[TPIN] air support on trumpet

[Tim Phillips]

I am developing a rather new idea about breath support - maybe it's 
not.. probably not, but I've never heard it said quite this way.  This 
is influenced by my time with Mr Jacobs over many years and my time Jim 
Manley.   YMMV - and this is the opinion of me... FWIW.

The first point of resistance to the air is the lips.  No closed throat, 
no raised tongue.  As open a throat as possible, as big an interoral 
cavity was possible (high vowels will cause your sound to be brighter) 
and jet stream the air forcing you to make the lips tenser to resist the 
air.

Take a full breath, let it go, but put a finger over your lips, stopping 
the air from escaping.  Feel the pressure against the lips from the air 
pushing your finger  and the lips away from the teeth.

If you release the air with full lungs against closed lips, the air 
pressure behind them will blow them out to the mouthpiece - effecting a 
seal with the mouthpiece and negating the need to use excessive 
mouthpiece pressure back against the lips.  This also produces a very 
fast air stream at the aperture when the large slow air stream hits this 
tiny portal that rapidly opens and closes to excite the air to produce 
sound.   So, breath support is a large, slow air column providing air 
pressure against the back of the closed lips, supporting them against 
the mouthpiece.  If it weren't for the mouthpiece, the lips would fly 
apart.  The muscles of the lip area help focus the tissue then around 
the mouthpiece so that control of the vibrating surface can be gained.

Clear as mud and overly technical???

Tim Phillips
Trumpet Instructor, Lenoir-Rhyne College
iplatrpt at unifourbrass.org
http://www.unifourbrass.org

weaselman1 at aol.com wrote:
> 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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