[TPIN] Chop Development

[Rod Brawn]

Trumpet Players,
    I am 52 years old.  I have played the trumpet as a hobby, as a trumpet
player in our amateur marching band at UWO,as a busker street musician, as a
student in a B. Mus. Honor's Ed. program at The University of Western
Ontario, at church in various ensembles for special occasions in the
liturgical year, and I have been a cornetist in The Plumbing Factory Brass
Band, led by Henry Meredith, a former student of Bill Adam.  I have been a
student of the late Allan James Ford, who taught trumpet at UWO in the early
1970s, and had been a well-known player and teacher in London, Ontario,
Canada, having played in many service bands during the second world war, and
completed his playing days at the Stratford Shakespearean Festival in
Stratford Ontario, where they have a habit of doing musicals.  One of the
shows I heard Mr. Ford play in was Kiss Me Kate.  I have been a student of
John
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glenn Bengry" <soundpretty at hotmail.com>
To: <tpin at tpin.okcu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 11:47 PM
Subject: [TPIN] Chop Development


> Trumpet players,
>
> CHOPS/ EMBOUCHURE defined in Webster's (just took a peek to check the
> spelling and checked the def as listed)as the position and use of the lips
> in producing a musical tone. In order to use and position the lips we
> develop the musculature sp? all around the lips and face etc.
>
>
>
>      MUSCLE DEVELOPMENT and maintenance (form will by necessity come into
> the discussion) is something we deal with constantly.  I used to try to
> build up pure brute raw strength and then try to refine some of this
muscle
> to create very fine control over these muscles.  Endurance is partly
related
> to the strength and so......................
>
> Working the muscles to failure is a STRENGTH BUILDING method that is used
by
> athletes(we are facial athletes)   There are a lot of approaches to this.
> Some people will use certain muscles until they cannot continue to hold a
> particular pitch or volume. rest and do it again  etc.  I think of this
type
> of work as the HIGHER AND LOUDER chop development.  Caruso, Claude Gordon
> include tones in all ranges(to extremely high and extremely low), some
held
> for very long and some blown at extreme volumes(usually gradually through
> crescendo.  This type of work I call HARD DAY.  Experts say this tears the
> muscle down somewhat  and the body naturally regenerates this tissue and
has
> grown new nerve connection to other undeveloped muscle tissue)
>
>
> EASY DAY I suppose would contain soft and medium volumes. and a lot of
> movement up and down the horn in steps and various skips(intervals).
AGILE,
> GRACEFUL,FLEXIBLE, FINE muscle control is the goal.  These days also let
the
> HARD DAY muscles heal up and build up.  Also these are days where you play
> less  DAYS OFF can be considered EASY DAYS
>
>
> TRAINING REGIMENS  There are times when I'll spend weeks doing a lot of
HARD
> DAYS with  little EASY DAYS  and DAYS OFF   When you gotta play high and
> loud and/or low and loud you gotta do some of this.
>
>      There are times when one has to "get all over the horn real clean
with
> ease"  This is a period where much softer playing and controlled movements
> (intervals, arpeggios) are necessary.
> I had to play L'Histoire du Soldat twice in one day after playing Tchaik 5
> two nights in a row.  The hell with Tchaik 5. I needed to get it together
> for L'Histoire or I was toast. You are by yourself and have some extreme
> arpeggiated licks that go by fast(most of you know the piece but for the
> ones trying to learn it) and some very agile high speed tonguing
involved.
> Guess what,  I did EASY MONTHS not just a few days with very little high
> loud playing  mostly soft.  I played these licks a couple thousand times
to
> have the embouchure muscles have exact muscle memory of where to go and
when
> and how fast.  I guess I trained well because when the festival came, I
> barely messed a note in all the rehearsals and both performances.  That is
> probably the best I've ever played.  I may never play that well again.
>
> BALANCE  between HARD DAYS and EASY DAYS  is the experiment.  How much of
> one and the other should one do at any given time?  I need to do 1 extreme
> loud and long HARD DAY every week or two,  but sometimes 2 or 3 in 1 wk.
I
> need to balance that with EASY DAYS and MEDIUM DAYS where you go over all
> the kinds of things you need to do as a player
>
> YOUR TRAINING REGIMENS  After all this babbling, talk about how you
approach
> your own playing in terms of PATTERNS  such as HARD DAY, EASY DAY, repeat
to
> infinity.   A lot of you guys have done a lot of years of experimenting
and
> experienced the things that work best for you.
>
> PLEASE SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCES with us.  I tried to keep this from getting
> too long, but I hope it gave us some specific things to refer to.
>
>
> glenn,no jokes this time, bengry
>
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