Mr. Reaban's Chicago-Style Lesson Notes

[_Don Herman]

This was posted on TPIN, and is reposted here with the permission of the author.
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Several weeks ago I posted about a great lesson that I had concerning Energetic Air. You can see this message at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tpin_list/message/5620.

Well, over the past two weeks I discovered that carrying this energetic air into all aspects of my playing (using a slow, rubato, slurred approach) allowed me to be certain that the energy that I had created at the beginning of a particular line of music carried through the entire phrase. This slow approach allows me to really hear if I am backing off with the air, and if I am, I play it again to correct the lack of energetic support. I discovered that previous challenging phrases where no longer difficult, but just sprang out of the horn (i.e. large intervals, range concerns, etc. where no longer difficult).

What I did find to be concerning, however, was that if I tried to articulate these same challenging phrases (especially at the top of my range), I found that I lost that wonderful connected sound that I was capable of developing while slurring the same line.

Many years ago I was working with another instructor who was travelling to Chicago to have lessons with Arnold Jacobs and Vincent Cichowicz. It was at this point that I was first introduced to air patterns (i.e. blowing energetic "wind" in the same pattern (rhythm) as the music away from the horn), as well as the breathing bag and the spirometer. I adopted the breathing bag into my regular routine, but air patterns and the spirometer were still quite esoteric for me, and I quickly dropped them from regular practice.

Now, almost 10 years later, I finally understand how important these ideas are. The spirometer is a breathing device that allows you to visualize the volume of air that you are inhaling and is typically used a breathing therapy for patients recovering from operations in the hospital. Since Arnold Jacobs spent quite a bit of time using these devices after his surgeries, he found the usefulness of them for all brass players.

At my lesson yesterday, I played an example of my problem for my instructor. He was very impressed with the ability that I had to carry the energetic air through the line by slurring. When I articulated the same line, he told me to wait a minute and went into his practice room. He came back with a spirometer and a length of plastic tubing. He had me invert the spirometer and put my mouthpiece into the tubing. With the spirometer upside down, it was possible for me to see the volume of air that I was "exhaling" (a little ball moves up and down in the tube) while I was slurring the phrase and then articulating the phrase on my mouthpiece.

There is a dial to vary the resistance on the spirometer, and as we continued to move the dial I was amazed to "see" what was happening. With the dial at the lowest setting (highest resistance), the ball would easily stay at the top of the tube when I slurred or articulated the phrase. As we continued to move the dial up (with less and less resistance), it was more difficult to keep the ball at the top of the tube (especially when articulating). I was visually able to see the dramatic drop of the ball when I would articulate (a loss of energetic air)! Finally, just buzzing with
no articulation (at the least amount of resistance) I was not able to raise the
ball in the tube.

After about two or three minutes of this he asked me to play the same phrase again on my horn, first slurred and then articulated. It was dramatic! What was literally unplayable at the beginning of the lesson (articulated) was now as free and open as the slurred approach.

If you are interested in spirometers (insipiron) (or breathing bags), please see Brian Frederiksen's web site (Aside from Don -- Brian wrote Song and Wind):

http://www.windsongpress.com/mcart/index.cgi?code=3&cat=7

This is definitely a Chicago school approach to resolving some of these problems (Jacobs, Cichowicz, Hagstrom). I am very pleased to have this additional "visual" technique to allow me to see what is happening with my air. Finding your energetic air is the first step. Keeping that energetic air all the time is the challenge. These two techniques (i.e. slow, rubato slurred approach), and the use of the insipiron will be regular additions to my practice day.

As a side note, he commented that the increased vibrancy in my sound was very apparent. With a much thinking as I have done about sound, this is a nice side benefit for me.

Thanks,
Derek Reaban
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Enjoy! - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley