Re: Re: Ready to throw my horn


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Posted by Shaun Abraham on July 26, 2001 at 00:53:11:

In Reply to: Re: Ready to throw my horn posted by Devin on July 25, 2001 at 22:33:46:

I'm a trumpet player and one thing that definantly has helped my upper range/endurance is to work on it on the mouthpiece. The James Stamp Method for trumpet can be applied to any brass instrument and is an excellent book. When buzzing the mouthpiece, only hold the mouthpiece with your thumb and pointer finger of your weaker hand, for most people their left, and sit at the piano and buzz through some of these excercises from the Stamp book. All they are really are just arpegio excersices or basic scale patterns. Its important only to use two fingers when holding the mouthpiece about a inch or so from the end of the mouthpice. The ultimate goal (after a lot of careful/consistant practice) is to be able to buzz from low to high with relative ease. Using only two fingers to hold the mouthpiece will force you not to rely on pressure to help with the upper register. Of course there is always pressure as you get higher (as well as the arching of the tounge), but if you can minimize it and make your air and strength of embochure work more for you, things will become easier. Doing this will also strengthen the muscles immediately below the lower lip. They will learn how to flex in and out, being able to control the size of your aperture. If you can make your aperture smaller while playing with a good airflow you will hopefully find the upperregister easier without excessive pressure. I have found that being able to buzz as mentioned before (from low to high) teaches a player to become more efficiant. It is important not to buzz at a loud dynamic; the first few "golden notes" of the day should be easy and help you prepare for whatever amount of playing a day may require. Being a trumpet player, I'm not so sure how applicable this is to tuba playing, but I'm pretty sure the basic ideas are universal for any brass player. Effective mouthpiece buzzing may also help mend any ebochure problems you may have. I know low brass players make use of a shift in their chops more often than trumpet players, but if you are trying to minimize the shift the buzzing can also help that. Just ten minutes a day at this should (i hope) help things out. An excellent text on the subject of brass playing is "The Art of Brass Playing" by Phillip Farkas. There are several schools of brass playing that are not in favor of mouthpiece buzzing as well as a big emphasis on the embochure but as brass players it is also to remember we should also look towards making the more physical athletic side of playing and make ourselves play with greater ease, after that making music and singing through the horn becomes easier.

Sorry this is so long of a post, but oh well, I hope this helps.


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