[TPIN] Off Center Aperture Questions

[Mike Boyd]

darren.windham at comcast.net wrote:
> I also play off centered too.  Granted I am a comeback player and
> just play for fun in a community band.  I've always played that way
> and have never had a lesson teacher try to get me to change it.  I
> tried when I started my comeback to play center and it just wasn't
> the same.
> 
> I'd say stick with what works.  I played for 7 years when I was
> younger this way and managed to stay in the top few chairs in a high
> school with 30-40 trumpet players.

A part of me is thinking that way and a part of me is thinking if I make 
  some effort and short term sacrifice I could be much better.  For now 
I'm sticking to transposing hymns to keep it slow and below c in the 
staff while I experiment a bit (I get all sorts of problems otherwise, 
lips swelling, muscles locking).

> Others may have better advice as I'm not a teacher or a pro player.

It's very interesting for me to hear everyone's take on it.  I learnt in 
a very small very rural school and never had the opportunity or the 
inclination back then to talk to anyone about these things.

One could make the decision to take a position and think about why other 
people who say something ostensibly different are wrong (and to be 
honest, that's what I'd usually do) but I'm finding that there is a 
kernel of truth for me personally in just about everything people say.

When I get annoyed and apply the pressure to blast out a trumpet 
voluntary I hear someone in the back of my head saying that I'll never 
progress beyond school band level if I don't work on better habits.

And when I've been diligently trying to lip buzz my trumpet to life with 
no pressure and no success for 30 minutes I hear a voice "saying come on 
- that just ain't never gonna work in your lifetime!"

Back at school I had no comments to reflect on -- for all I knew back 
then, working hard was learning to handle more mpc pressure and 
tightening my aperture to play with less pressure was being lazy.  All 
my teacher ever said was to "play sweetly", "the flat keys are more 
tuneful", and "you gotta play with vibrato man" followed by him shaking 
his hand so furiously his seal would rhythmically break :)