long tones

[_trumpetgod_02]

Hey,

This is #2 in the follow up of lessons with a Chichowitz student. So if you have missed the first two, (the original and the first follow up) you should probably go back and check out those first.

Long tones. Are good in that they provide a continual buzzing of the lips, getting them stimulated. But conventional long tones have one distinct disadvantage. They only stimulate one area of the lips. And this can lead to two problems.
1) Stiffnes of the lips. If you were to do one day of long tones and then come back the next day and try to play, you would notice indefinitely that your lips are probably REALLY STIFF. However no one probably does this, but the effect is still the same, but not to the same extreme.
2) They also can become an efficiency problem as well. We could probably do long tones up and down the entire range of the instrument. But how long would that take? FOREVER, or pretty close to it. We can take all day and play the whole range of our instrument, or we can train ourlseves to be able to do it in at least 15 min. I would rather go for the 15 min approach.

This was his take on long tones. At least in the warm up. I don't know if he doesn't advise them for anything else, but he definitly doen't do them during his warm-up
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[DarkerTrumpet]

Yes, I also have studied with a former student of his for the past three summers. I was told he used the flow studies book that he compiled, because you are supposed to play the slurs, melodies, etc, all like they are one big long tone mentally, and just blow throught them with the same ease of staying on one note.

[Atomlinson]

This ties in with something Cichowicz says in an interview in Brass Bulletin 104 IV 1998 page 48 [Vincent Cichowicz - Grand master of trumpet teaching by Wolfgang Guggenberger]:

"The basic principle is that the air column always maintains the same direction, independent of the pitch of the note ("Breath has no register")."

And also in an article in the Instrumentalist Magazine Jan 1996 page 27 [Teaching the Concepts of Trumpet Playing by Vincent Cichowicz]:

"When faced with a difficult passage, players often change the natural process of breathing and blowing, which creates problems with tone, range, and articulation. The basic rule is simple: always blow the same way. Music notation is vertical as notes are high or low, but the airstream should be fundamentally the same regardless of pitch. A violinist draws the bow back and forth essentially the same way regardless of whether playing high on the E string or on the G string. On a trumpet, sound is produced as air moves across the lips and moves through a little hole in the mouthpiece in a horizontal fashion. The process of moving air through the trumpet should be the same regardless of the pitch played."

I have to admit that I don't find this very easy to do as Mr Cichowicz describes it.

Also, this principle seems to be unique to Mr Cichowicz's trumpet pedagogy.

Andrew Tomlinson

[ This Message was edited by: Atomlinson on 2002-12-02 17:24 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Atomlinson on 2002-12-02 17:49 ]

[PH]

Actually, this concept is very similar to Mr. Adam's idea that "we blow flat out through the sound". When Adam says this he is referring to several things, including a freedom and flow of energy that we get from playing "flat out". However, he is also creating the image that the air needs to move forward straight through the sound.

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2002-12-02 19:03 ]

[_Don Herman]

Ahhh... Moving air -- wind!

Of course, many others suggest "moving" long tones to aide sound and flexibility. Plus, they ain't so durn boring!

Thanks for sharing, y'all! - Don
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Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[_trumpetgod_02]

PH,

I you could, please expound a little bit about this point. You are just touching it, and if you could, I would apprececiate a little more info on this.

Thanks
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[PH]

I think I'll start a thread today over in the Adam Forum about playing "flat out through the sound". I don't want to dilute the great start you have on this thread here with outside (although relevant) ideas.

Keep coming guys. This is good stuff.

Have any of you ever talked to VC or his students about the use of "wind patterns" in his teaching? He mentions it in a couple of interviews I have seen.

[capriman]

I believe Bud Herseth liked to play largo etudes with long sustained phrases.

[ This Message was edited by: capriman on 2002-12-23 19:27 ]