On Jun 23, 2007, at 10:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
message: 10
date: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 07:50:48 +0200
from: "hans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
subject: RE: [Hornlist] "P" for high register, was Wendell's exercises
Valerie, the consonant "P" requires the lips being closed
definitely. So one has to break open this closure to
initiate a sound. It resultes, as you observed well, in a
"plop" at the beginning of the sound. It also requires some
more tension in the front part of the lips, the lips pressed
together far too much. This all results from the "ansetzen
technique".
If one uses a light "einsetzen technique" (setting the rim
of the mouthpiece at the edge of the red flesh), he or she
will pull open the lip opening in the middle and the sound
can develop without a "plop" or even "blop", if the high
notes are initiated by a tongue enforced "ha".
But I still do not understand, why people are so crazy about
high notes. The overall register from low C (below fourth
ledger line below staff) up to a2 & occasionally up to c3
has to be cultivated, not just getting the notes, but
getting them in nice quality.
Hans, I agree with you, almost completely. The reasons people are so
"crazy' about the upper register is that so many of them have trouble
with it. There are the band directors who force the high register too
soon and they are a big part of the problem- often spending more time
worrying about their band's ratings than teaching proper techniques.
Many of the people writing in are victims of that process. I get in
trouble with youth group directors at times because i insist that my
students build their playing gradually with solid fundamentals. Of
course they always catch and pass the "anything goes" students, so i
am well liked by the directors eventually.
Just so you don't have to aim any more of this at me or others who
are sincerely vexed by the upper register, I want you to know that I
don't advocate anything that would not make the absolutely most
beautiful sound possible. That is a given for me, and, frankly, I
don't know any other teachers who do advocate things that
intentionally produce a bad sound just to get high notes. Magically,
what produce the best results also produces the best sound, so these
are not necessarily, and should not be, mutually exclusive goals.
What I find more often is that there is, as i have said before, a
need to explain things better- a better pedagogy. The horn is the
most mouthpiece setting critical/dependent instrument there is. The
tuba and the trombone have the whole mouth in the mouthpiece, with
the tuba getting the prize as the easiest setting to find because if
you can find your nose, and the mouthpiece will do that for you, you
can get the right setting. Of course, what you do inside the
mouthpiece is another story, but amazingly enough, it is pretty much
what we do- line up the lips and blow, except you can't use the
mouthpiece as a crutch. The trumpet is much like us, but because the
rims on the mouthpiece are wider and the range is skewed for higher
notes, there is more margin for error.
OK, this is the short version, but the horn, with its huge range and
small mouthpiece on an instrument exactly the same size as a trombone
with an F extension, needs a lot more attention to placement. Throw
in all the haphazard "natural" settings out there that come from
trying to get too high too soon, bad breathing and bad advice and you
can see why there are so many people struggling with the upper register.
Then there is the matter of trying to explain how to use the muscles
once you have a decent setting. This has NOT been clear in the past
and even the good parts are not effective for people with bad
embouchures, so we have a whole new set of people struggling along.
As our illustrious Emperor would say, "I't s hard work." But is it?
If our Emperor had not started wrong to begin with, not listened to
good advice and stubbornly refused to change in the face of
overwhelming evidence of folly, there would not be an impossible mess
to fix now. Fortunately, no one has died while changing (or not
changing) an embouchure. : )
Sincerely, and getting a little OT
Wendell Rider
For information about my book, "Real World Horn Playing", the DVD and
Regular and Internet Horn Lessons go to my website: http://
www.wendellworld.com
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