Bud, Jake, and breathing

[etownfwd]

I know that enough of you studied with these guys to know what some PROPER breathing exercises are. So, can ya spill for the rest of us?
-efwd

[Solotpt]

You want to study the slow breath and understand how your own unique body works. First you need to align your body with correct posture. Don't sit with open hips and don't slouch. The lumbar curve in your back is important and should be maintained at all times. Now don't get tensed up, just conform to the natural form of your back.

Next, we suck wind with the lips, not the throat. Say the word, "Ho, ho, ho..." a few times. Now take in a large breath and collapse your body when the wind is on the way out. What I mean by large breath is "comfortably large". Don't get too tanked up. The capacity of your lungs will determine to an extent how long you can phrase. The other point to this is equally important; the collapse of the body on the exhalation. When you have that "reserve tank" of wind, just deflate everything like a balloon letting all the air out. This collapse is necessary for the body make sure a nice steady flow of wind is being produced and that you are not holding anything back. Bill says that your breaths must take a ride in the "free zone" in and out. Explore with this concept.

Now, take your mouthpiece. Put it up to your mouth like if you were going to perform. Take in a breath "HO", put your lips around the mouthpiece and let the air flow through along with collapsing the body. You will notice that it take s a good 3-5 seconds for the wind to leave. This helps prove that the little hole in the mouthpiece can take much more wind than you think. Now, do the exercise over again, except this time I want you to BLOW through the mouthpiece on the exhalation. You can collapse if you want to reinforce the idea of "letting go."

Now, put the mouthpiece in the horn. Do the same exercise I described earlier. The only difference is that the mouthpiece is in the leadpipe. When you do this exercise you will notice that the wind will only take a little bit longer to exhasust all your capacity.

Now, play some arpeggios and have the signal real big and vibrant like Herseth in mind, and your sound will get larger and more rattling.

It is important to remember that we must visualize the lungs as having 3 different "places" where the wind exists. We have a neutral point. If you were to sit in your chair and not breath in or out, all with your mouth open, you would feel what I am talking about. Now we must explore the "negative". If you push all your wind out, the body's natural reaction is to suck wind in. We don't want to be in this area when we are performing. Stay out of the negative. Next , you need to become aware of the "reserve tank", above the neutral point. Feel what a comfortably large breath feels like and then go down to the neutral. When you hit your peak of the reserve tank, the body's reaction is to release the wind.

Explore your body and find the norms and extremes for your own unique self. When you get more familiar with yourself, then you can start concentrating on learning your own unique phrasing capability and how to suck wind faster for faster, demanding passages.

Hope this all helps.

All the best,

Solotpt

[trumpetfox1234]

Bud, Scarlett, and Arnold Jacobs' son love my new book that talks about how they play. Bud and Scarlett reviewed the book favorably and Dallas Jacobs, Arnold's son, gave it his blessing. Bud told me on my porch that "he learned a few things from it.", and Will Scarlett said that "your book continues Arnold Jacobs' work."

If you want to check it out, the website is: http://www.trumpetworkspress.com

The book's title is:

Stage Fright in Music Performance and Its Relationship to the Unconscious, 2nd ed.

I wrote it to pay tribute to these great men who are my teachers and to help people with stage fright problems and to also reassure those who don't have any!
_________________
Michael I. Goode
Author
Stage Fright in Music Performance and Its Relationship to the Unconscious, 2nd ed.
Assistant Principal/Third Trumpet
Ravinia Festival Orchestra
www.trumpetworkspress.com