BE Set Up - Let go or Plan? PS Help with 5A

[steve0930]

Hello BE Explorers
As a happy BE student should one have ANY preconceived notions about embouchure when you start playing music (outside BE exercises) ? Have a plan which utilizes some of your BE insights or don't have a plan - just let go.

One day this week, I was playing Autumn in New York - I decided to go for a touch more roll in (bottom lip) to help play e and f top of staff and then add a touch roll in top lip to float up to the g.. seems to work really well. But now I have decided that for me maybe this (ready plan) is NOT the way to go forward.

The idea on the Inner Game of Tennis (2nd best book on how to unleash your trumpet potential to my mind!) is let go of control - give your "Self2" a nudge towards learning.. then let go - don't make the tennis shot.. just let it happen. (after I had read first 30 pages of this great book I stopped reading.. cos I reasoned idea is you need to work the rest out yourself - a bit like BE and one argument for why a BE volumn 2 would be counter productive!)

BUT both Serena Williams and Andy Murray in tennis will come on court with a plan which they will glance at surreptitiously (had to check spelling on that!) during the match and they have both been World Number 1.

I then read this post from Michael in NZ and this helped assure me I was backing the right horse (ie let go) Cos how can you plan for 1024 variables and on any given minute of any given day I'm assuming the variables change...

So where I am now (Only 3 months or so into BE) is think about for example RI RO / move my lips a bit for both (nudge towards learning) - then forget all that.. pick up the trumpet and go to New York....

So any comments on Let Go versus Plan?

But I like leaving the last word with Michael:

[kehaulani]

I read the book carefully and practiced the exercises and didn't overthink/over analyse it.
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[deleted_user_687c31b]

[JayKosta]

Does the BE process involve being mentally aware of what is happening while doing the exercises?
Is the process altered depending on how well the exercises are performed, and the results that are achieved?

Letting Go, or Just Do It doesn't mean to abandon all thought and control - it is focusing your attention to the specific goal and not having counterproductive distractions.

Jay
_________________
Most Important Note ? - the next one !
KNOW (see) what the next note is BEFORE you have to play it.
PLAY the next note 'on time' and 'in rhythm'.
Oh ya, watch the conductor - they set what is 'on time'.

[kehaulani]

Jay, I can't speak for the OP but not getting bogged down by "Paralysis from analysis" doesn't mean that playing the exercises are done mindlessly.
_________________
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." Bird

Yamaha 8310Z Bobby Shew trumpet
Benge 3X Trumpet
Benge 3X Cornet
Adams F-1 Flghn

[Seymor B Fudd]

[mike ansberry]

I don't really know if I am doing it right, but my BE practice and my gigging have gradually changed over the last year and a half. I started doing BE to see if it could be the key to unlocking a door that I had not yet been able to open. I practiced BE and tried to sound like the recordings. But my old flat chin embouchure refused to let go.

Even with this problem my range and endurance improved. I did not consciously try to implement BE into my performance embouchure, but it has gradually crept in. I like this because there was never a drastic change so I could keep gigging.

A couple of months ago I went back and started working on the bunched chin embouchure with a more rolled in embouchure. This hasn't really started to crep into my performance yet (not really any performance with Covid going on anyway)

I guess the bottom line is that I don't think about mechanics when I'm performing. I audiate while I play and try to let the horn sing what is in my head.
_________________
Music is a fire in your belly, fighting to get out. You'd better put a horn in the way before someone gets hurt.

[steve0930]

Hi Guys.. thanks for the replies already,
after discovering BE I'm like a young boy in the sweet store for the first time but I'm also pretty sure that just like Seymor I'll be opening new jars 5 years from now..

BE giving heightened awareness and license to experiment - good input - helps me feel a bit more "chill" - why should I lock down my learning blueprint now /ever? Some days playing music I can try out a bit of a rollin feel other days just play.. already 2 months in with BE I have a heightened awareness of how my lips feel and how that informs my practise..At any given moment I know (my lips are telling me) I can/cannot play a high c easily and this then determines what exercise or music I practise next. 2 months ago I would just press on regardless of lips intel.

My learning this week to sound like recordings is "Less is more" on the RO4 I really went for less top lip pressure (as I moved up) and it helped to get a big easy sound on the one above the g - (Bb I guess) but still thinner on the C above..

cheers for now Steve

PS I took a leaf out of your book Mike and tried to help Freshman Jerryardo on the high note forum - BE for "the one and only Jerryardo embouchure" but grammar and dentistry now seem to be the hot spots on that thread- hopefully Jerryardo feels less bewildered than I did!

[steve0930]

PS
Here is the answer that maybe helps me as a BE novice most.. Bob Cross from 15 years ago:

[Seymor B Fudd]

[steve0930]

Hi Seymor
Thanks for reply. I read it at 0545 then took my wife Ljuba a cup of tea and said "it's great for me to find thru BE like minded trumpet people to explore ideas with.."

Pre BE I decided my embouchure set up should be open..(intuitively I thought this was the right path to go down!) as open as possible.. to use a clock analogy my embouchure was like a clock face.. open, round and I was focusing on stuff like air / warm air / tongue arch / corners / the body concert hall / shape. After starting BE within days, and without any conscious decision on my part, my focus has shifted to the bullseye centre of the clock face where the hands (read lips) turn. And as you said Seymor - BE is so personal - probably no other BE player has the same watch you have...(apologies for stretching the analogy here!)

I like your idea of RI attitude - subtle can often be enough!

My learning from yesterday - synchronized tongue pressure from behind bottom lip to get more snap on both ROs and lip slurs and Michael's point:

[Seymor B Fudd]

[steve0930]

Seymor