[TPIN] Re: Air and stomach conception

[Rick Rangno]

What we have here is an incomplete explanation of what the teacher is asking Chris to do. I should know....I'm his teacher :-)

Hi Chris, nice to see you here! I told you you'd get lots of advice here from some of the great folks here on TPIN!!! Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to chime in here and try to explain what's going on.

First, the use of little to no facial muscle.....

The little to no use of the facial muscles I recommended has to do with the fact that Chris was carrying an inordinate amount of tension in his face, lips, jaws, abdominals....heck, everything....in order to play a second line G. He was so tense that almost nothing was making its way out. Air and air support was minimal. His range was poor - barely and inconsistently to G on top of the staff - and mouthpiece pressure was being used as the range method of choice :-)

My purpose for the facial admonition was to relax his facial muscles and to LET the sound out. We have worked to decrease this to a level of tension appropriate to the range being played in. Of course tension is required to play throughout the range of the trumpet. The question is "where should the tension be created and how much should you use?" If you are at max facial tension on a middle G, then what do you do when you have to play higher? Where can you go?

 Personally I'm an advocate of letting the air and the large muscles of the torso do the majority of the work and not asking the lips to do much more than vibrate to produce the tone. Some tension is needed as we ascend, but not much more than that required to keep the air from spilling out of the sides of our mouth. Mouthpiece pressure is also variable and again is dependant on the register we are playing in. Try to play a double hi C with the same mouthpiece pressure as a low C. I'll quote Claude Gordon here: "First there will be no pressure, then no tone, then no job!"

I've always loved that quote! However, huge mouthpiece pressure being used in the middle register is, I believe, not needed nor is it appropriate.

Now the stomach conception....

Allowing the stomach to move outwards is used in order to get the air into the lungs in a relaxed fashion. I believe that inhaling in a tense fashion begets a tense sound. I certainly do not advocate "breathing from the stomach" I do advocate a "wedge" type of breathing to support and compress the air if needed. It's certainly nothing radical and doesn't contradict Claude Gordon's "big breath - chest up" in any way. To my way of thinking they are virtually the same thing. If your chest is up you can't have your gut sag - you'll create the wedge naturally. This is dependant of course on having good posture, which most of my students do NOT. They must constantly be reminded not to slouch as this cuts off the relaxed and free use of the air. 

There are so many roads that lead to the same destination in learning this great piece of pipe of ours. In my teaching I use concepts used and developed by Claude Gordon, Donald S. Reinhardt, Don Jacoby, Carmine Caruso, Bill Adam, Jerry Callet, Bobby Shew and so many others. Every student I have is different and each learns in a different way. All of the so-called methods have much more in common than they differ. They all work for someone. It's my job to find my students the best path to their learning, and how to become their own best teachers.

This is a great thread and I'd love to read more of all your thoughts on this. I'm still looking to learn and improve as both a player and a teacher. If any of you want to discuss this further I'd be happy to carry on either on or off list. The more we go at it the more our students benefit.

Cheers,

Rick