Larry Gianni

Coming off the "free blowing "and "bell resonance" threads, I'd like to pick up on something that was said briefly, but I'd like to see if it can be further developed... “Trumpet Blowback” or the ratio of (relationship between) the sound the player hears vs. what the listener hears. For lack of a better term at this point, let's call the listener "the audience" and what the bell/trumpet produces "optimum". A little history. As part of my relationship with Calicchio in the second half of the 80’s, I would do clinics and a trade shows for the company. When I did clinics at high schools, colleges, and the unavoidable trade show presentations, one of the first responses from players experiencing a Calicchio for the first time was "Wow, this Calicchio plays great---really bright and clear. There is one thing, though. I can hear the notes bounce back at me off that wall over there, but I don't hear myself playing as well as I do when playing my Bach (or Yamaha, or any heavy-wall trumpet) that I'm playing now. Why?" Well, that's the issue. How much do you have to hear of yourself playing, and how much sound should project?, Would you prefer, if you had a choice, (can't say both) to hear yourself so well that it affects the sound that a listener hears, or, project with such a dense, solid core of sound that all your power and effort generates to the audience and little "sound blowback” comes back to you, making playing a somewhat "Braille-like" experience.. The issue compounds itself with the inclusion in the mix of different bell alloys, different trumpet designs that are available, as well as different bell thicknesses. All these affect your being able to hear yourself, or hearing yourself over the player next to you while playing in sections.

While growing up in the SF bay area, a San Francisco-based trumpet player by the name of Johnny Coppola (he actually played a LB Martin Committee Deluxe that Maynard had given him when they were on Kenton's band together and was the basis for the Marcienkeiwitz LB Martin trumpet he now offers) told me once (I was a student at the time) that he had a bell made for him by Martin in the 50's. It had no bell bead on it at all, and it was the best projecting bell he ever had, but he couldn't hear himself at all so it was somewhat unusable. Thinking of different brands' bell designs, is that the reason the NY Bach, with its flat, wide, bell bead design, sounds so good to the player, and has such a pleasing, desired sound, but tends to fall off in the projection department, especially when used in a commercial setting. With a modern trumpet, does this lack of "sound blowback" tend to make you lose your efficiency and overblown the instrument? Quite possibly .Can you tell everyone else in the section “Don't play so loud because I can't hear myself playing the part" if your trumpet is somewhat “lackluster” in this department have a better .If you can't hear yourself, do you play from feel instead of from sound and gauge your playing volume by what you're experiencing physically? Well, there are a plethora of questions like this, but here's a little side topic to the question. Do you only think of yourself in choosing a trumpet or the players around you also?







OK. - phase 2 of the question.

"Playing lead from the 3rd chair”.

This is an expression used here on the West Coast (and probably other places) when a player, sitting and playing down in the section, is heard better by the 1st trumpet player (and maybe the audience) than he can hear himself. This can occur quite easily because the lead player's ear is 180 degrees from the bell and his section-mates' bells are somewhere closer, more or less, 135 degrees from the outer edge of the bell, so naturally, with all things being equal, you can actually hear your section-mate better than yourself. The only saving grace to this is that a higher pitched sound tends to carry farther, and cut easier, so naturally easier for you and the listener to audibly pick up. Does this scenario sound familiar? I'm not talking about a deliberate act of "burying the lead player" by a fellow trumpet player that is either immature or playing mind games with his section-mates. Again, that's a different topic (but a juicy one). I've also been told, usually by new Calicchio owners on the East Coast, that, for a while, especially by players using darker-sounding trumpets, that they were asked to play more softly ( this was mostly in amateur, community band settings ) because the other members of the section couldn't hear themselves like before. To tell you the truth, shortly after this, most of the other members purchased brighter equipment and because the new trumpet is more efficient, the player can relax and not have to play so physically to project and sound good. As I mentioned earlier, this started to occur mainly on the East Coast as different trumpet brands, including Calicchio, started to drift into the usual Bach mix. TK alluded to this in his post to the Reeves/Calicchio section with his use of a Marc. /Calicchio set-up working on the East Coast with the traditional Bach 37 / Bach 7d set-up, and how easy it was for him to play the parts while his counterparts seemed to struggle to make the equipment fit the job. In the beginning of the 80's, when Schilke or Calicchio or Yamaha Z trumpets showed up farther and farther east, more and more, with the standard trumpet used by the masses was the Bach 37 or 72 with a Bach mouthpiece. (We've talked about this regional gear thing before.) A culture clash of preferred trumpet timbre was seen. So when a player, sometimes a pro, but mainly an amateur (where it seems peer pressure is still quite evident,) who wasn't considered the chosen "lead player” in the ensemble, bought a Calicchio (or other high-efficiency trumpet), this upset the balance of sound that the section/ensemble was used to quite possible because what everyone now heard, from their chair, was the higher efficiency, easier-to hear, new arrival.

