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"Don't quit"



 
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Lionel
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Joined: 25 Jul 2016
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:58 am    Post subject: "Don't quit" Reply with quote

It's another typically long post of mine. Sorry about that. Yet since I've been away for a while and working through some stuff I thought maybe at least a few folks would find the following interesting. I'm certainly in a better place today than where I was last summer.

I'd largely given up on a certain embouchure change about ten years ago. The problem was that I couldn't articulate very well in much of my register. It being a dry lip formation, once I started tonguing my chops would inevitably begin to moisten and most of my register then went to hell. As the dry lip setting was providing much of my support in the upper register. During this time I might add I was using mouthpieces with very large inner rim dimensions. These large rims helped me open up what had once been kind of a small sound.

Despite these obvious limitations this chop setting had some seriously high notes. I'm talking easy double C's. That and the capacity to regularly hit triple Cs though for some reason nothing above the triple C. Not that this matters of course.

So once I started working on another promising embouchure that also blew pretty good high notes I let my previous experiment stay "on the back burner" so to speak. Taking it out less and less as my next experimental embouchure developed. Until eventually and for all practical purposes it almost felt like I'd forgotten about it. Like it never happened.

Then last summer I went through the most confusing period in my career/avocation on the trumpet I'd ever lived through. This second experimental chop setting that had been improving like gangbusters had hit a wall. Worse yet it wasn't just not improving but each day that I played on it my performance got worse. To the point when in last September I literally struggled to play the tuning note. It was at this time when I remembered my former experiment. The dry lip setting. Heck despite certain of the described deficiencies at least it was always improving in some way. I pulled out that very large mouthpiece that I'd used in the previous decade.

I decided to give my former system a fresh new start. After all nothing else was working. The first thing I decided to do was shrink the size of that inner mouthpiece dimension. I have a metal lathe and some tools. So within a couple hours I had a mouthpiece that worked. I wasn't expecting to blow triple Cs on the thing right off the bat. In fact I barely eeked out a high F. Yet it was still there. Today it being about a month later it's starting to articulate reasonably well. And most my former range has returned while steadily increasing.

Also I've gained in learning a better STRATEGY for my practice sessions. Taking care not to overtrain! That and at least during my development I'm not playing excessively down in the lower register. Granted this is considered anathema to conventional practices. But remember "Conventional practices usually leads to conventional results". Meaning trumpet players stuck with serious range limitations.

Roy Stevens was adamant that those who used his embouchure technique should avoid playing lots of low notes the first year. Essentially by playing lots of low tones the mouth corners become too relaxed. The jaw is likely to drop too and with a now flabby set of lips the student soon joins the ranks of those with serious range cut-off points. Like 98% of us have.

By applying this concept on my experimental embouchure number I AND by avoiding excessive practice. Or that type of meaningless continued playing long after I ought to have called it a day I now have a very positive experience during each practice. On some days I'm only playing 15 minutes but developing far more than on those days when I'd once buzzed for hours and yet only developed abused chops.

"Don't practice hard, practice SMART".

To adapt an old adage used to advise laboring in jobs. Okay so things are feeling much better and I've gotten a grip on how previously I was defeating myself. So with this in mind I decided to fool around with my second experimental embouchure. The one which had not only reached a serious stymie but had been getting worse and worse. I took it out two days in a row now. However like Roy Stevens said I didn't play much in the lower register. Although I wasn't able to repeat it more than three times, each time that I attempted to blow arpeggios I got up to some solid F's over Double C. Thus the reason behind my retrogression was due to,

1. Excessive practice resulting in overtrained chops. And,
2. Excessive development of the lower register. Resulting in the flabby, low note chop condition Roy Stevens had warned his readers about.

I intend to keep developing both systems. Quitting is not an option. My attitude is much more positive today than it was a month ago. Here's what I'm believing today,

The road to playing high notes may require some "outside the box" thinking. Like the avoidance of excessive lower register practice yet at the same time not wearing one's lips out and getting overtrained chops at the same time. Going against certain "sacred cow" concepts.

Some very gifted players have developed fantastic upper registers even in spite of starting out on lots of lower tones. Like most of us do at the beginning. However these cats probably would have developed fantastic chops regardless of what method they used. Reinhardt called them "physical accidents". It is my belief that these gifted players have very supple and hence elastic qualities on the part of their upper lip where it naturally interfaces with the mouthpiece and the teeth. Don't forget the teeth! Their chops are built in such a way as they act in a way analogous to a perfectly engineered sax or clarinet mouthpiece.

