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jhatpro
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 Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 5:19 pm Post subject: Cichowicz Question |
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Can anyone elaborate on Vincent Cichowicz’ ideas about what he called “air patterns” as a way to produce an exceptional trumpet sound.
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Jim Hatfield
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Miketpt
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| Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 7:50 pm Post subject: |
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Simply put it was his way of helping students establish a “free release” or “immediate turnaround” after taking a healthy breath. When I studied with him he had us do this away from the instrument and mouthpiece. It was easy to get first note phobia with him since he would stop us right away if the fist note/start of anything we were playing wasn’t perfectly balanced. Most of the time this was due to a hesitation or hitch in the sound production.
Doing the breath patterns away from the trumpet was his way of getting us to take a step back and simplify things. If everything else was working with your playing and the initial release was healthy, everything else fell into place.
Obviously sealing the embouchure and the resistance of the mouthpiece/instrument are two variables that come
into play once you go back to the trumpet again.
Stay safe,
Mike |
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jhatpro
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| Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, MIke.
Wish I'd studied with him!
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Jim Hatfield
"The notes are there - find them.” Mingus
2021 Martinus Geelan Custom
2005 Bach 180-72R
1965 Getzen Eterna Severinsen
1946 Conn Victor
1998 Scodwell flugel
1986 Bach 181 cornet
1954 Conn 80A cornet
2002 Getzen bugle |
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dstpt
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| Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 4:02 am Post subject: |
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| Miketpt wrote: | Simply put it was his way of helping students establish a “free release” or “immediate turnaround” after taking a healthy breath. When I studied with him he had us do this away from the instrument and mouthpiece. It was easy to get first note phobia with him since he would stop us right away if the fist note/start of anything we were playing wasn’t perfectly balanced. Most of the time this was due to a hesitation or hitch in the sound production.
Doing the breath patterns away from the trumpet was his way of getting us to take a step back and simplify things. If everything else was working with your playing and the initial release was healthy, everything else fell into place.
Obviously sealing the embouchure and the resistance of the mouthpiece/instrument are two variables that come into play once you go back to the trumpet again.
Stay safe,
Mike |
All that Mike said, and from my observations in lessons with Mr. Cichowicz, this is how I recall him demonstrating this practice technique:
Put your horn in your lap. Breathe in with a free open-mouth inhalation, where the jaw has dropped and the throat has the feeling of yawning and very much free of any tension. The turnaround time from inhalation to exhalation needs to basically be “zero time” (my words, not his), so that the player has no time to “hold” the air. He would say that tension can set into our body when we hold onto the air. Immediately prior to exhalation, the lips come together in practically an embouchure formation with aperture apart, and you use the tongue as you would in playing to articulate the rhythms in the selection you’re about to play.
I’ve had to analyze this further to help younger students do what I recall him having us do: allow the lower lip to retract slightly, so that it is close to the lower edge of the upper teeth, as in saying the letter F:
Tfff tff tff tfff tfff…
This provides a little bit of resistance similar to what we get when playing. The idea is to transfer the freedom of flow when we go back to the mouthpiece, or back to the mouthpiece in horn. If your initial start was not clean, he would have you either go back to “air patterns” or just buzzing the first pitch on the mouthpiece, but always with this kind of freedom of air release. Any sign of tension could be perceived at the outset of a phrase, which is why he placed so much emphasis on the initial start. If the start was free of tension, then most likely the entire phrase would be free.
Another thing he would emphasize in conjunction with your initial start was “joining the phrase.” IOW, he would have you imagine the music is already playing, and you’re just joining into the flow of the musical line, rather than getting all keyed up under the anxiety of whether an initial note was going to respond or not. (He used the analogies of throwing a Frisbee and of ice skating a lot, and that you’re just joining into the flow of these activities.) This generally keeps the chops (and neck and shoulders and…) free of any unnecessary tension.
Is there tension in the body? It’s probably best to think of it as muscle activity or “energy” being activated in the body (again, my words, not his). If the important parts of the body have excessive “activity,” then it will usually be heard in the very first note of a phrase and transfer into the sound throughout. Doing the “air patterns” eliminated the mpc and horn factors, creating as much freedom as possible, and the idea was to transfer that freedom when going back to the mpc/tpt.
Rather than think “relaxation” when we play, he had adapted the term “freedom,” which had come into vogue from the Alexander Technique, which was taught as an elective course by a former student of his at Northwestern at the time, at least when I was there. Excellent course, btw. |
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jhatpro
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| Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 5:25 am Post subject: |
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Wow, this thread is a master class - thanks so much, guys!
_________________
Jim Hatfield
"The notes are there - find them.” Mingus
2021 Martinus Geelan Custom
2005 Bach 180-72R
1965 Getzen Eterna Severinsen
1946 Conn Victor
1998 Scodwell flugel
1986 Bach 181 cornet
1954 Conn 80A cornet
2002 Getzen bugle |
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jhatpro
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cgaiii
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kehaulani
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| Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 7:37 am Post subject: |
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Boy, Mike and dstpt. That was a very selfless answer. Thanks for taking the time.
I've got Cichowicz' and related books but still, I appreciate your synthesis.
Thanks, again.
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