[TPIN] air support on trumpet

[weaselman1 at aol.com]

Hello list:

I would like to know some different opinions about air support on the trumpet.? What I am most interested in is what is happening in the abdomen.? For example, singers do what is called the "valsalva maneuver."? To feel what is happen in the abdomen during this, hold your nose shut with your fingers and, keeping your mouth shut, blow.? Your abdomen should push outward slightly, and you should get the same effect in the lower back.

While opera singers use this for air support, other instrumentalists have adopted a similar approach.? The only ones I know who attempt to play this way constantly are woodwind players, especially clarinetists.? The only time I have heard it applied to trumpet is by a few players who say to push your abdomen outward when descending.? What this does is returns your abdomen to a more-relaxed position so you don't get "locked-in" to "high-note air speed."? In this method, the abdomen goes inward when ascending to the highest notes.

However, I have had some success with using the valsalva maneuver all the way up to high F, even on piccolo trumpet.? The advantages for me are bigger sound, tone matching better throughout registers and dynamics, easier flexibility (especially descending slurs), and the feeling of using less tension for high notes.? I have not been able to use valsalva constantly.

I am wondering if anybody on the list has experience playing this way or experience being taught this way, etc.? Also, if anybody has any information on brass players who may have played this way, that would be great (as much as Arnold Jacobs talks about wind, I have not come across one of his teachings that addresses the abdomen).

Thank you much for your help. 

Regards,

Bryan

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