Leslie,
I would agree with Herb that the problem could be the 'valve' that
seals the nasal passages. I had some personal experience of this sort,
and I found it was caused by excess breath pressure, which in turn was
caused by too small of an aperture at the mouthpiece. Any attempt at
generalizing such things could be wrong, but that was my experience.
As an exercise, maybe ask the student to exert pressure against that
'valve' without the instrument. If the sound doesn't occur then, I
would guess she's working too hard to play.
Cheers,
Mike
> Message: 20
> Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:35:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Herbert Foster <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [Hornlist] congestion
> To: The Horn List <[email protected]>
> Message-ID: <[email protected]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> A possibility for the "crunching sound" is for the valve to leak that seals
> the nasal passages from the mouth and throat. If that is the case, she may
> have to experiment with breathing only through through the mouth while
> playing or conversely to breathe more through the nose. Find some way to
> close that valve. It's been done.
>
> I appreciate the job you are doing.
>
> Herb Foster
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Leslie the big huge nerd <[email protected]>
> To: The Horn List <[email protected]>
> Sent: Mon, March 15, 2010 6:07:24 PM
> Subject: [Hornlist] congestion
>
> Greetings listserv,
> I am a band director in a very small school, so I have the "privilege" of
> teaching 5-12 band. I get students for eight years, and have really enjoyed
> it. Anyways, I've got a horn player who has been playing for 3 years, and
> has great potential. In the past 2 two months, while playing for more than 5
> minutes at a time, she complains about a sort of "crunching sound" in her
> nose, and can't play anymore. Last week, we went to solo contest, so we had
> her try a decongestant, and it seemed to work. I don't want to give her
> drugs every time she plays, and it's frustrating both of us to the extreme.
> Has anyone had these issues? What have you done? Any help is appreciated.
> Thanks!
>
> Leslie Twite
> 5-12 Instrumental Music Director
> Adair-Casey CSD
> Adair, IA
> _______________________________________________
> post: [email protected]
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>
> End of Horn Digest, Vol 87, Issue 13
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