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Can Practicing on a Screamer Develop My Range?


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LowerSlower
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
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Location: Petaluma, CA

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:59 am    Post subject: Can...screamer... Reply with quote

You will sacrifice tone if you go with a "screamer" mouthpiece.
I switched to a Monette BL-1D several months ago (after losing my BL-1).
I'm not sure if that qualifies as a "screamer", but it helps.

Around year 2000, I started practicing out of the notorious "37 Weeks To Double High C" book, and THAT WORKED!

I went from playing 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in a section to playing lead in big bands. Also "Trompeta 1" in Salsa bands. Or playing the 'monas' up an octave on the 3rd & 4th repeats if I'm playing second.

No matter what, the hours spent in the woodshed will always be more productive than switching equipment.

Good luck!
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LowerSlower
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Location: Petaluma, CA

PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:11 pm    Post subject: P.S. Reply with quote

Also, a great teacher could help too.

My college trumpet professor was completely useless.
In fact, the entire music faculty at that time HATED the jazz "department" with the exception of one music theory teacher who was soon to retire.

I was fortunate to take some lessons w/ Dr. Donald S. Reinhardt in Philadelphia, and he greatly improved my playing.
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brassmoose
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 1:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the reference to "37 Weeks To Double High C". Just picked it up.
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cheiden
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 29, 2022 4:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The short answer in my opinion is that beginning players absolutely should not resort to shallow gear to try and improve range. For far too many players any range gained comes at the cost of tone. I've played with way too many guys who couldn't play a tuning note with any quality on small shallow gear. Way back in high school I played the shallowest piece and got by but I developed terrible habits that I really wish I hadn't.
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mograph
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 8:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pops wrote:
These are just some basic ideas to get you started.


Pops, thanks so much for your detailed answer -- it's exactly what I need to hear right now.
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pmaglio
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2022 5:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pops wrote:

I have taught for 50 years, written over 25 books and helped thousands of players.
There are some key reasons why people get stuck with a poor range.

1. They have never really practiced range. If you play 1-5 Gs a day then A can never happen because you never really owned the G.
If you play fewer than 50 Fs a day then there is no real base to build the G on.
We need to play LOTS of notes 1-2 steps lower than our max note.

You have to play more high notes every day.

There now you know the secret.

To get there takes some common sense.
I have students that play 1200-1500 notes above High C every day PLUS band PLUS gigs.
They started with 10-20 extra high notes a day. It grows.

Your body has a fantastic ability to adapt to change and stress BUT it does it best when you increase the stress slowly and evenly. You HAVE to add a few more and NOT a lot more. Adding a lot more strains the lip muscles and you go backwards.

You need to work on the notes UNDER you highest note.
WE are trying to bench press 100 pounds a lot and NOT 400 pounds once.


2. There are more than likely physical aspects of playing that you also need to work on.

The 4 most important are Lip setpoint, Anchor Tonguing, Breath support (like we cough), and Lip Compression.

“Lip Setpoint” (TM)

Most players set for the 1st note of every phrase. So a player with a 3 octave range has 36 sets that they use. Nothing ever feels sure and 100% locked in.
They sound different based on the starting note of the phrase, their range is different. They often have to take a breath to reset to continue playing higher or lower. Pros don't do that.

Take line 1 of page 125 in the Arban. It is a C Major scale with every other note jumping down to low G.
If you start on the Low G the middle c is hard for some players. If you set (and play) a middle c first and then start, the high notes are easy.

I make my students do an extra octave of the exercise the to high C while keeping the Low G every other note.

They set the lip closeness (Setpoint) and withOUT resetting or taking a breath they start the exercise.
It is easy to compress the lips to play a half an octave higher than your set point. It is easy to learn to relax and (drop the jaw) to get to a full low g.

The Middle C, 4th space E or G on top of the Staff should ALWAYS be your starting Lip Setpoint (based on how easy the note plays for you). That way you have a base from which to judge where every note is in relation to your starting aperture/tension level.

After a month or so of always using 1 setpoint you start becoming more accurate even with sight reading; because you learn where every note is based on your setpoint.

Set is a very old idea. It is so old nobody living could claim it. It has book references over 150 years old. Even in more modern times E.S.Williams taught it and all of his students like Don Jacoby who did too.

