mcstock

Could someone explain a little bit about Thibaud's "positive/negative" concept?
Thanks
Matt

scottcgr

To quote: "I compare the trumpeter's playing with the action of the drummer's stick on the drum. The positive is the impact of the drumstick on the drum head. The negative is the return movement after hitting the drum head. If one can imagine this action on the scale of 10, the impact (the positive) represents 1 and the return action (the negative) represents 9. This approach will allow the player to play longer without undue fatigue."

The exercise is very helpful for mastering control over a vast dynamic range through learning to go quickly and easily between the extremes of the spectrum while learning to maintain a consistent good "pure" sound. Through this, I would imagine, one can gain a very strong control over their air, leading to much higher efficiency. Not to mention better control over dynamic levels, making it possible to fill out the infinite levels in the scope...

But we'll see, I've only been on these for a few days. But already it's much easier for me to find resonance and keep a steady pitch on very quiet notes...

mazzrick

Ed,

To expand on positive negative idea (which i'm guessing is training low to train high), this summer with a Thibaud student, Jean-Jacques Gaudon, I did a Stamp extension down to double pedal C, and up to double high C with a lip trill then back down again. Amazingly, after a few weeks, I could actually do it.

I recently found an old copy of Robert Nagel's drill/routine book and it is well worth a look if anyone can still find it. Things of note are a certain tweak to approaching pedals. He suggests keeping the same fingering when switching between low and pedal register. So you take descending arpeggios, F ie and play the pedal F 12 like the A. In this way the transition works better, for me at least. He also has a sections of glissandos (rips maybe) from the lowest partial with all fingerings to the partial two octaves above and back down.

I also found a few really old daily routing pamphlets, not even books by Goldman and Smith. Kind of a trip.

Matt

mahaberio

Matt,

Amy was describing this exercise to me and said that her playing is in the best shape it's ever been in because of it.

-Matthew

mazzrick

Matt,

For me it was the same way. One of the funniest parts of the whole experience was that Jean-Jacques tried speaking English, but only got out, "You know, je pense que...." and then had to switch back into French all the time. But when asked how he was able to do it so well, he said, "[I'm 62 and have been playing this exercise everyday since I was 19]."

Matt

mcstock

Thanks everyone. I also found a brief discussion of the exercise at: http://www.trumpetguild.org/journal/m96/9605HarE.pdf
Scroll down to page 8 of the article.

Matt

ecarroll

McMatt,

Thanks for the link to an interesting article. There is, in my estimation, much more to pos/neg than "defensive playing", however. In addition to the beneficial quality for upwards slurs that Pierre talks about, pos/negs also promote air management -- especially if the fermati are help with a pure tone for as long as possible.

Best from LA,
EC

ilikethetrumpet

Hi all,
Long time, no post. I'm sitting here writing "method book reviews" for a trumpet ped class. Necessary evils. I decided I'd bop my head in TM and see what was shaking along these lines, not to plagiarize but just to job my memory on a few books (esp. for beginners or things that would pertain to young college students). I just want to say I was very struck by Ed's colorization of IRONS because, thinking back to my trumpet upbringing, my one biggest regret is that at age 15 I left my favorite teacher for geographical reasons, and he was the one who really united my approaches air and my embouchure through the Irons book. Consequently I went away from the Irons book, and while the Schlossberg covers the same material, there is something so remarkably accurate and wise about the way the book is set up and the content of the written instructions. I'm glad Ed likes the book as well, but I revisited for the first time in years tonight, and I'm eager to use it to refocus tomorrow morning.

Also, anyone check out the "atonal" Vacchiano etude book? Rather bizarre, but fun challenges musically.