My thoughts
I have been messing around the mouthpieces recently. I was never a "mouthpiece" guy before and for the longest time, I was playing the Bach 61/2 AL that I was given in Grade 5. Someone said I was working too hard, since I was playing a lot of principle and lead trombone, and I switched to a Bach 11C and that worked well for a time, especially with my King 3B horn. Although, when I bought my Courtois Xtreme horn, I found that I blew out the sound too easily, so I used the Courtois 6 1/2 MP mouthpiece that came with it. A nice dark sound, but again, I was working too hard. So, now I am trying out the Yamaha Al Kay mouthpiece and from what I can see, it seems very close to a Yamaha 12C mouthpiece. Nice sound all around the range and some assistance in the upper register. I can not "bark it" out just yet in the lower range but I think that will come in time. I think with any mouthpiece there is some transition time. Coming back to the title, I think we need to be more like trumpet players and try a bunch of mouthpieces, as it really changes how you play the horn. Too often as trombone players, we stick with one mouthpiece (the one we were originally given) and we have no idea how another one might benefit us. So be more like a trumpet player and try a new mouthpiece today!
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The saying that you will get there or you will improve "little by little" is thrown around quite a bit, but another way to look at it is practicing little by little. Sometimes it is just hard to motivate yourself to pick up the horn. Maybe you do not have a gig coming up or you are just a little "down" on your playing at the moment. Just pick up your axe or get the horn on your face for a few seconds. This might lead to a minute and then who knows what. After that brief encounter with your instrument, leave it in a place where you will bump into it constantly throughout the day, and keep picking up it for a few seconds/minutes at at time. Before you know it, you will have accumulated some significant time on the horn. So, don't get overwhelmed with playing that hour or two-hour session you had planned, just a few seconds - little by little.
This sounds horrible, but most of the time you will not play as well in front of an audience as you did in the basement. So what do you do about it? Sure, you work on your confidence and minimizing performance anxiety - that is material for several blogs. The other strategy is realizing that you will not play as well in front of an audience and accepting that. So, you keep improving and making your 100% in the basement better and better. That way your 80% in front of the audience is not only acceptable but very good. Audiences, in general, want to be entertained and unless you are playing for a bunch of musicians, they are not listening for mistakes (OK, that sounded a bit cynical). So give yourself a break, realize that you will make mistakes and come up short, but that is OK. You still sound good and you are providing a great show.
I have done a few clinics on the above topic but when push comes to shove, I too can fall into a groove of playing the same slip slurs and tonguing exercises each day. If you also find yourself playing the same things day-after-day, you may find that you are not progressing as fast as you like. This is because you are not challenging your embouchure. I always compare it to weight-lifting. You need to keep your muscles guessing and striving for something new and challenging. Switch things up each day, or every once in a while, and you will find that your embouchure feels stronger and that you are making greater gains. For more information, check out my worksheet Brevity and Variety in Brass Warm-ups.
Being able to play across the harmonics without tonguing is such an advantage as a trombone player, and I find that many trombone players do not utilise this technique. For instance, the F on the line in the staff and the G above it, on the space in the staff, are on separate harmonics. Moving from 1st to 4th position, you are breaking across this harmonic or playing "against the grain." This makes a natural break in the sound and therefore, you do not need to tongue the note. As a trombone player, trying to keep up with the more fleet instruments like the trumpet and saxophone, you need all the tricks you can get, and a few intervals where you do not need to tongue help tremendously. Not only that, but the natural "tongue" or break is clear and matches a "ta" or "da" tongue quite well. If you get in the habit of playing through the lines, without tonguing, this will also help as you play in the upper register where the harmonics are so close together that tonguing is optional at times.
I am delivering a course on Trombone Techniques at Wilfrid Laurier University and revisited some techniques on producing your first sound on the trombone. I referred to a great book by Scott Whitener called "A Complete Guide to Brass" and it recommended thinking about different syllables when tonguing and releasing the air and attempting those first sounds on the mouth piece. Brilliant. You never know what gem you will find in the literature so keep reading. Keep that thirst for knowledge.
If struggling with your chops, maybe someone hit you in the face. #brasslessons #lifelessons #music1/31/2017 This may sound self-explanatory but if your embouchure is really sore and you can not figure out why in the world you are not playing like you normally do, consider if you were just playing a contact sport, and if you might have been "clocked" in the face. Yeah, it's funny, kind of. Recently, I have been battling with my chops and only after trimming my beard did I see a dark mark above my lips - a bruise. It all came rushing back then - the flying elbow, my complaint to the basketball ref (that went unanswered!) and the light-headedness. Time to get some mouth gear. I am not sure if that would have reduced this injury but it is worth trying. I would hate to think that I would have to give-up men's basketball night. It is intense but some weeks, it is the only exercise I get, and I do love the run and the occasional 3-pointer I sink. Anyway, there is my strange advice for this post.
Took the afternoon to get set-up to teach Trombone Techniques at Wilfrid Laurier University. Great to be back on campus. This year they assigned me the large ensemble room - awesome! We will do our best to fill up that space with brilliant brass bell tones. Well, the best we can muster at 8:30 in the morning.
I was excited that this article was published in The Recorder and hope that a few educators took the time to read it. Some of my favorite bands are hybrids that do not really fit into one stylistic category or another and I think jazz and the big band ensemble should continue to evolve, honoring the past while incoporating new sounds and styles.
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Dr. Michael KearnsMusician, educator, husband, father, web designer ... my life is like a mosaic with each piece vying for my attention. Archives
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