Anyway, back to the original point---what kind of "sound forward/sound back" compromise is necessary so that the player's need to hear/ feel comfortable with what he's playing vs. his need to carry and project with a solid, resonation, dense core to make a passionate statement by his playing is somehow balanced? About sound, feel, and hearing yourself--- Here are two points of view from much-respected players working in Los Angeles. Both with different views about sound, slots, efficiency and "trumpet blowback" --- how to achieve it and how to react when it's not available due to the playing circumstances.

First – Bobby Findley, who teaches the Caruso Method

His philosophy is to try to physically emulate what a note, sound, pitch, slot, whatever you want to call it, feels like vs. what it sounds like from behind your bell so you don’t change the way you physically play depending on the environment you are playing in, i.e.:– acoustically lively rooms, dead rooms, big rooms, small rooms , outdoor stadiums, theatres, gymnasiums, etc. - so if the certain pitch or register always feels this way to you, then it will always sound this way to the listener. That way you don’t manipulate your playing to your environment and are always playing in the fattest part of the slot. His overwhelming philosophy about the physical aspect of playing was to always stay in the fat part of each and every note, remember that feeling, and try to feel that way all the time.
To interject my theory on that after taking lessons from Bobby was to try to think of a note---we are mainly talking about notes over G on top of the staff in my part of the discussion---and to envision the note or slot to be a triangle and to aim for the big, based bottom of the triangle instead of the small, narrowing top of the triangle, which if you got too far to the tip to the note, it turns into the big , broad bottom of the next pitch.

Second – Charlie Davis and the Adams method

Charlie’s basic approach, which is the Bill Adams method, is to try to void yourself of how it feels physically and how the mouthpiece is even placed on the embouchure, and simply try to get the best sound possible. Your body and its muscles will work in harmony to get that sound eventually. In essence, put your head in front of the bell instead of behind it. That you can’t mentally command or control all the muscles necessary to produce a pitch, so work backwards from the sound you desire and try to emulate that, and let the body follow.
What I used to do is visualize myself as an audience member when I was practicing listening to myself play either etudes or exercises in a somewhat “out of body experience” mindset. Closing your eyes seems to really help with this, just like doing the Cat Anderson 20 minute G (note; Cat also advocated practicing his 20 minute note in the bathroom so you could play as soft as you can and still hear the pitch and if the pitch stopped, to continue blowing, whistling the air at the desired pitch, until the pitch started again) Eventually, my practice routines were giving me the results I wanted. If you go to the fundamentals section, Dave Bacon has an expertly described the Adams Routine Theory and basics---it’s really excellent and should be downloaded and saved.

I was lucky enough to take lessons from both these fine players and tried to implement both strategies in my playing. Usually, I use an Adams mental approach about letting the desired quality of the sound determine how I feel. But when faced with a terrible acoustical situation, I revert to the Findley approach of playing, in a somewhat survival mode, finding the “sweet spot “of the pitch, feeling physically as if my playing situation was normal, relaxing as much as possible, finding the balance, by feel, of the resistance of the trumpet vs. the resistance I must produce, and as you play higher, knowing the sound will carry farther because of the intensity of the note plus locking into the middle of the it’s core and having the confidence to adjust to the feel and not try to fill your surroundings acoustically. When you start to play louder just to hear yourself, “overblowing the room”, as we have all experienced, this starts an exponential downward slide in efficiency and coordination that affects your playing dramatically. Both Carlie’s and Bobby’s approaches have merit and are grounded in real life playing scenarios for both pro and amateur alike, but like any method, has to be tempered to the situation at hand.

One more thing---in my experience, I can always make a “ lively “ trumpet play darker without a great deal of physicality, but to try to make a dark , non-projecting trumpet heat up can de difficult and taxing. I can say more, but I think you get the general drift of the theme. I always further dissect my own thoughts as the thread matures, so I’d like to stop here.

Point 1 – project more, hear yourself less, or have your priority in picking equipment to hear yourself as a priority and whatever projection you get is fine.

Point 2 – if you are a player that likes a trumpet that has dark, heavy qualities, is it important that everyone around you have that same sound so it’s easy to back off and not try to make your trumpet do something sound-wise it wasn’t meant to do?

Point 3 – Do you gear your playing habits based on how you hear yourself or by how you feel physically when playing certain pitches. (Usually the higher register)?

OK, let ‘er rip – common, I want to hear from all 700 TMer’s on this one.

Comments,
Larry