Flexibilities

[EricV]

I have been back playing again for 8 years after a lay off of some 30 years and i am happy with my progress in most areas, sound , endurance and technique are of a standard good enough to play in the solo cornet line of a good quality brass band here in melbourne.

The one area that continues to frustrate me is my lack of progress in one area of flexibilities which is harmonic slurs. I am practicing section 3A, B and C in Colins lip flexibilities and most times all goes well until i hit the last couple of lines in each one going to b and high C above the staff. I seem to tighten up, not slot correctly and its a struggle. Occasionally it all works beautifully and i wish i could get a snapshot of what was happening tongue level, air etc, because try as i might, i cant repeat it straight away.

Just wondering if others have had this issue, and what has worked for you. Maybe i need some other material, i dont know, i make sure i rest between excercises as well

Thanks
EricV
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Yamaha Xeno Cornet

[Seymor B Fudd]

[John Mohan]

Not having spent any time with you in person or on Skype I can only make a guess. It is probably a lack of proper tongue arch needed for these notes combined with not providing enough supportive air power to make the notes click up to the higher ones.

If you want to get together for ten or 15 minutes via Skype I'll work with you on this and give you a specific flexibility exercise that can help you get the knack of how to slur up to those notes (no charge).

Cheers,

John Mohan
Skype Lessons Available - Click on the e-mail button below if interested
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[O00Joe]

To add to the idea of making sure to use sufficient tongue arch, in my lessons with Judith Saxton she would advocate practicing exercises and music with just air and tongue arch. (I forget what she calls it.) It's the same motion as whistling, just without actually whistling though you should be able to actually hear the airstream change in speed and even pitch somewhat. It works well to reinforce the motion.
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[nonethewiser]

[John Mohan]

[nonethewiser]

Very nice write-up Mr. Mohan. I have to say I agree.

My final few cents are: I have seen people too keen on chasing the tangible (the physical) and lose sight of the goal. If they can find a healthy balance then it works wonderfully as you wrote.

Thanks for the welcome!

[Dave CCM/SSO]

Hello,

I apologize if my advice has already been given, but here are my thoughts:

First, being able to easily do lip flexibility studies in the upper register is a fairly advanced technique. Make sure that you are being patient.

Second, it's important to develop an understanding of tongue arch and the direction of your air stream as you move between the registers. I've witnessed many students have similar issues with one particular range or another during lip slurs. We all have a "natural range" where the air stream is released effortlessly through the throat of the mouthpiece. This natural range is where most people find it easiest to buzz their mouthpiece before being warmed up and where they are able to do lip slurs most effortlessly. Most people have one or two places where there is a natural "pivot" or "break" above or below this "natural range". Learning to negotiate these areas in such a way that the air is able to continue flowing straight through the mouthpiece is essential to fluidity between the different registers.

There are players that get very into learning the different "pivots" and "breaks", but I simply concentrate on allowing the air stream to remain straight forward as best I can. I allow the chops and horn angle to adjust accordingly, and I listen for the correct resonance and ring in my sound.

Very often, when a student is having this type of difficulty in a certain range, they are trying to play past the "pivot point" or "break" without allowing the chops and or horn to adjust. The result is an air stream that is suddenly facing up or down inside the mouthpiece and therefore adding significantly increased resistance. This makes it very difficult to allow the sound to ring.

You'll know you're doing it correctly when the sound is clear and resonant. Having that model in your head is of course very important, but I believe a little knowledge about what is happening with the face/air stream is also important.

Best of luck!

Dave
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Dave

Springfield Symphony Orchestra (OH)
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Seven Hills Brass
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[John Mohan]

[EricV]

Thanks everyone for your advice, i have plenty of ideas to put into practice i appreciate you all taking the time to offer your suggestions.

Regards
EricV
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CG Benge trumpet
Yamaha Xeno Cornet

[Tpt_Guy]

http://www.bbtrumpet.com/dynamic-embouchure/
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[Lionel]

Lip slurs and trills are good exercises. Yet be careful not to do them excessively. As they tend to affect those minute embouchure muscles associated with endurance, range and accuracy.

Nothing besides excessive arm pressure can fatigue an embouchure quicker than lip slurs. Unless you're a person well endowed with natural abiity? I wouldn't use lip slurs and/or lip trills in a warm up.

Over-trained chops are the arch nemesis of the developing trumpet player.
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[so what]

[CJceltics33]

Ditto to what Lionel said. I also have some of my own thoughts:

I used to work out of the Colin book and found it EXTREMELY frustrating. I had the same problem you described. Some days I got the hiigh notes...sometimes I really didn’t.

The Colin book is a great flexibility book, but I’ve found I prefer the Schlossberg. It has a variety of different exercises and I find it more fun than the Colin. I don’t think it matters what book you work out of, as long as you’re having fun and improving.

Also remember improvement is t linear, so you may not hit that high c every day once you get it the first time.

Just some food for thought. Good luck!

[Grits Burgh]

EricV,

First, John Mohan gives better advice than I do.

Just the same, let me give you an account of my recent experience. I am taking lessons from Jeff Purtle (who happens to live near me). He assigned the Colin exercises. I did them and was having some trouble (okay, a lot of trouble), but thought that my approach was good and that I just needed more practice. Jeff listened to me and then demonstrated WHAT THEY SHOULD SOND LIKE when you play them and said that I wasn't putting enough air in the horn.

Now, it may sound as if Jeff's advice wasn't all that much, but in truth, the coaching of the subtleties was magic: 'Play like this. Sound like this. Put more air in the horn. You still aren't playing loud enough." The guy is really earning his pay (although, he should probably get double pay for putting up with me).

So, back to the woodshed. In trying to play as Jeff suggested and in trying to sound like him, it forced me to experiment a little with my embouchure and I had an AH HA moment. It is a little difficult to describe, but using the embouchure set up demonstrated by Charlie Porter on his You Tube video, I discovered that if I "pinned" my upper lip to my upper front teeth (that is supported my lips with my teeth more and putt less lip below my teeth and into the mouthpiece), the slurs came out perfectly. Not only that, but my endurance improved a lot. The improvement was instantaneous and dramatic. Apparently, my embouchure was a mess. I now use the new embouchure for everything and all aspects of my playing have improved (though at first I lost a little in my upper range).

Moral of the story? Get a good instructor, do what he tells you and practice your butt off.

Warm regards,
Grits
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[EricV]

Grits

First time I have been on trumpetherald in a while as I am in Canada and returning home to Australia next week.

I just read this post, well done , take credit for figuring out part of what makes the piece of pipe work! When I get home, I will give it a try , in my opinion blowing harder is just part of the process and the trick I guess is to find what works for each of us

Cheers

EricV
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CG Benge trumpet
Yamaha Xeno Cornet

[Al Innella]

I agree with tongue levels and using syllables 1oo%. I found that some students who were having trouble,were playing too loud.Once they started practicing their flexibility exercises at a P or mp volume, their accuracy and speed started improving.
By playing too loud,they were using too much muscle trying hold their embouchure together, which made flexibility studies, slower and harder to control.

[fijimorgan]

Check out these lip bending videos. They've helped me with my flexibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzaUZHAni0Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOSbz-GGWiA

[Dark Knight]

[EricV]

Dark Knight,

Well done on Joining the club! and thanks for your comments, appreciate it.

Cheers

ericV
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CG Benge trumpet
Yamaha Xeno Cornet