Posted by Jay Bertolet on December 17, 2000 at 20:08:58:
In Reply to: Re: Re: More orchestral questions... posted by John Cradler on December 15, 2000 at 15:03:46:
Sorry it took so long for me to respond John, I was away for the weekend...
Obviously, what I do doesn't work for everybody. It is just my approach and opinion. That said, I have reached some conclusions about playing that have served me over the years. One is the concept of keeping everything about the process of playing as consistent as possible. The premise being that any changes you introduce to the production process will be reflected in the product. So by definition, changes to the oral cavity will change the sound. Is this a good thing? In my opinion, no. When you change your sound it is no longer consistent. So from a purely philosophical standpoint, I'm striving to keep my sound and production as consistent as possible in the hopes of making the process as efficient, simple, and repeatable as possible.
So why would players initially learn to drop the jaw playing in the low range anyway? My examination of this question led me to the conclusion that players learn to drop the jaw in the low range because it produces results quickly. Much of what we learn is what produces results for us quickly. In my opinion, this is how bad habits develop. And every player I ever knew struggled early on with the low range, myself included. And I, like many others, learned early on that dropping the jaw would help me to produce a good low range sound with little or no effort. The problem is that sound isn't of a consistent quality compared to the sound of the rest of the ranges. Further, it is extremely difficult to slur out of this embouchure into the ranges above. This was the first clue for me that maybe dropping the jaw wasn't such a good idea.
I began working on keeping the jaw steady while playing in the low range. At first, the sound in the low range suffered. But I eventually was able to produce just as pleasing a low range sound with the jaw in normal position as I was with it lowered. However, with the jaw in normal position I had much better flexibility both in the low range and going in/coming out of it. I also was able to play just a little louder and project more because the sound was suddenly much more centered. Ironically, I was also able to do all this using much less air. This approach is much more efficient as well. And all the intonation difficulties I was having in the low range virtually disappeared.
Practicing this technique was a simple procedure for me. I just started slurring scales into the low range, progressively getting lower. For me, the shift point was between low Gb and F. So I started with a G major scale, started on middle G and slurred down, then back up again. I payed special attention to the embouchure position and was careful not to move it or the jaw. This wasn't particularly difficult on the G scale because my shift point was below that. It provided me a good example of how the process should work without shifting. Then I went down a half step and did the Gb major scale, same procedure. I would continue to work downwards by half steps. Once I was proficient there, I went to low range specific studies like the Snedecor Low Etudes. Anything that had me slurring into and out of that range so I could see what happened with the jaw and embouchure.
I don't claim to be any sort of pedagogy expert but this procedure has really worked well for me. When I started I couldn't play a pedal C at all without shifting. Now I can play well below that without shifting. It just took me some time and a commitment to maintaining a consistent embouchure.
My opinion for what it's worth...