gus

Hi Manny, I have not write for quite a long time due to my work.

I have a problem when playing with the Bb. I started when I was a child with an old small bore C rotary trumpet and played that trumpet for many years until Dad could buy my first Bb.

Based on that the Bb wasn't my best choice never. I had never problem with register, but in the middle range E and F in the staff the notes are strangled, thin and the throat ( or the back of the tongue you may say ) is tight and I miss a lot of first attacks in this register due to tension.

The curious thing is when I use the mute or the C or the Eb or the Picc those problems do not happen.

Do you think that a more tight equipment to emulate high trumpets will help or do you have any other suggestion.

Thanks for your help, and sorry if it is a topic covered somewhere else.

Saludos.

Gustavo Hereñu
Buenos Aires.

Manny Laureano

Dear Gus,

Nice to hear from you again. I hope all is well.

My idea is that you should try to develop a sound that is more even. There is a way to do this that is fairly easy. When you play, begin in that middle register which has the nice full sound that you want. Take the horn away from your lips and hear that same sound and hear it as loudly as you can, as if you had a CD player in your head playing that sound. Play the note again and notice that is a little fuller than the first time.

Go back and forth a couple more times and improve the sound as much as you can. Go up a whole step and do the same thing. Go down a whole step from the original note and do the same thing. Continue this up and down until you get accustomed to hearing a clear, beautiful sound every time before you play.

It's a good way to teach your ear to hear the right sound so you don't try to "fish" for the sound with your lips. If you hear an open sound in your head you will correct the poor sound very well through natural means and develop a sound that is yours and no one else's.

Physically, you are closing a part of your throat and tightening your neck muscles. You can't untighten it by thinking about that AND make music so you have to think of the open sound you're looking for very clearly.

Let me know how it goes,

ML

gus

Many, many thanks, I'll try and I'll tell you how it is going.

Gus

gus

Hi Manny your counsel is working.

I have worked a couple of days with it casually.
This thing of the mental image is serious for the sound, and I do not how ( really don't know ) the arms, shoulders and neck are more relaxed.

Last sunday I played with a quintet with the Bb ( many polkas, and beer music ) without effort.

Thanks

Mikey

I think you found the solution in your last post


("beer")

gus

MIkey, Yes maybe... but I took the beers after the gig... I would be embarrasing a valve sticked with sausage and sauerkraut (choucroutte ).

Gus

sfenick23

Hey, don't discount the beer theory...it worked for me. I was playing a salsa gig a number of years ago, and this being my first gig in this style, I was a little shy about what I was doing. Several drinks later (courtesy of a couple of nice young ladies among the crowd who were dancing and having a good time), I had loosened up to the extent of not only having fun with the music, I had started singing backup vocals! Now if I just knew what I was singing...