[TPIN] Re: Air and stomach conception

Thu Nov 1 16:06:16 CDT 2007

Hi Rick,

I figured there must have been more context behind this. That's why I re-posted later, to ammend my early morning "rant".

All makes sense.  I had a student years ago who was so incredibly tense, that it used to make me nervous to watch him draw a breath!  Whole different issue. So much of it is mindset also.

Did you ever spend any time in Philly, PA or NYC?  You're name sounds very familiar...

 - da

On Thu, 1 Nov 2007 17:39:13 -0400, Rick Rangno wrote
> 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
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David Arndt
http://www.oriondevel.com
973.228.7843 (office)
973.464.7065 (mobile)

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