Meanwhile the rest of us have these dysfunctional embouchures. Or as Dr Bill Moriarty of the Stevens system has eloquently noted* that most of us have embouchures that are analogous to improperly set ligatures and reeds on clarinet mouthpieces. This is a loose quote. The problem of course for me (and I suspect maybe a million more like myself) is deciding where our chops are positioned incorrectly. In my own case the Stevens system didn't work very well initially. Over the years I've discovered that the reason why I couldn't adapt well to the Stevens approach is because the system itself doesn't take into account ALL of the factors of good embouchure. It just assumes that everyone's chops holds similar properties as did Roy Stevens chops. If Roy was still alive today I'd like to have discussed some of my ideas with him. I'd like to explain to him that his system while brilliant needed to incorporate other factors.

*Bill explains some truly eye opening matters on the "Roy Stevens tribute page".
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Seymor B Fudd
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Joined: 17 Oct 2015
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 4:35 am    Post subject: Re: "Don't quit" Reply with quote

................................................................................................
"Don't practice hard, practice SMART".

Yes and be praised Lionel for your "True Grit". Never give up, never trow in the towel! Creativity comes out of neccessity! Survival of the most creative ones! Always interesting to read about your ways and means!
I´m in a wholly different league - double C:s and playing at the professional level nope. But I do admire your energy and zest and in my own league I struggle too to get better all the time.
This concept, grit, as I understand it (not speaking my mother tongue) should be worth having posts of its own. How come, and what is it that motivates us to spend so much time, so much energy, at playing trumpet (or any instrument)?
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Richard III
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Joined: 22 May 2007
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote: Avoid playing low for a year. Huh?

I would run, not walk to someone like Pops McLaughlin and say, "Help!"
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Lionel
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Joined: 25 Jul 2016
Posts: 783

PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 6:49 pm    Post subject: Re: "Don't quit" Reply with quote

Seymor B Fudd wrote:
................................................................................................
"Don't practice hard, practice SMART".

Yes and be praised Lionel for your "True Grit". Never give up, never trow in the towel! Creativity comes out of neccessity! Survival of the most creative ones! Always interesting to read about your ways and means!
I´m in a wholly different league - double C:s and playing at the professional level nope. But I do admire your energy and zest and in my own league I struggle too to get better all the time.
This concept, grit, as I understand it (not speaking my mother tongue) should be worth having posts of its own. How come, and what is it that motivates us to spend so much time, so much energy, at playing trumpet (or any instrument)?


Seymor,

Thank you for ypur kind thoughts and well constructed post.

What still motivates me? The urge to finish what I began years ago. Even the partial success of my secondary systems are successes in their own right. At least I know how it feels to "sit" on an F above DHC. Yet even if I never get to use it at a major concert hall it was worth it to me to research and develop these tones.

I never cared much about making lots of money. Because trumpet playing always filled the void that perhaps others are trying to fill by becoming rich. My ex wife always wondered why I didn't work harder. Trying to make more money. I told her that I enjoy playing trumpet even more than the fun she gets on a trip to Europe.

And I never finished college. As school couldn't teach me to play good, musical high notes. So at least from my perspective what good was it? Fine for others perhaps but my main area of interest has always been the trumpet. So after I returned from playing music on the road some 42 years ago I only took fairly menial jobs. At least at first. Then I found a way of starting my own business that didn't require a complete devotion to the enterprise. In turn this allowed me more time to work things out on the trumpet.

And as I approach age 65 this coming spring I see no reason to change. Plus a retiree NEEDS a serious passion. I heard tell that one of the reasons why Maynard kept his band together even though some of his performance had been eroded by time was because he feared what had happened to his brother. Apparently his brother ("Percy" I think?) retired and like so many who do passed away soon after hanging up his shingle. This is a huge problem with we seniors. When we're not working it feels like we're not needed. So we get depressed and wither swiftly away.

So I've redoubled my efforts on trumpet and even taken up the hobby of farming. Trying to get my license to be a grower (wink!) Did you know that there's been a revolution in LED grow lamps? Just in the past five years.

These things pique my interest and sustain my good mood. I'm happy.
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Carl Spackler (aka Bill Murray, 1980).
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Jaw04
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Joined: 31 Dec 2015
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Location: California

PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 8:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you I enjoyed your post. It's nice to hear others personal journies, especially when they aren't based in dogma but instead curiosity and discovery.
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epoustoufle
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Joined: 07 Nov 2015
Posts: 232
Location: France

PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
...and what is it that motivates us to spend so much time, so much energy, at playing trumpet

It's a certain theory of mine that there are fundamentally only artists and critics. All of us are interested in the meaning of things but only some of us are brave enough to produce things. This applies generally in the world outside trumpet in case any of you ever get there .... There are always those in managerial roles (critics) telling you how to do things. And there are those who know how to do things and also have the ability to do things (artists). This distinction applies at every moment throughout your whole lifetime.
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kehaulani
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Joined: 23 Mar 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 11:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"It's another typically long post of mine." But at least you used relatively small paragraphs. Some of us need it and makes it infinitely easier to read your posts. Thank you.
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