Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 6:49 am Post subject: Tension, Back of Throat
After all the reading, I am now convinced that playing without tension is better than playing with tension. I like to warm up on Clark's second study by slurring, single tonguing, K tonguing and double tonguing. After all of this the back of my throat always feels tight.
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 7:31 am Post subject: Re: Tension, Back of Throat
ComeBackTumpet wrote:
After all the reading, I am now convinced that playing without tension is better than playing with tension. I like to warm up on Clark's second study by slurring, single tonguing, K tonguing and double tonguing. After all of this the back of my throat always feels tight.
Any thoughts?
Tension in the throat usually comes as a result of a lack of balance elsewhere in the system. It is best, in my opinion, not to focus too much on the throat as this generally acts to worsen the problem and draws your focus from the areas that can rectify the problem.
You want to try and aim to play with a 'sighing' sensation, it is very difficult to tighten the throat whilst maintaining the 'sigh'. Then focus on the other elements; the control of your aperture, compression of air and tongue arch or whichever method you use to increase air pressure difference.
Experiment starting notes without the tongue (huh) or the pooh attack (puh) so you know that you are providing the correct amount of air pressure for each pitch and not relying on the tongue (different to tongue arch) to build pressure for each pitch (which would be noticeable with a heavy attack and lack of control of smooth soft entries, as well as difficulty slurring larger intervals).
I am sure others will have differing opinions, use your own intuition and experience to find what advice is useful to you and your unique playing physiology.
Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 8911 Location: Orange County, CA
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:04 am Post subject:
I spent a lot of time K tonguing until my multiple tonguing became second nature. But during that development time, K-tonguing definitely produced tension. If the K tonguing is the culprit I wouldn't worry too much about it since, at least for me, multiple tonguing doesn't produce the same strain. _________________ "I'm an engineer, which means I think I know a whole bunch of stuff I really don't."
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Joined: 13 Nov 2001 Posts: 9830 Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:09 am Post subject:
I suggest you lay off the K and Double Tonguing for now. And don't play into the range where the tension issue starts occurring or you'll just be reinforcing it.
Practicing the Part One Pedal Note Arpeggio exercises (in particular Lesson Two Part One) in Claude Gordon's book Systematic Approach to Daily Practice for Trumpet in the way the instructions spell out (holding each last pedal note of each arpeggio as long as you have air and longer with an attempted crescendo as you run out of air to really work the blowing muscles) can also help, if you pay attention to how nice and relaxed you are while playing that pedal note even as you are blowing hard as you are when you are running out of air. Due to the tremendous air flow required when playing pedal notes, one cannot play a pedal note with tension in the back of the throat (actually the tension is caused by the back of the tongue arching up and and back toward the soft palate which itself tenses downward toward the back of the tongue). So by playing these pedal exercises and holding the last note until out of air and then trying to crescendo (blow harder) one can gradually replace the bad habit of improperly tensing up the back of the tongue and soft palate with the good habit of being able to blow hard (such as we must do for higher notes) all the while maintaining relaxation in the area of the back of the tongue and soft palate.
Best wishes,
John Mohan
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Joined: 07 Feb 2016 Posts: 894 Location: Nissa, France
Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:26 pm Post subject:
hello
tongue position, motion, and use, but also head position controling the opening of the throat can cause tension (head too much backward, upward, downward, forward)
Joined: 17 Jul 2016 Posts: 180 Location: Denver, CO
Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2018 5:28 am Post subject:
I'm a few years into my comeback and found my throat would get tired, and it sometimes would affect my voice (more due to my raspy voice and how my vocal cords produce sound). More conscious play, focusing on relaxing helps, however for me there was one post on the Neck Puff Eradication Exercises that specifically helped.
Getting to tensionless playing is a journey and these exercises did help me loosen my throat and reduced the effect on my voice.
Any comments about what you folks think of Mr. Di Martino's, the "four parts of the tongue" and double tonguing with the T & K forward near the tip of the tongue ? _________________ Bill Knevitt, who taught me the seven basic physical elements and the ten principles of physical trumpet playing and how to develop them.
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