TrumpetMaster - View Single Post - How to play higher notes with no pressure.

rowuk · 01-24-2008, 07:12 AM

After years of the wrong way, it is unreasonable to expect immediate satisfaction with a "new" way regardless of its merit.

Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip.

High notes are played correctly with an interdependence of proper breathing, muscle tone, tongue position and an absolute minimum of mouthpiece lip pressure (which by the way is somewhat more than is necessary to get the seal - depending on the sharpness of the mouthpiece rim - the sharper the rim the less pressure that you need. Why? Because the pressure creates the points on the left and right side of the lips where the vibration stops. Between those points your lips vibrate. The "seal" is actually secondary. We do exercizes to strengthen the corners to minimize the pressure we need to define those 2 points! A rounded rim "feels" comfortable, but needs more pressure to get that point of fixation. When we have enough strength and can minimize the pressure, the lips are not "nailed" to the mouthpiece but allow for a certain amount of flexibility).

Getting all of those factors to synchronize after years of other habits is at least a 6 month project. Twisting any single factor to get "immediate" results will create a need to correct once again very soon.

Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip.

Messing around with "tongue arch" is not the best way to train the upper register. Patience, long tones, scales and lip slurs are. As Miyot posted always SOFTLY! You are most in touch with your body when not beating it up. Playing softly gives you much more feedback when practicing, and is more in line with what we are allowed to do when in an ensemble. The danger of a Silent Brass is that everything sounds soft. You need to focus on playing as softly as you can!!!!!

My experience is that pressure on the upper lip is range and endurance killer #1. Developing our playing apparatus to compensate for less pressure is not something for a couple of weeks. I have been playing for more than 40 years and still work on this today!

Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip.

There are plenty of things that we can do below high Ab that build musicality and do not get in the way of our chop development. Having had the opportunity to post back and forth with you, I can say that if I were your teacher, I would load you up with tons of low volume, lower octave stuff for a couple of weeks anyway to prevent unnecessary force that you might otherwise not even notice!

Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip.

01-24-2008, 07:12 AM	#8 (permalink)
rowuk Moderator Fortissimo User Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 4,572	Re: How to play higher notes with no pressure. After years of the wrong way, it is unreasonable to expect immediate satisfaction with a "new" way regardless of its merit. Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip. High notes are played correctly with an interdependence of proper breathing, muscle tone, tongue position and an absolute minimum of mouthpiece lip pressure (which by the way is somewhat more than is necessary to get the seal - depending on the sharpness of the mouthpiece rim - the sharper the rim the less pressure that you need. Why? Because the pressure creates the points on the left and right side of the lips where the vibration stops. Between those points your lips vibrate. The "seal" is actually secondary. We do exercizes to strengthen the corners to minimize the pressure we need to define those 2 points! A rounded rim "feels" comfortable, but needs more pressure to get that point of fixation. When we have enough strength and can minimize the pressure, the lips are not "nailed" to the mouthpiece but allow for a certain amount of flexibility). Getting all of those factors to synchronize after years of other habits is at least a 6 month project. Twisting any single factor to get "immediate" results will create a need to correct once again very soon. Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip. Messing around with "tongue arch" is not the best way to train the upper register. Patience, long tones, scales and lip slurs are. As Miyot posted always SOFTLY! You are most in touch with your body when not beating it up. Playing softly gives you much more feedback when practicing, and is more in line with what we are allowed to do when in an ensemble. The danger of a Silent Brass is that everything sounds soft. You need to focus on playing as softly as you can!!!!! My experience is that pressure on the upper lip is range and endurance killer #1. Developing our playing apparatus to compensate for less pressure is not something for a couple of weeks. I have been playing for more than 40 years and still work on this today! Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip. There are plenty of things that we can do below high Ab that build musicality and do not get in the way of our chop development. Having had the opportunity to post back and forth with you, I can say that if I were your teacher, I would load you up with tons of low volume, lower octave stuff for a couple of weeks anyway to prevent unnecessary force that you might otherwise not even notice! Patience and preserverance Patric, are your best friends! Relax and enjoy the trip. __________________ Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again. Last edited by rowuk; 01-24-2008 at 07:15 AM.