jamesfrmphilly

during the time that i spent under seymour rosenfeld of the pso i remember a lot of stuff about mouthpiece placement and posture, so i got the impression that orchestral cats were relatively stiff in their approach.
in dave's book he shows a guy sitting stiffly on a chair if i remember right.
miles left julliard, wynton stayed. miles plays better than wynton.
there are many excellent recordings of miles playing open, live, where you can hear what he sounds like. i prefer the jazz party set with coltrane and cannonball. or the lincoln center set.
i prefer claude gordon's (brass playing is no harder than deep breathing)
to monette.
i come from a background where performers do a lot of sweating, grunting and moving around.
any breathing system that i use must be dynamic.

Tootsall

James. You said "i come from a background where performers do a lot of sweating, grunting and moving around". From your posts we understand that you are also a musician who has studied trumpet and who plays extensively. This is a good thing.

I would, however, point out that not EVERYONE shares your particular background nor do they all specialize nor share your preferences in music nor musicians. I believe the discussion began with some statements concerning Dave Monette's philosophies towards body position, relaxation, etc. to which I simply added the (admitted) generalization that ALL musicians benefit from an upright, open body position.

I apologize for the generalization; as we know, ALL generalizations are dangerous! I wonder if Miles was allowed to slouch back in his chair, tuck his chin into his chest, tilt his head sideways, etc. while HE was studying trumpet in grade/high school? I would tend to believe that he had pretty good posture until he became GOOD ENOUGH that he could "fly his trumpet pretty much any darned way he wanted".

I hope you do not take this thread personally...it wasn't meant to be that way. But you have to admit that Miles was a pretty "rare cat" and hardly the ideal model for MOST young players (or older ones!) today.

jamesfrmphilly

no i don't take it personal.
are you saying you wouldn't like to see any young milses coming up?
i realize that different folks have different backgrounds and i know that i don't know enough about others.
i don't play much anymore, I'm a comebacker with a big month.

Tootsall

Hey...it's cool.

To answer your question: "One young Miles is OK. One hundred young Miles is NOT OK!"

romey1

out!

romey

etownfwd

just as a quick heads-up there James, Wynton did not stay at Julliard. He left sometime during his sophmore year (I believe) to join Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Most of the reason that Dave Monette emphasizes the posture thing is because most of the players out there are not "natural" players. A very slim percentage of players are blessed with a naturally clean sound, and easy blow. While many of us are not blessed with these gifts, we can benefit from what Dave has to teach. Another reason that he looks "stiff and rigid" is because his back is straight. However, he is also in alignment and he is not fighting his body to stay that way. There are little nuances to what Dave preaches that can usually only be learned through experiencing a Yoga class.
-efwd

trickg

The body posture and alignment thing that is on the Monette website is about the only concept of "Dave Monette's" that I agree with. I don't think that Dave has come up with anything revolutionary here, but I do think that his approach is a little different.

Once after reading about the body alignment and posture concepts on the Monette website, I started employing those in my own practice routing and yes, it certainly did improve a lot of aspects of my playing, however, let it be said that you most certainly don't have to be playing a Monette trumpet to take advantage of those concepts.