A very strange (and long) story

[soulfire]

I am one of those guys who have always had high notes. I had to work hard to learn to control them, but within 6 months of playing, I had G’s over high C and by the end of my 2nd year, I was already hitting DHCs on the regular. Don't get too jealous though guys, because I would gladly trade you a 3rd for some improved sight-reading skills. Mine are abysmal. Anyway. I topped out at a D over DHC in high school and never was able to increase it beyond that point for decades.

Now here comes the bizarre story. One weekend, my college marching band went to Syracuse, NY for an away game. I warmed up, played my solos without a hitch, hit all the notes and we marched back to the stands for the cheers and pep music. But something weird happened, because for some reason, everything felt too easy. Playing a double high C was something I could do for years by this point, but it felt like I was playing a middle C, so I took things higher. When I tell you, I was able to play our school fight song up 2 OCTAVES AT FFF, I am not lying. I had the rest of the band looking at me in shock. I had literally no idea what was going on, but it seemed I had gained nearly an entire octave overnight. At one point in time I snuck away and did some scales and jazz licks to see if I had lost anything off my middle range, if my tone was bad, etc. and no, everything was fine, except that I could now play up to triple Cs and above with ease.

After the show, we marched back and I warmed down. I tried to memorize everything I did so I could replicate it (even though I had no idea what I was doing differently) and I put the horn away. Welp, picked the horn up the next day and I was back to being a mortal again. My normal high range was there, but gone was that extra octave+. For YEARS I tried to figure out what I was doing that day to no avail. But I remember it all vividly like it was yesterday.

Fast forward about a decade and I was coming back to the horn after 6 years off (life, career, marriage… you know how it goes). I had this weird thing going on where my low notes sounded fuzzy and uncertain, so I contacted a well-known embouchure expert and after some videos and email exchanges, he had me start free lip buzzing. I felt a lot muscle fatigue in my lower lip by doing this, so I continued on, even after my lower notes sorted themselves out.

Fast forward about 6 months and I began to notice a weird side effect starting to occur. I started getting staticy stuff going on sometimes and the notes didn't always feel like they were there. I resisted the urge to correct it by my usual methods and stuck with the advice the expert gave me. Gradually, I began to realize that I was able to manipulate my airstream differently and I started overshooting notes on the regular. Additionally, I was getting this whistley stuff which actually slotted. I can’t always find the sweet spot in manipulating my air yet and I still have some trouble connecting it to my normal range all the time. However, when things are working, I can do scales up to triple Gs and back down with ease and squeak up to around a C above that. It has been too long for me to know if this is what I was doing on that day back in college, but it feels about the same from what I remember.

So with that huge block of text, I’m curious as to your thoughts. Has anyone ever experienced something so extreme? Does anyone want to take a shot at explaining what I’m doing now and if you think it’s different? I’ve heard of a few notes just spontaneously happening, but I’m talking about 2 instances where I spontaneously gained an octave and nowadays about a 5th.
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Chris

[JayKosta]

Is there a point where you feel that you are not really 'playing the note', but are 'whistling a pitch' that enables the trumpet to 'sound the note'?
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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'.

[soulfire]

When it's not working properly for me, yes. That's where that weird, staticy stuff comes in and the 'feel' is different. The notes (sounds?) slot but I have a super hard time controlling it when that happens. This is only on a particularly bad day after I pushed it too hard the day before though. In the past, I would do a lot of soft playing to counteract this (especially when I was basically on permanent 'scream and lead' duty in various college bands and my chops got beat to hell daily). I was told by a professional I respect who has way better high chops than I do that I was a bit of a slave to my routine, so I deliberately do less of it now.

When everything is working, it feels seamless though. But I do feel like there is some transition happening above DHC to enable me to 'unlock' what I did.

Also, I should note that the mpc doesn't seem to matter. I use a Marc. Shew 1 for lead work, but I mainly use the Shew 1.75 now (I want to be more of a jazz player than a high note guy) and I haven't noticed any dip or change in my range.

