[Trombone-l] airy sound

[Roger Hecht]

At 10:44 PM 11/30/2006, julie wrote:
>Ok Ok...
>I don't know i think its maybe just because i did'nt take the time to really
>fix the mouthpiece on my face and I did not make enough technique to get
>everything right.
>When I change something i always want  it to work right now...
>So, when i did my last mpc change I just continue practice exerpt as loud as
>I can and my concerto...but i did'nt return to the basics...So I crash and
>then here in Quebec its the time of the year when it get colder and less sun
>and more rain and all this help a lot for the depression, so in case of
>continue to practice I just left my trombone and go cry somewhere in the
>school up to the time i return at home.
>Then I get my arban and my schlosberg and we work together for 3 days and
>then I'm mostly reach what i wanted...
>Now I just need to make my sound more compact and regular on all my range
>and I will be ok..
>:)
>Julie

I never replied to this this thread: I just never got to it, and 
besides, you seemed to be getting plenty of good advice. But the 
subject interested me because I went through a crisis like this once. 
It was the result of overwork, too much playing in the high register, 
etc. I didn't get an airy sound, per se, just an overall feeling of 
being shot. I recovered by taking some time off, playing a lot of 
long tones, working in the low register, and just taking it easy. I 
do the same kind of thing when I find I have over exercised. (I do 
aerobics and weight training.) Someone here noted that muscles 
develop mainly after exertion, during rest. That is also when they 
recover, and sometimes rest and going easy is the only answer. As an 
ex-athlete, I found the same patterns to be in place for me then.

In your case, it sounded to me from the beginning that you played so 
much that you literally deadened your lip muscles, to the point where 
they weren't fully vibrating as usual--hence the airy sound, as if 
some of the lip was vibrating and some was just letting air through.

As for your remark about changing mouthpieces and going all out, 
that's familiar, too. Changing mouthpieces can be trappy, at least 
for me. Often a new mouthpiece feels good out of the box. I've often 
wondered why. Maybe because it uses different muscles--or parts of 
muscles--which happen to be fresher, giving other muscles a break. 
Sometimes the new mouthpiece turns out to be the "answer," but more 
often (at least in my experience) that feeling of newness goes away 
and we end up returning to what we were using before. The problem is 
that sometimes, in our enthusiasm, we beat ourselves to death with 
the new mouthpiece, as you say you did. When we happen to be working 
muscles differently as noted above, we may find that the "fresh" 
muscles soon tire. Then trouble may ensue.

Did you say you were working with a euphonium and were playing it 
with the usual deep mouthpiece? That may have thrown you too, if you 
overdid your practicing--though I don't have much experience with 
that, so I can't speak from any.

One thing I've learned over the years is that the old football coach 
admonition to his sore muscled athletes of "wrap it up and walk it 
off" can lead to trouble if applied to delicate embouchere muscles. 
There are people who can get away with this sort of thing, but 
injured reserve lists of football (and other sports) teams are filled 
with players who came back from an injury too soon or worked out too 
much. Work out gradually, build from the basics, listen to your body 
when you're tired. Feel the burn, they say, but don't wallow in it.



Roger Hecht