trjeam

Hi Manny! Lately I've noticed that when I do any type of ascending slur (for example a slur from low C to middle space C) my lips don't vibrate as freely when I get to the higher note (A-B-C and higher).

For some reason it feels like my mouthpiece (a bach 3C) is too small and it feels like it doesn't give my lips the room to vibrate freely.

-Could this be possible?
-Does this situation sound like a scenario for a MP change?
-Are their any other things I should try before experimenting with a MP change?

thanks for any help.

__________________
Jorge Ayala

http://www.soundclick.com/jorgeayala
http://allabouttrumpet.blogspot.com

andredub

Heh, im not Mr. Laureano, but I just got over a huge issue with this, and its what I found helps, so I hope this provides some positive results.

Try putting the mouthpiece to your face the way you like it, and take a nosebreath, so your lips dont move when you start playing. Make sure everything, the horn mouthpiece hands, are exactly wheere you want them. Take the breath and play. For me, I noticed I was twisting the horn a little while playing, and it totally destroyed my playing.

The big one though, is too much pressure. It may not be that at all, but its easy to get used to using lots of pressure instead of air support and not noticing. That pressure would easily stop the easy vibrating you had before. Bad habits tend to take a while to go away for me, so I'd say give it a couple of days to get used to again when you find what it was.

I hope this helps!

Andre
p.s. If its something else, please let me know, since I tend to fall into bad habits alot, and really enjoy finding new ways of fixing them. Thats way better then falling into my usual panic mode

Manny Laureano

Jorge,

The lips fail to vibrate for two reasons: they're either too close together or they're too far apart. In either case, the absence of sound is the absence of vibration.

What changes as you ascend or descend?

ML

trjeam

it feels like a pushing back feeling mixed with a feeling of not having enough room to allow the lips to vibrate freely.

I get a sound but it sounds closed, tight and the center is just not clear that's probably because my chops are too close together but when I loosen up I get the pushing back feeling, pressured, hard to vibrate feel..

__________________
Jorge Ayala

http://www.soundclick.com/jorgeayala
http://allabouttrumpet.blogspot.com

Manny Laureano

Doesn't sound like a mouthpiece problem in the least. It's a conceptual problem where you're probably tightening in places that are so used to being tight, you don't even realize you do it. The exhale on a trumpet should be like exhaling without a trumpet except you're exhaling through a large straw. The smaller the straw gets the harder you work.

Your embouchure is frozen and the best thing for you to do is going to be a real test of whether you use your ears when you play. You have to find a note that sounds great in sound and intonation. Then slur in both directions or tongue and listen for where it starts to change. Once you find the notes that begin to sound different from your best note sounds, play those notes until they sound equal to the one you started on. And so it goes, up and down, until you teach each and every note how to sound like your good one. Your embouchure is weak and this will strengthen it and your ear. Accept nothing but the best. Nothing but the best.


Good luck, stay in touch,

ML