Quick Update: I managed to find some time to pull out the horn today and after a warmup I did some range work to check everything I've been discussing in my posts. Everything was working for me today so it is a bit easier for me to describe. It feels like I'm flossing the air through with my tongue as I get up above double C. No whistley stuff or static. Just a full connected range. I did a few arpeggios starting on low F# up to triple F# and back. No issues. I wouldn't say it was perfectly clean and I sounded like Wayne over here, but it was there and it was solid.
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Chris

[Beyond16]

The exact same thing happened t me, except I lost an octave rather than gain one. It happened when getting crowns for 4 upper front teeth. I could still get 3 octaves with the temporary crowns. But after getting the permanent ones, I could hardly play. The new crowns felt about the same as the temps. After 2 or 3 months, I am better, but can only get half of the lost octave on a good day. Strange.

[soulfire]

[abontrumpet]

Since the replies seem to have tapered, I have a very "what's your astrological sign, oh you're a libra?! Let me tell you about yourself" explanation as to what happened. It's pseudoscientific and probably just something I tell myself to help me sleep at night.

Basically, when it comes to production, I think that for some people there is a thin veil that separates them being a mere "mortal" from being as capable as a prodigy/professional. And what separates the prodigy from the professional is the level of flawless technique that accompanies the "magic" combination for production. So both prodigy and pro have the "magic" combo and the prodigy has flawless prodigal technique.

What I mean to say is, a lot of people could probably play the regular range of the instrument at a professional level fairly quickly if their air, tongue, embouchure, mental imagery, and brain/neurons, lock into their "magic" combination. So, I believe what you experienced is you suddenly breaking into that combo. The problem with most of us, is we try and demystify/reverse engineer what we did, it doesn't work. Most of the time, we are playing our best when we aren't really thinking about it or thinking solely about what we want to produce.

The key is to get the brain to always fire the magic combo, to work all the elements in tandem to produce that thing that you know you can produce because you experienced it. But the act of thinking about it DOESN'T allow the right neurons to fire.

I know personally I have bouts of "oh man, this is so easy" only to come back to...hmmm, this is going to take a little work. But I have made those bouts come more often and now it's nearly all the time. We have to believe we can be a "prodigy" overnight if we lock into that magic combo. It's through belief that we can work towards making it a reality.

The thing is, I've seen players transform before my eyes, so the belief is easy (watching Bill Vermeulen work with poor and great quality players is enough to believe that we can all accomplish this in a simple half hour).

The things that helped me get to more bouts of "wow, this is easy" and eventually play that way all the time:
1) take a great/repeatable breath (this is different for everybody
2) be extremely mindful about what it is that you want to sound/play like and imagine it vividly
3) the belief that it would always improve/be great
4) always keeping the chops fresh (don't play to failure)

Hopefully the magic happens! Good luck

[soulfire]

100% agree with this. In my personal opinion, I think that most people are capable of solid DHCs, great tone, etc., it's 'simply' a matter of figuring out what works for them. Granted, that could take years or just never truly manifest. Personally, my greatest weakness is playing to failure. That being said, I'm not a pro, so I have the luxury of being able to be stupid.

I've been watching a series of videos from StomviUSA, by K.O. Skinsnes on youtube that touches on this topic and I'd highly encourage others to watch them as well.

Here's a nice overview- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64mmldjL3Cw
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Chris

[JayKosta]

[soulfire]

About to head out for the day, but figured I'd post these for you as requested.

Part 1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXXuezlHcYw
Part 2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiDmUtWPL6U
Part 3- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUqmglkwFVU
Part 4- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct449XnJwzE
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Chris

[abontrumpet]

[JayKosta]

[steve0930]

Hi Chris
Thanks a lot for those 4 video links.. I couldn't get to sleep so came downstairs for cup of tea and small glass of wine (still Christmas here!) I'm usually on the Balanced Embouchure forum so for that reason those videos were really on the money. (ie their focus on self learning and experimenting) for those of you who liked the pedal c theory but would have liked a demo Charlie Porter helps us out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MQd-ymDNkQ

I m always very appreciative with the amount of help there is out there from the experienced players for trumpet novices like myself (playing 4 years but already 57 so need all the help I can get) So thanks again and all the best for this Christmas season Cheers steve in Helsinki
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