Posted by Roger Lewis on January 27, 1999 at 11:09:35:
In Reply to: Achieving goo attacks posted by John Hreha on January 26, 1999 at 18:10:36:
I have found over the years, that attack problems are often associated with the thought process, rather than with physical or acoustical problems. Question 1: do you have the same problem with attacks whether you are reading music or if you are improvising? Question 2: are there notes in that particular register that you are afraid of?
Often these problems occur more with the printed page than improvised and most of us have some notes on the horn that we have a poor record of consistency and tend to pull back on them when we see them coming up in the parts.
I found that I would avert my eyes from the notes I was afraid of and would miss them at about an 80% ratio. Once I really started focusing on them, forcing myself to stay visually with them, my accuracy rate came up dramatically. Check this out.
For exercises on attack I usually recommend Kopprasch 3, 11 and 25 done slowly with plenty of air and a solid tHO attack. Make sure the air is behind the tongue before you release it. If you attack first - then start the air (using a coughing type attack from the throat) you will tend toward a lot of what I call "fuzzballs" in the start of the note.
Hope this helps. Good luck in your practice. If I can clarify any of this for you, drop me a line.
Roger Lewis