Often they would say things like don’t play on multiple sets or don’t use several sets. Sometimes it would be “Play on one set.” The term “embouchure set” was even used back in the 50s. Play on one ’embouchure set”. Embouchure refers to LOTS of physical elements combined. Corners, facial tension, tongue arch, lip position…

“Lip Setpoint” (TM) is MY 35 year old phrase that describes MY variation of a 150 year old idea. I don’t include the use of firm corners, facial tension… I talk in terms of lip closeness/touching only. You can set the lips in the same closeness as you use to play a G on top of the staff withOUT setting any facial tension. This allows you to get the ONE set without always holding too much tension.

Anchor Tonguing.

Whistle the first exercise of an Irons flexibility study.  This is the same movement that your tongue should use as we play.

It is like using Taw for low notes Too in the mid range and Tee a little higher. Tiss for everything above G on top of the staff.

It is a forward tongue arch Not an upward arch.
The forward arch does 2 things the up arch does not do.

A forward arch moves the tongue a LOT and causes the jaw to move. The jaw movement makes changes to the amount of lip curl or pucker present and this alignment difference changes the pitch without using any lip strength or extra facial tension.

Also as we arch the front of the tongue toward the teeth a little this makes a more focused air-stream. The more focused the stream the less lip mass we excite and the higher we play.

The commonly done type of tongue arch (center up and tonguing with the tip) is very inefficient and was NEVER taught by any proponents of tongue arch.
Clarke, Gordon, Maggio… all taught anchor tonguing and NOT an upward arch.

It was always a forward arch against the teeth. Forward arch works 10Xs better that an upward arch.

Breath Support

It isn’t as much breath support as the CHANGE in breath support that helps us to play high notes.
Relax the stomach muscles. Tensing the stomach muscles does NOT create a smaller body cavity or pressurize the lungs to any great extent.

Cough.
Feel how the cough pulls the stomach in and expels the air.

Bringing the abs in toward the spine and contracting the muscles around the girdle does create a smaller body cavity. That moves your guts and since the pelvic bones won’t let them go down; they have to go up against the diaphragm. That makes the part of your chest cavity available for your lungs smaller. And that places the air in the lungs under pressure.

Pull the stomach in farther for each higher open note starting at the top of the staff. Pull it in fast and before the note starts. (The air has to start moving before you tongue.)

Jake (Don Jacoby) used to try to get people to use visualization to understand breath support. He used to tell use how far in feet we should send the note.
I’ll give you an example.

If you were to drop a ball onto the floor you would just let it roll off of your hand. Jake used to say to let the low notes roll out of the bell and land on the floor.(That is like a Low G. I sigh to relax my breath for these notes. Just the weight of the shoulders moving down during the sigh is all the support they get.)
If you were trying to throw a ball to someone 4 or 5 feet away then you would use a slight wrist action to gently toss the ball. (That is a low C. Gentle and no muscular support.)
If I threw to someone 15 feet away then I would use my whole arm but again gently. (That is like a middle C again not really pushing with support.)
If I throw a ball 40 Feet then I use my arm and get some hip into it. (That is like a High C. I have now engaged support muscles but not to their max. I use the muscles under my navel to pull everything in and up slightly. The motion has to be fast but it isn’t far. When I relax the muscles above my navel and pull in with the muscles below my navel, I become skinny. (Sort of) The motion moves my internal organs and they really only have one way to move. They push against the diaphragm and in turn it pushes against the lungs and the air is compressed. If you do it slowly then you get very little help. If you do it very fast then you forcefully push high notes through the horn. )
If I throw a ball 80 Feet I need to put my whole body into it. I wind up, I step, I engage the hip… (That is like a DHC. I am using lots of breath support. I use the muscles under my navel to pull everything in and up a lot. The motion has to be fast and far. At this point I need some support from my back and sides. Everything below the ribs is contracting in but the front does the most work and moves in twice as far as it did for High C. Somewhere above High C we start adding support from the back and sides too. Squeeze the air from the bottom up.)

Lip Compression:
Lip compression is the act of 1 lip pressing against the other. Like pinching the thumb and forefinger together. In order to do this with your hand the thumb must be touching the finger (there can be no air space between them), It works the same way with the lips.

The lips also need to be lined up so that when we push them together one doesn't go under the other lip.

I personally frown to push the center of the bottom lip up to the top lip.
(There are 5 fairly normal ways to make lip compression but the frown is the easiest to control.)

These are just some basic ideas to get you started.


Fantastic advice! When I was a kid, I would simply muscle the high notes - which "worked" in the sense that I could hit the notes (e,f,g above high c) with a Jet-tone mouthpiece, but at a huge cost to my chops. Wish I knew this 30+ years ago.
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