wiseone2

At Alex Yates site check out the page 1 exercises. The grace notes are to set up the quickness of the tongue, later in the exercise the grace note is removed,but the attack should be as quick as it was when the grace note was there.........clear
Wilmer

Johntpt

While there are many examples in the rep of difficualt soft entrances, Brahms used to give me the most grief. Almost every piece by Brahms has a spot or 2 that has a delicate entrance. The most frustrating thing is that no one will even know that you're playing unless you miss it! How about the last note of Brahms 3? Or the end of Brahms 1 second movement? Or the soft E in Brahms 4 first movement? Or the chorale in Academic? Or the repeated D's in the First Piano Concerto? I could go on and on and on....

For me 2 things helped. First finding a trumpet that responds really solidly in all registers at ppp, with a pretty covered sound quality. I've settled on a Ricco Kühn C for Brahms and other classical and romantic German composers. Also, using a deeper mouthpiece helps me a lot, too. Something I can push against a little bit without the sound brightening up or getting much louder. Lately I've been using a JK 4B, and have in the past sometimes sued a Schilke flugel cup on a trumpet shank - I think they call this the F1 nowadays.

The second thing is working soft practice into my daily practice. Only 10 minutes a day will do it. The most important thing is to not make a big deal of it. Just play some Clarke's really soft in all registers for a few minutes, and try to get softer each day. After 2 months, the soft entrances get much easier!

JU

Rgale

Great ideas, John! My old teacher , Ron Modell, used to tell me that Herseth thought that Brahms was the hardest to play of them all because of all the high , soft attacks.
I just got a Lechner rotary, and am enjoying it very much . I also have ordered JK mouthpieces for it. That combination does help.

wiseone2

Some things go great on the D trumpet. I play the Brahms#2, Sibelius#2 and Beethoven#7 on the D trumpet. The Tchaikovsky#4 is another one I play on the D.
The D trumpet part in the Rite of Spring works very well on the Eb trumpet.
I blame Sam Krauss for my love of the D and Eb trumpets
Wilmer

Manny Laureano

My vote is Brahms 3 also. Let me go further as to say that's it's not the actual hitting of the note as much as it is the timing with the usual melifluous beat that you have come in with! This is why you'll sit in your chair before the concert and play it over and over without problem. Then, you get to the show and the conductor hesitates, you have breathed nicely, have to hold your breath, tighten up and bingo... squeezed out note is forthcoming if at all. Oh, and now it's sharp, too, because your throat is closed off from your abs tightening up.

The cure? Knowing all of that and preparing your breath as a nice long one that you can produce when YOU are ready. That takes practice if you want to have something to work on.

It's also very odd how a conductor will suddenly become a lot clearer when, in rehearsal, the downbeats are ragged as a result of his soulful moments of interpretation and every eye was on him. Arturo, where are you when we need you?

ML

Mikey

And I hope you mean Toscaninni, not Sandoval.............





(Am I in trouble, or what).................

wiseone2

Yes Manny,
What is going on in the mind of the conductor between the upbeat and the down beat? JUST GIVE US THE BEAT
Wilmer