Experimenting w/ Air Pockets....

[Valerie]

When I first started BE over 2 years ago (spring of 2006), I coulnd't do RI or anything else w/ air pockets. I played w/ a flat pointy chin & tightly locked corners. BE made huge & significant improvements right up front and I continue to improve steadily & solidly. I've noticed through 2008 a relaxing of my chin & lip corners, to the point that I can play w/ a bunched chin ad lib. Prompted by these changes & things I've read on TH BE forum, I decided to learn to initiate RI w/ a lip clamp squeek and air pockets, reasoning that I may find some hidden developmental benefit that puffing produces. After a few weeks of this, I am able to do almost all the RI's w/ this new technique. I think, maybe just maybe, I've found something.

Three octave lip slurs have always been a challenge. I can get a sound & hit the right partials at the top, but the sound is weak & I have to use a lot of mpc pressure for the top. The added pressure inhibits my top lip from rolling in. I've found that allowing a little puffing of the upper lip enables me to more easily roll my upper lip in and produce a clear (but not loud) tone at the top of a three octave lip slur without excessive pressure. I've been working w/ it. Every now and then I'm almost able to duplicate the "feeling" of the air pocket under the upper lip w/o actually puffing the upper lip. It's a whole new low pressure feeling that seems to the muscles in a different way to roll in. This relaxed, low pressure feeling may be the missing element I hadn't experienced by having never puffed before. (Hmmm.... sounds kinda like I've been puffing on something besides air, huh? )

I've been playing three octave scales and arpeggios, puffing the upper lip near the top then "de-puffing" as I descend. It's hard to imagine this puffing & de-puffing becoming a permanent part of my regular playing technique, but who knows? I don't want to rule anything out. It's a little awkward and seems to delay response (as the upper lip fills), but it does make the top notes pop out w/ relative ease.

(This is so difficult to describe, I hope I'm making sense here.)

Can anyone comment on this? Is this anything someone else has experienced using air pockets? Is this perhaps a means to an end or perhaps this technique could be employed during regular playing on a permanent basis? Does anyone use air pockets only at the top of their range for their regular playing?

"Inquiring minds want to know!"

Valerie

[jimh46]

I can definitely relate to your experience with air pockets.
I had a lesson with Jeff recently and he started by asking to hear my LCS, it sounded fine but I mentioned that I was having problems transitioning it to the horn.

He then asked me to do a LC Hiss, complete with air pockets, and then bring the mouthpiece to my lips. My lips immediately started to vibrate and a tone ensued. It felt very good because there I was, for the first time, blowing a tone through my horn in the LCS (very rolled in) position.

The tone was a bit stuffy but it felt very comfortable (and a bit strange with the cushion) but is now the basis for starting all my RI exercises.

I had bypassed the LC Hiss because the LCS came easily from the outset of starting BE, I felt that didn't need it as it was really meant as an introductory exercise for novices as means to enable them to do LCS. I have a mature embouchure and play 'Rolled In' naturally anyway.

So this seemingly innocuous exercise became a turning point for me and I think its success was due to the air pockets which seem to cause the lips to to Roll In (Rotate) further to a point where they produce higher tones more naturally (and in a more relaxed way). I also think that when I get used to playing on the cushion caused by the air pockets that my endurance will also improve.

I think, therefore, that air pockets are a very important element to introduce into BE, whether or not they remain permanent features of one's normal playing, they certainly seem to be a good progress facilitator.

I also strongly believe that the BE book needs to be constantly re-read in the context of one's progress at any given time. I find that as I progress many of the details (some of which I have previously overlooked) take on new significance, re-inforcing the underlying message and enabling further development to take place.

I hope this response didn't digress too far from your point.

Regards
Jim

[MaryAnn]

Well, interesting. I haven't been very regular with BE practice but I can still do high C and down about to G with the air pocket RI LC embouchure; decent tone on the higher notes but less so (airy) as I go lower. And of course, with the air pockets, about zero pressure because pressure squashes the air pocket.

And I did start exactly as the book says, with a LC hiss and bringing the trumpet (then; now it's horn) up to my face. It took a while to figure out how much "pressure" to use on the air pockets, and it's not much "pressure" at all; just slightly more than just touching. But the lack of "effort" has continued. One has to jump ball parks to do BE if one is accustomed to the squeeze-and-press way of playing high.

However, since my normal pointy-chin embouchure works fine in the midrange, what I stuggle with is the shift from RO to RI as I ascend, which I just can't do yet. (Maybe I could if I had done steady practice.) We're playing American Overture in a concert in a week or so, and hitting the second G is more hit-or-miss for me; since I can't practice (due to the dystonia) I operate on confidence. Hopefully during the concert it is "hit" and not "miss."

Then when I get down into my "dystonia range," which is from about third-line B down to about D, I have to switch to a bunched-chin embouchure away from pointy, because pointy in that range starts my jaw to quivering and the sound resembles a bad soprano's vibrato. And, BTW, I arrived at this bunched-chin thing on my own, well before BE, in trying to find something, anything, that would allow me to play in that problematic range.

MA

[Valerie]