An old high school buddy ...

[barryj1]

In high school I was good friends with a fellow trumpeter, Steve, who could play
effortlessly up to double C and beyond without giving the matter a second thought. The band director kept warning Steve that he would have a stroke or split his adolescent lip,
while the rest of us imagined that the cocky sophomore simply had a freak embouchure.
Through the next three years, Steve just laughed and blasted out a steady barrage of ear-splitting high notes.

The other day I played a jazz lick which ascended to a high F-sharp - certainly by today’s (and my 1961 high school buddy’s) standards - no big deal. What is most remarkable is how my embouchure has adapted over the past year and the unique ‘feel’ of playing with a high-compression, rolled in setting. Now, for the first time in my life I understand how Steve of the cast iron lips did the impossible and how the upper register ties in with the rest of the trumpet range.

Using the Balanced Embouchure has an almost comical, Zen-like quality. You
practice the exercises (i.e. putting aside any hidden agendas, timetables or shopping list of
musical demands), and at some point down the road your brass playing takes a quantum
leap forward. It’s all about fundamentals - especially for older players and weekend
warriors hampered by a Pandora’s box of chop-related bad habits. I’m sure that, if Steve, who at sixty is still going strong, could hear me blast out a double A (i.e. I’m still a minor third away from the dubba C), he’d chuckle and warn me about life-threatening ailments and split lips.

Barry


[ This Message was edited by: barryj1 on 2004-03-01 11:42 ]

[ This Message was edited by: barryj1 on 2004-03-01 11:43 ]

[ This Message was edited by: barryj1 on 2004-03-01 11:45 ]

[_dcstep]

So true...
_________________
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Rocky Mountain Trumpet Fest

[barryj1]

One more thought, which was touched upon in an earlier post. In my opinion, the most remarkable benefit derived from using the BE approach is in the realm of tone production. Since swiching over to BE, I can play down the dead center of each note from low F# to the extreme upper register with a flawlessly beautiful tone. I couldn't get the notes to properly slot with that degree of tonal perfection using an open embouchure.

In the past I always imagined, wrongly so, that I needed a new, super-deluxe mouthpiece or pricey, hi-tech horn to compensate for certain inherent physical limitations. When your chops finally fall into place with the BE approach, the sound coming out the far end of the horn puts all these neurotic concerns to rest.

Along with the more advanced BE stuff, I find myself frequently going back to the most basic exercises in Jeff's book to fine tune and tweak my chops into alignment. When I focus on these simple drills, the tone comes alive and every other aspect of the playing is affected for the better.

Barry