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commakozzi · 02-27-2008, 10:21 AM

Tone and volume are two big issues I'm dealing with right now, and I have a few things I'm doing to address them:

1. during your tone production (long tones, etc.) and flexibilities practice using breath attacks (this will help to get your air coordinated with your tongue, and it helps to keep the aperture set). Tonguing hard is a good way to fix things as long as you're careful, but it can also help to spread your aperture and lead to bad playing. Also, do this part of your day at pppp!!! This will help you! Trust me!!! It seems counter-intuitive, but just trust me.

2. Now, you're problem is playing out or playing at higher volumes right? Don't worry too much about breathing, but do try to take in deep, relaxed breaths before you play. Just keep doing that and I believe that breathing will fix itself. My next suggestion is to do an exercise that I came up with a few weeks ago to help fix my buzz problem and I call it "The Buzz Fixer". Don't laugh!!! You're going to start off on low C and do not use a metronome... use your ears, because this exercise is all about tone production and volume (both loud and very soft). Play two half note low Cs with a good strong sound and then a whole note F with a very good strong orchestral fortissimo and hold the note out and decrescendo down to where you just physically can't hold the note any longer. So this is theoretically: V-V-I and do this up through your range until the tone starts to split. For example, my tone starts suffering at pppp on E-E-A (this is A above the staff), but I'm able to fix it and continue on to G-G-C. Take breaks often during this exercise!!! I'm assuming I'll continue doing this until my tone does not split at high F or higher (who knows). Ooops, I forgot to mention that you should not be using a lot of pressure to hold these notes at pppp. If you are, then that's where you need to stop.... that's your limit for now. It will improve over time!

3. Listen to your body, but practice hard!!! You need to span the range of dynamics everyday if you can (pppp to ffff), but you'll know when you need to take a break. Think about doing a really hard day and then a light day, but play everyday! For example, my hard day is about 4.5 hours long. My soft day is only 1.5 hours long and it just includes the basic "housekeeping".... long tones, articulation, flexibilities, etc.

02-27-2008, 10:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
commakozzi Pianissimo User Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 218	Re: Tone! Help! Tone and volume are two big issues I'm dealing with right now, and I have a few things I'm doing to address them: 1. during your tone production (long tones, etc.) and flexibilities practice using breath attacks (this will help to get your air coordinated with your tongue, and it helps to keep the aperture set). Tonguing hard is a good way to fix things as long as you're careful, but it can also help to spread your aperture and lead to bad playing. Also, do this part of your day at pppp!!! This will help you! Trust me!!! It seems counter-intuitive, but just trust me. 2. Now, you're problem is playing out or playing at higher volumes right? Don't worry too much about breathing, but do try to take in deep, relaxed breaths before you play. Just keep doing that and I believe that breathing will fix itself. My next suggestion is to do an exercise that I came up with a few weeks ago to help fix my buzz problem and I call it "The Buzz Fixer". Don't laugh!!! You're going to start off on low C and do not use a metronome... use your ears, because this exercise is all about tone production and volume (both loud and very soft). Play two half note low Cs with a good strong sound and then a whole note F with a very good strong orchestral fortissimo and hold the note out and decrescendo down to where you just physically can't hold the note any longer. So this is theoretically: V-V-I and do this up through your range until the tone starts to split. For example, my tone starts suffering at pppp on E-E-A (this is A above the staff), but I'm able to fix it and continue on to G-G-C. Take breaks often during this exercise!!! I'm assuming I'll continue doing this until my tone does not split at high F or higher (who knows). Ooops, I forgot to mention that you should not be using a lot of pressure to hold these notes at pppp. If you are, then that's where you need to stop.... that's your limit for now. It will improve over time! 3. Listen to your body, but practice hard!!! You need to span the range of dynamics everyday if you can (pppp to ffff), but you'll know when you need to take a break. Think about doing a really hard day and then a light day, but play everyday! For example, my hard day is about 4.5 hours long. My soft day is only 1.5 hours long and it just includes the basic "housekeeping".... long tones, articulation, flexibilities, etc.