[Trombone-l] Embouchure

[Jay Sheridan]

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Carr" <georgecarr at gmail.com>

> I have seen several talented college-age players ruined by teachers
> who insisted on particular embouchures.  I was fortunate to study with
> Joe Duchi at Ohio State (did I mention him during the favorite-teacher
> thread?), who had a more holistic approach: he wouldn't hesitate to
> correct embouchure problems that were interfering with tone center,
> flexibility, or extremes of range, but players came out of his studio
> with all sorts of embouchure types, and many went on to great playing
> success.
>
> A contrasting example is John Kitzman (who studied at U. Michigan
> alongside Duchi), and whose clinic (at least the one I attended)
> emphasized a very specific embouchure setup and muscle set.  I tried
> it in the clinic, it didn't work for me, and now I don't even remember
> much about it, except that it involved tilting the horn slightly
> upward so as to permit the lower lip to vibrate more freely.
>
> Overall, even though I don't teach, I'd recommend the more open-minded
> approach, just because I would have never gone anywhere if I'd studied
> with Kitzman as a younger student.  But your mileage may vary.
>
> George
=============
George- You would have not gone very far because you never practiced., and
thank you for not teaching, by the way. ;-)  I will agree that Joe Duchi
only made necessary changes, he knew he couldn't make George practice, so he
always taught him how to sight read (and George is a great sight
reader)...Anyways, what I remember from the Kitzman clinic, is that he
refused to teach with keeping the rubber stopper on the end of the slide.
What that has to do with embouchure, I don't know. It is just a shame, I
guess, that we could sit through a clinic with such a great player and only
remember very minor things. George- at least we could say that we were still
pretty young at that time.