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Max Reverb Veteran Member
Joined: 19 Nov 2001 Posts: 115 Location: Phoenix AZ
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2002 7:04 am Post subject: |
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Is this normal? I mean, when I get above the staff, I can't finish each blow without taking a breath and I literally feel like I could do some physical damage to myself. Whole notes at 60 bpm at those dynamic levels are a real killer for me. This doesn't seem natural or what the exercises are trying to accomplish. In Claude Gordon's Systematic Approach, there is a somewhat similiar exercise at the beginning of each lesson. He needed to make a correction to this book because as students were going higher and higher, with a crescendo and holding the last note (because it had a fermata) they were running into a similiar situation that I described earlier. I must be doing something wrong. Please advise or tell me a different way to do the exercise. Thanks. |
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_bugleboy Carmine Caruso Forum Moderator
Joined: 11 Nov 2001 Posts: 2865
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2002 9:33 am Post subject: |
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Max,
I'll try to answer more tomorrow. Right now I am heading out for all day/night gig.
You should be blowing air speed on the SLS and only when you reach beats 6 and 7 are you blowing the air as fast as possible. Before and after there is much less of a blow being expended. These are air speed drills that result in dynamic (soft loud soft) sounds.
Gotta go. Give me some more specifics.
Charly |
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Max Reverb Veteran Member
Joined: 19 Nov 2001 Posts: 115 Location: Phoenix AZ
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2002 11:37 am Post subject: |
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Maybe I'm speeding the air before I should. I run out of air at about beat eight and my face and scalp feel like they are literally separating from my skull and the pressure on my head is enormous. Maybe my p is mf and my f is fff. My air is always gone before the blow is over when the exercise gets out of the staff. I know everything is relative. I'll try backing off a little. Thanks Charly. Hope you have a great gig. |
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PH Bill Adam/Carmine Caruso Forum Moderator
Joined: 26 Nov 2001 Posts: 5862 Location: New Albany, Indiana
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Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2002 3:05 pm Post subject: |
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Carmine told me that the exercises that do not have dynamics marked should be played at "room temperature"-i.e. whatever volume is comfortable to you.
However, on the studies with dynamics, the softs should be softer than you can play well-so soft that you almost lose the note. The louds should be so loud that you are overblowing your chops and the tone begins to distort. The goal is to use the calisthenics to expand your dynamics "comfort zone" without altering your basic chop set-up.
If you are running out of air before the study is completed you are probably accurate in suggesting that you are letting out the throttle a little too soon. Also, some of this goes away as your body adjusts to the demands of each new calisthenic study and your physical set-up becomes more efficient.
Remember that the earliest (?) Caruso book wasn't called "Caruso on Breath Control" for nothing!!!
People always talk about CC as an embouchure method, but it is really about rhythm and breath. This approach allows the chops to find the most efficient position as the steady blow and refined timing become habits. |
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