Look for the small things

[HJ]

Hi,

Just to encourage us all, I wanted to share some of my experiences with my students and of my own.

We often tend to look for the big changes when practicing: finally being able to play DHC, being able to play a four hour gig and still play a high G at fff, playing the Haydn, Tomasi and Hindemith in one breath, for God's sake, haha. Of course all this is nice and can eventually happen (I am not quite sure about the Haydn bla-de-bla thing), but the reasons that you stick to BE are not that you can play DHC overnight, or whatever. Still you stick to it because all kinds of nice things happen if you just keep doing the exercises. I just mention a few, and maybe the people who are struggling right now get confidence again when they read this and see that also these small things are important, and not things that accidently happen.

I have a twelve year old girl who was struggling with way too much mpc pressure. It was really so bad that her teeth were loose and shifting after half an hour of playing. Ouch. I started doing BE about half a year ago with her. She does the RI #1 with reasonable success, and RO # 1 and 2 with a focused but not great sound. I made her tongue on the top lip, and gave her the lip slurs with a focus on the snaps. Last week she had a very heavy rehearsal weekend with a symphony orchestra and afterwards I asked her if her teeth still suffered. No problem anymore. She even had the feeling that her playing was stronger afterwards, something she never experienced before. This is a thing BE can do. She cannot play higher than G top staff, but that will come. Her tone opened up a lot, her sound is actually great and she plays a lot easier than half a year ago.

I have a student (20) who plays for about three years. Very musical guy, but very reluctant to my BE-teachings. He does them because I tell him to, and because he is a smart guy who feels that I am not lying to him, haha. He does RO and RI with very limited succes, but in the meanwhile his playing is much more relaxed, open sound, and he can play up to high C! When I started teaching him his playing sounded very stuffy and E top staff was about his limit. Now he sounds like a trumpeter instead of a student.

I just started with a girl on flugelhorn. I had her do the lip clamp and everything from the start. Without BE I am sure that I would have told her to quit. A difficult lip....She plays for half a year now and has difficulty with a C between the third and fourth line. But I can help her. She is very true to the exercises and getting better at them, she actually loves the roll-outs, and I can tell her to roll-in a bit when ascending (something that makes no sense to somebody who does not know how to do this) but she actually does it right away and her playing becomes easier again. Same story with an eight year old boy. He had no clue what to do with his lips or how to change pitch. I had him do the lip clamp and squeek, and now I can tell him to roll in. It looks absolutely brilliant how he does this, and although he can only play up to an A in the staff, his sound is very good and open. Without BE he still would not know what to do with his lips.

I have another student who is really into BE. He is totally enthusiasti about it and does a good job on both RI and RO. When I started to teach him he had his whole mpc onthe red of his lips bottom and upper lip. Only the red! He had bad endurance and no security of what note to play whatsoever. At this moment he still plays mostly in the red of both upper and bottom lip, but with much more cushion. His control is much better and he has a very fat tone. For the higher notes he always tries to play them with a rolled in setting but with limited success, but eventually he will make it and make a change towards a real rolled in setup, I am sure, because he already feels what it can do for him. I just won't force him into this. I let the indirect way do its job.
Although there is no student yet with a big breakthrough, I see the advantages with every student that does BE. And it's the small things that make them believe me or the method I use (BE).

For myself the small things involve a much better endurance, better control, better flexibility and an incredible range boost. The range thing is kind of a big breakthrough, but the rest all happened very subtlly. It just gets better and better. And for me the strangest thing is that I don't sound really great on both the roll-in and roll-out side. This also gets better, but my normal playing has changed beyond my expectations.

So, keep looking for the small changes that give you the courage to go on. Eventually these small things add up to a big improvement in all areas of your playing. Don't expect it to happen in a month. The small things CAN happen in a month, but the big things take some time, but WILL happen.

Bert

[ This Message was edited by: HJ on 2004-03-12 16:21 ]

[_dcstep]

Great post Bert. I don't have students' experience to draw from, but I had immediate gains from BE after 46-years of playing. Mainly, my range above high-C solidified and the RI gave me a way to hit high-Gs at the end of long gigs (they're not loud, but they're in tune and into the mic they sound great). Everything that was good about my playing got better and the weaknesses became less week, all in a few weeks.

This will work for anyone with an open mind and a little diligence.

Dave
_________________
Schilke '60 B1 -- 229 Bach-C/19-350 Blackburn -- Lawler TL Cornet -- Conn V1 Flugel -- Stomvi Master Bb/A/G picc -- GR mpcs
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[Larrios]

Hi Bert!

Thanks for a great post, once again.

Personally, I find the most rewarding result from using BE that I now know that I have the tools to solve my problems. And, to me vital as well, that I have answers to help others too. The clear end-results, that we all wish to achieve rather yesterday than tomorrow, are of course still in my mind, but would they really be as satisfying if you had no clue how you got there? How you can help someone else to get there as well?

In the process, I am enjoying the little things a lot. They are invaluable to development. As they add up, changes simply HAVE to occur somehow, somewhere, sometime. Keep the process alive!

Ko