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High G-BE makes you think differently



 
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HJ
Veteran Member


Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 387
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 2:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi ,

I had a very good learning experience with one of my students. Maybe you can do something with it, too.

I have an eleven year old student who plays the trumpet for one and a half years now. He practices about 15 minutes a day I guess and sometimes even less. He is not really a musical talent or anything, his tone in his normal playing is not great yet but he is very attentive when I teach him. He is a very nice guy and he likes me, so he believes what I tell him.
I started him off with BE right away and he is really good at the roll-in part.
Last week I let him do roll-in #1 and after a few nice and easy G's he fooled around a bit, put some air behind it and played a soaring high G!!!!! People, listen: this was not a feeble squeeky high something, it was a real G above high C with a leadplayers tone!!!
And he could do it a couple of times!!!
Wow, if he can control that he can get a lot of jobs.

But what learned is that high G is an EASY tone. Yes, it MUST be if an eleven year old can play it. And what's more, he did it with ease and with almost no mpc pressure. So if you want proof of the fact that playing high is actually easy, here you have it. I learned that it is not about power, strength, pressure or whatever, but that it has to do with lip position. If the lips are doing the right thing, the notes will come.

What I really want to say is that BE does this with your playing. I said it on different threads on TH, but one of the best experiences I had with BE was that high notes feel totally different from what you expect. You cannot analyse how it works, you can only make yourself feel it by doing Jeffs exercises. And if you feel it, it is actually very simple. The only thing that gets in the way is your head, because in most of our trumpet players heads, high notes are streneous, impossible and take somebody very powerful, smart or whatever.
Well, this kid showed me that that is not true, although I struggle with it on a daily basis, just like al of us.

Hope this kid has taught you something, too.

Bert
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Larrios
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 794
Location: Serooskerke (Walcheren), The Netherlands

PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 5:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Bert!

Thanks for sharing your nice experience with us. It's wonderful how children teach us as well. Made my day.

Ko
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Lex Grantham
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Joined: 12 Nov 2001
Posts: 345
Location: East Texas

PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

YES...

and please keep in mind that kids have NOT been playing some method for many, many years and become so indoctrinated with some habits that may be very difficult to overcome before something better will happen.

Thank you for the nice experience.

Sincerely,

Lex Grantham
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trumpetteacher1
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 11 Nov 2001
Posts: 3398
Location: Garland, Texas

PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 7:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bert,

As little as a year ago, I don't think that this forum would have worked. I would have ended up doing most of the responding, because nobody out there had been working with BE long enough - especially with students - to draw conclusions from the experience of it.

Wow, things have changed!

Pardon this overly emotional response, but in the past few weeks, several of you guys have written SUPERB posts that have brought tears to my eyes. For all of you who started BE with nothing more than a leap of faith, I can't thank you enough for sticking with it long enough to own it. I've never wanted to be some kind of lonely guru. The more people who fully understand BE, the better. The more people who understand it better than me, the better!

Bert, if there were a list of players and teachers who understand BE, you would be at or near the top.

Remember when you asked, over a year ago I think, how to teach BE to kids? HaHa! They can really humble you, can't they? This is almost every teachers experience, that the kid will somehow do something using BE that is greater than what the teacher can do. When that happens, you have to stay calm, but also REALLY pay attention to exactly what the student is doing, so you can learn. In beginning BE, half of what you know will come directly from your students. They will figure things out that sometimes leave you stunned.

With so much great stuff now starting to come forward, it seems to be time for a teachers manual - with DVD's, LOL! Over the next few months, I will actively solicit everybody's advice and experience regarding content.

Thanks again for your post, Bert. You have a way with straightforward truths, and practicality.

Jeff Smiley
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LeeC
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 5730

PostPosted: Sun Jan 11, 2004 11:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have known a couple kids who were able to produce very easy, loud high notes practically from the get go. A roll in chop formation seems to be the common denominator. In fact the Late Roy Stevens used to switch every one of his students to that embouchure. The results were mixed though Roy never mentioned this in his books.
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