Leadpipe playing

[tpter1]

I read a post (as best as I can recall...it was some time ago) on Mr. Adam having students use the lead pipe to do breath attacks at very soft dynamics. I have alot of questions.

I've been at that consistently for about a week now, and am getting the overtone present, but not as present as it has been described.

I've just been doing long tones and note bending on it. Are there other excercises I can do to get the overtone stronger sounding, and add more work on the leadpipe?

I can bend down chromatically to about a fourth below, but going up can maybe (on a good day) get a whole step. How much time should I spend doing these? Currently I do about 3 minutes or so.

Should I be getting the overtones on each pitch as I bend up or down? Right now I only get them on the open pitch (which on my Bb is a concert Db).

Do you do these on all horns (C, Eb, picc pipe?)

[Babb9520]

I use the leadpipe in my routine every day. I usually do this first before playing anything. The leadpipe playing, I believe, is not really designed to bend the notes. In fact, I feel that you should just play your leadpipe and work on getting the most resonant, nice sound you can on its natural pitch. If you notice, bending the pitch means its not being played in the center, thats what valves and partials are for. Our goal is to feel as if anything we play on our horn is just like playing the leadpipe on its natural resonant pitch. I've never taken from Mr. Adam, though I'm pretty sure of this since one of his students had me play the leadpipe this way. Just focus on your sound and this will get you aligned, fired up and ready to go! I bet Pat and some of these other guys will give you a lot more information on this than what I can. Keep at it.

Charlie Babb

[tpter1]

Thanks. This is going to be good...

[Billy B]

The volume Adam has you play the pipe is different for each student depending on the student's needs. The pitch should be around concert Eb. The next pitch in the overtone series is up a 9th to concert F. Then C, F.
Sometimes he has the student use a short leadpipe. Cut off an old leadpipe at about 4 1/2 inches and the pitch should be about concert Eb up the octave from the standar pipe. The idea is that tubes of a certain length play certain pitches. Like a pipe organ. Allow the lips to vibrate at the pitch the tube wants to play. One week isn't long enough to see the benefits.
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Bill Bergren

[oj]

Bill,

What about using a cornet for the leapipe exercise?
Do you know if any of Adams students have done that?

I play in a brass band and was thinkink about showing them the benefit. (My cornet has a leapipe sound around low C.) I usually do it on my Bb trumpet and that is around Eb.

Ole
P.S. Btw, those having an Eclipse trumpet will have a problem http://www.eclipsetrumpets.com/downloads/pic003.htm

[_dcstep]

The pitch that the leadpipe wants to resonate at is not really important. For instance, a Bb with a reverse leadpipe will pitch lower than the same trumpet with a standard leadpipe. Cornets will generally give a lower pitch with the only negative being that moisture may be blowing into your face. (I must say for clarity, I haven't actually tried it on a cornet and I no long own one so that I can run in the other room, but I have tried it on different Bbs and Cs and it's been the same with all horns).

The point is to hear the resonance and make it freely sound. Once you do it in the staff-register, then take it up getting a resonant sound in each register. When you put the slide back in, it really helps the player connect with the trumpet. For people that hear the resonance and make it sound, the benefit can be immediate. (I like to use it use it with any new horn). For those that don't hear it immediately, then it may take a few weeks.

As you go up the registers, the feel you get in each register can be carried over with the horn back together.

Dave
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Schilke '60 B1 -- 229 Bach-C/19-350 Blackburn -- Lawler TL Cornet -- Conn V1 Flugel -- Stomvi Master Bb/A/G picc -- GR mpcs
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Rocky Mountain Trumpet Fest

[PH]

Yes, the idea of both the breath attack on the leadpipe and the soft volume are not necessarily "Adam things". He would vary the volume, tone quality, and kind of attack according to the developmental needs of each student. However, as a rule I would say that he has most people start the leadpipe notes with a soft legato tongue and play them at a pretty full volume in the mf-f range.

Is that your experience, Billy?

[Billy B]

He has also had me start the sound with no tongue. At some point he has had me play everything from p to ff. DC is right about the resonance, except that Adam will have the student play a specific pitch according to the length of the pipe. I suspect this is because the student doesn't recognize a resonant sound. The pipe will only resonate on one fundamental and it's overtone series. For a standard Bach lead pipe this is concert Eb. Anything in between is fighting the natural vibration of the air column or "playing out of phase".
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Bill Bergren

[tpter1]

So on average,(knowing that Mr. Adam tailored lessons and excersises by student) are these usually recommended to be done in the middle of a practice session if I am pushing dynamics to ff and trying to change partials?

What basic things should I be doing in addition to just long tones?

(I did say I have alot of questions...!)

[PH]

[Nonsense Eliminator]

PH wrote:

"This is a great thing to practice, but I don't think it is as big a deal as a lot of people make of it. Leadpipe playing, playing in the water, "THE ROUTINE" and all these things you hear people talk about are just the exercises he used to get his points across. They aren't the essence of his approach."

Everybody who's interested in Mr. Adam's approach but hasn't actually studied with him should read that seven or eight times.

The only things Mr. Adam ever had me do on the leadpipe are to play the fundamental on both the regular leadpipe and the short pipe Billy B mentioned. As I write this, my girlfriend, who's a horn player and also took lessons from Mr. Adam, is starting her routine with some notes on her horn leadpipe. I think that in every lesson I had, we would play a few notes on the leadpipe and then he would say, "Ready to go?" I always got the feeling the leadpipe was just a way to get things moving and energized, not really and end in itself.
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Richard Sandals
NBO

[tpter1]

Thank you all so much. This will help me keep things in perspective; using the leadpipe excercise just as a pre-warm-up makes alot of sense.

I do notice that I am more perceptive to the overtones in my sound. I tried on my Bb picc pipe this am, in addition to varying the dynamics (adding crescendo and decrescendo from pp to ff and varying articulation). I also tried getting the upper partial and it was there, but I couldn't hear the overtone yet.

One of the things I noticed doing the crescendo as I get past f is that I was forcing. I'll have to keep an ear open when I do this to avoid that. (I could hear the pitch go sharp). If it helps rectify that, then I'm already ahead of the game. I may have been forcing in the upper partial, which might explain the lack of overtone in the sound. I'll keep trying.

[Billy B]

I wouldn't dwell too much in trying to hear specific overtones in the sound. Just play the concert Eb untill you hear a good full sound.

Where do you live? Getting together with an Adam student or better yet with Adam would be a good idea.
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Bill Bergren

[tpter1]

I live in Northern New York, about a half hour south of the St. Lawrence river, roughly a 15 minute drive to the Crane School of Music. I wonder if someone would come do a workshop with trumpet majors there...

Lake Placid is not that far...do any Adam students or experts in his method come to the institute that Ed Carroll does?