model 37

[JohnOBriant]

I currently have a student with a problem similar to this, unless I'm understanding you incorrectly:

Hers comes from a tendency to stop the airstream in her throat when attempting some lips slurs, to provide more definition to the air without actually "tonguing." I actually used to do the same thing until the end of high school or the beginning of college. The key for me to fix it was just learning to relax and trust that the air that I was putting through the horn would do the job rather than trying to muscle it into submission.

[Billy B]

Singing the note/line with the ah vowel makes such throat constrictions go away. Getchells are good for this as they are easy to sing. Have the student sing the excercise then play it with a "singer's mind". After a few hundred of these this relaxed sound will incorporate itself into the music. Have him sing all music he is playing.
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Bill Bergren

[HJ]

Hi,

This is something I run across with some of my students too. In fact it is a fairly common mistake when I get new students that played for some time.
Typically with pretty good amateur classical players. Most of them play very secure but with a small tone and are unable to perform lip trills or fast slurs. Usually it happens with lip slurs and the worst cases cannot stop themselves in whatever they play. Let's just take the 'lip slur cases' (most of the time as they overcome this problem while slurring, they overcome it in all of their playing).
-What helps a lot in most cases was the remark that they should blow air inbetween the notes. Most of the time those people shut of the airstream or lessen the airspeed just before the actual slur.
-Play like you play a long note and let the student actually play a long note before slurring, just to get the feel of blowing a long note.

Since I am into Jeff Smiley's BE, I found the 'snaps' in the slur section of his book of tremendous help. Not for myself, for I did not have so much trouble with slurs and shakes, but for my students. Even beginners can make a very nice 'snap' on a slur like G to C. If they can do this with the right sound, they will not develop the problem of throat noise or constriction and gain some nice side benefits like better lip position and open sound.

Hope this helps.

Bert