John P

Hey Tony,

I've been told that for notes in the altissimo register, a narrow, fast air stream is preferred over a big, fat column of air. How would one go about creating this narrower air stream?

kadleck

John -

I have heard this same expression, "fast air stream", but I must confess that I'm out of my area of expertise on this one. (I've never actually thought of it that way.) Any ideas out there?

joey

Let me preface this by saying this isn't how I think of it either, but here's the theory:

In the low-middle registers, your lips are more open. So the air flowing through is in a "big, fat column of air", creating a big sound.

To play higher, the aperture (opening of your lips) gets smaller, so the air moves faster in a narrower stream.

Or, in a slightly different variation: As you play higher your lips close. To keep them open, you must use a faster airstream.

To me, either way sounds needlessly complicated. Plus, it furthers the myth that playing in the upper register is vastly different than playing in the low and middle registers.

Joey

John P

I'd have to agree with that, Joey. I try not to think about my high range too much. It seems like the less I think about stuff like that, the better my range sounds. Although, I've heard it said that it's better to back air off a little bit up around dubba C and above, know anything about this?

joey

No, I'm not familiar with backing off the airstream to play into the upper register other than the 'faster air in a narrower stream' previously discussed.

I'm trying to learn to play the trumpet one way in all registers so that I don't have to learn to play 3 ways: one for low, one for middle, one for high.

Here's my problem with the "Here's How To Play High-Notes" 'methods':

What is the first high note?

Joey

Alex Yates

Bravo Joey.....exactly. I like to think of my embouchure as an extension of a full, singing, ringing middle G in either direction. The aperture leaning into the airstream is all of the compression necessary and finding the balance on each note is the key. The smaller the aperture, the faster the air velocity when escaping and vice versa. However, they are virtually equal throughout as we never let up on support of the air, keeping the column consistent.

Bear

My take on it,

DHC is the same as third space C, just two octaves higher. Bottom line is that the air and lips must be in equalibrium to get the maximum amount of efficienct. Anyone can play a DHC, but not everyone can PLAY a DHC.

And that's the way the cookie crumbles! - HA

Bear