Hello William, I'd suggest exercise #1 from the "Standley Routine" which is available from Southern Music Company for about $10.00.
Set your metronome at 60-72 to the quarter note, and play the exercise as written, playing exclusively on the F side. It may not look particularly challenging, but practise it using the approach that each note is a "first attack" and make sure to take your mouthpiece off your lip in between each attack, then re-set for each note. I have found this practise routine to be helpful for accuracy, as well as a pre-rehearsal warm up. Best wishes, martin bender On 2011-08-24, at 4:05 PM, [email protected] wrote: > > > > I've been giving some thought to the answers I've gotten so far. It seems to > me that there are two distinct approaches: > > 1. Make accuracy a game so that you get to the point to where you can play > something N times in a row > 2. Work on your fundamentals so that your intonation, inner ear, lips can > lock a note before you play it > > It seems to me that with method 1 (which has NEVER worked for me) would imply > that along the way you figure out what you're doing wrong, practice to > correct slurs, etc., then are able to reproduce the accuracy on the spot. It > seems to be more of a learning by 'rote' method, which more often than not > leads to unpredictable results. I'm sure it would help endurance though, but > it wouldn't help boredom. > > With method 2, this seems to be the most efficient way to correct accuracy in > the future. Theoretically if your inner ear is right, you can buzz it in > tune, you can play it. Why do I say this? Because it's like trying to ride a > bike in a very thin lane versus a wider one. If you can stay within that thin > lane (meaning you have enough control over your bike) without a problem, then > staying within a lane that is 2 feet wider would be easier. So, being able to > buzz the notes and hear them, etc. seems to be the best way to get accuracy. > > Endurance obviously helps, but it seems like it should be the means by which > we improve accuracy, and not a result of it. Endurance will obviously be a > problem, but to take a parallel from running (which I've gotten into of > late), if I am able to run 7 miles each day without a problem, then a quick 3 > mile jog is much easier. In other words, if you over develop your muscle > endurance, it will certainly help. > > So to improve endurance and buzzing, it boils down to the individual muscles > behind the embouchure and how well we can control them, as well as how well > we can control the air. Which, again, boils down to fundamentals. Steven Mead > once said that brass playing is easy once we get the fundamentals right - and > he may have a very good point. > > This is just rambling as of now, but I wonder if there have been any papers > written on brass playing regarding accuracy and how to improve it, and > studies on what methods work and what methods don't. > > Method 1 seems like a sink or swim exam, and as someone who never learned to > swim that way can tell you that method may not work for everyone. > > -William > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Francis Pressland <[email protected]> > To: The Horn List <[email protected]> > Sent: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 3:53 pm > Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Etudes to improve accuracy > > > > > On 24 Aug 2011, at 10:57, Ralph Hall wrote: > >> In extreme circumstances I put my > >> wallet on the stand and say, "If you play this perfectly - and I mean > >> perfectly - you can have the complete contents of my wallet!" Wow, see > >> the beads of sweat! - on their brow not mine! I've never lost yet > > > > > > Well what a surprise Ralph, when did you ever have any money in your wallet > > anyway ;-) > > > > > > > > > > Francis > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > post: [email protected] > > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/valkhorn%40aol.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/axe102%40rogers.com "All great things are decided not by machines or gadgets, but by willpower; whoever has it will finally prevail." Winston Churchill _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
