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Question on Lip Bends from a non-stamper



 
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_trumpetgod_02
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Joined: 05 Sep 2002
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Location: Tampa Bay area

PostPosted: Fri Oct 04, 2002 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hey,
I know that Stamp advocted lip bends. Fairly common. But did he just advocate bending pitches down, or did he also advocate bending pitches up? I have never become familiar with any of his writings or books or whatever he publishes. I would just like to know what he says about bending pitches upward.
Thanks,

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[ This Message was edited by: trumpetgod_02 on 2002-10-04 13:16 ]
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1B
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Joined: 07 Mar 2002
Posts: 611
Location: oregon

PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2002 9:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did not study with Stamp, but I did study with Boyde Hood, Mario Guarneri and Roy Poper (all Stamp students). The bend is always bent downward. What I have found it to be most useful for is to increase the air speed before approaching a difficult interval. I remember when I was early in my studies with Mario, I had a difficult time slurring a G to E without getting the C in the middle. The lip bend is what helped me realize the air needed to make the slur correctly. In order to have the bend not sound like the actual note, you must increase the air speed against the resistance in order to maintain the same sound. When returning to the actual note, you will notice it is centered, focussed, and the air is flying. If you are just starting with bending, I would suggest you work from third space C to second line G, as it gets harder the higher and lower you go. Try playing a half note C, slurred to half not B, slurred back up to half note C, then half note bend B, then return to C. Try this on each note down to G. This will give you an opportunity to evaluate your bend for sound and feel. After success with this, you may want to try some lipslurs ( G, f#, G, bend f#,C) to see if bending is helping your air. Rob Roy McGregor incorporates bends into his orchestral preparation studies. You may want to check these out, as they are excellent examples of how you can incorporate bending into your daily practice of etudes or music.
Good Luck,
1B
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trumpetherald
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Joined: 25 Oct 2001
Posts: 1493
Location: USA

PostPosted: Sat Oct 12, 2002 12:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

On 2002-10-04 13:15, trumpetgod_02 wrote:
Hey,
I know that Stamp advocted lip bends. Fairly common. But did he just advocate bending pitches down, or did he also advocate bending pitches up? I have never become familiar with any of his writings or books or whatever he publishes. I would just like to know what he says about bending pitches upward.
Thanks,


No, upwarding bending is not a part of his teaching, at least to the best of my knowledge. The problem with bending upward is that it encourages tension or pinching - while bending down tends to relieve tension. The idea with the Stamp bends is to develop your effficiency and help you learn to center the sound, while maintaining relaxed mechanics. The bends are just a little check to be sure you're not 'steering' when ascending or descending, particularly when ascending that you're not tightening excessively. It's a very organic thing, you shouldn't think about the tension in your embouchure, but if you're playing an ascending phrase and can't execute a lip bend somewhere in the middle of the passage or at the end, you know that you're over-tightening. It's a simple little test.

Also, Tom Stevens had me do only 1/4 step bends, and avoid a full half-step, and apparently this was part of Stamp's ideas too. The larger lip bends may have their place for some situations, but in the Stamp drills and when 'testing' like I describe above, 1/4 will do the trick without causing your embouchure to spread in some circumstances.

Lastly, what I'm describing is what happens physically with your embouchure, but don't think of it that way when playing! Just listen to the sound, and drop in a bend here and there as a check for center and efficiency. If the bend won't go, rest and try again.

My 2¢ and then some, I suppose...
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