Buzzing firmness

[walter]

[ This Message was edited by: walter on 2002-09-20 10:21 ]

[hairy james]

Walter' Doc always said for everyone to place with buzzing firmness. Trust me on this one, I don't care what Severinsen told you he "Thinks he does", you don't play the way he does placing on a flabby loose setting. Also remember every player has his own idea of what firm or loose is. What D.S thinks is a loose setting might in reality be firm enough to get the job done. Also remember players who never studied with Doc don't always give a lot of thought to things like that. Alot of them simply "Just blow." One more thing, D.S is an upsteam type, and things are not always the same for them. Take care Chris.

[BeboppinFool]

I'm going to go along with Chris's comments on this one. In order for me to avoid embouchure distortion under the rim of the mouthpiece, it's important for me to place my mouthpiece on an embouchure formed with buzzing firmness.

No matter what register I'm about to play, my lips need to be together so that the air can blow through them and cause them to vibrate. If my lips are formed loosely, their ability to vibrate in any register is questionable. When they're formed with buzzing firmness, I am usually assured that my entire range (at whatever stage of being warmed-up or fatigued I'm in at the moment) is available to me.

When I'm blowing improvised jazz solos, I'm always amazed when I hear a recording (remember, this is from a guy who was a completely broken down trumpet player for years) that contains any amount of upper register. My conception could demand that my chops produce a G below the staff quite loudly, and then two bars later, on the identical embouchure setting and even in the same breath, I might go up to the G (four leger lines over the staff). Now if that low G was on a loose embouchure, then chances are that I would've never gotten near that high G.

And that high G might even feel somewhat relaxed . . . but it's most likely a case of being much stronger than I need to be at that moment. In other words, I have some strength in reserve at times like that. If I'm so strong that I can feel relaxed on a high G, well, I might tell you I feel relaxed up there, but I'm actually keeping my embouchure quite firm with plenty more firmness in reserve.

So I'm thinking that Severinsen has so much strength in reserve that his definition of relaxed (or loose) would be nothing of the kind to most other players.

I don't know if I'm making sense tonight. What am I doing here on a Friday night, anyway? (Hey, at least I have a gig tomorrow night!)

I look forward to reading others' comments.

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[trumpetteacher1]

Walter,

I think that I understand what you mean, but if you would clarify, that would be helpful.

You said, "Then one day I went to a clinic given by Doc Severinsen. I don't know if he still does it, but he put his mouthpiece onto loose chops. I tried it out, had no problems, and have done it that way since."

Not everybody needs to focus their chops prior to putting the mouthpiece on the lips, as the focus tends to kick in automatically upon sounding the note - a focus, which as Rich said, may barely be noticed by the player if they already possess an abundance of coordinated strength. For some players, however, particularly in the early stages, seting up the chops prior to placing the mouthpiece is crucial.

Hope I'm not out of line posting here, as I am certainly no Reinhardt expert.

Interesting stuff!

Jeff
http://www.trumpetteacher.net

[BeboppinFool]

Glad you're here, Jeff!

We can certainly all learn from each other. As you already know, I'm quite interested in what you teach, also. I suspect that we can probably keep cool enough to do "comparisons" without brawling, so everything's fine as long as we don't all start bashing each other's philosophies . . . agreed?

Rich
_________________
Puttin’ On The Ritz

[walter]

[ This Message was edited by: walter on 2002-09-20 10:22 ]