[Trombone-l] airy sound

Sun Nov 26 19:05:12 CST 2006

We have certainly offered the young lady much advice - most of it plausible and seemingly wise.  

As someone who has walked the roads to embouchure perdition on occasion and experienced some apparently musically threatening challenges, I'd like to suggest some other possibilities.  Since I mostly lurk, I apologize in advance for any redundancies.

1.  In the 80s I bought a nice Elkhart 88H.  I was playing a lot professionally on a Bach 16M and was trying to become a "legitimate" musician on the larger horn at the same time.  The change to the 6½ AM mouthpiece that came with the horn went well enough; I had a matching rim made for the Bach and didn't miss a beat.  The horns played fundamentally differently: something I discovered later when I bought a Bach 42.  I can imagine changing horns and mouthpieces simultaneously throwing one for a complete loop; and becoming completely unhinged trying to make it better.  This is my purely musical comment.

2.  Have you ever tried to play with a pencil or something stuck in the slide.  The horn plays, but nothing is quite centered or in tune.  It took me two hours of misery at Harbor Place before I found the problem.  (A trombone has very few moving parts, so it's hard to imagine anything going acoustically wrong.)  A leaky water key or other small hole will only affect certain notes: the pencil caused the partials to become unaligned.

3.  I once had a terrible ear infection - couldn't hear much at all from my left ear.  (That's where we get most of our feedback.)  On the other hand, I could hear the air passing over my teeth and had some fun fooling around with that.  (I wonder how many people thought I was smoking something?)  I imagine that a wax blockage would have the same effect.  Play the horn into a wall to try to find out what others hear.  Check your ears.

4.  I'm not going to try to be an expert on diet and body pollutants.  However, if they made much difference, we would have far fewer heroes from the past than we do.
jw

-----Original Message-----
From: trombone-l-bounces at server5.samford.edu
[mailto:trombone-l-bounces at server5.samford.edu]On Behalf Of julie
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2006 6:56 PM
To: james meador; trombone-l at server5.samford.edu
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] airy sound

I think i will try an other week on that mouthpiece but maybe if I do more 
technique and less other stuff it will help..

----- Original Message -----
From: "james meador" <jamesmeador at hotmail.com>
To: <trombone-l at maillists.samford.edu>; <super_toaster at hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2006 9:54 PM
Subject: [Trombone-l] airy sound

> Julie,
>
> I am concerned that this change just 'suddenly' occured two weeks ago.  If 
> you changed your mouthpiece a month ago, this to me is most likely the 
> culprit (if you say your horn has no leaks or other damage).  For me there 
> is always what I call a 'grace period' with a new mouthpiece.  Almost 
> always when I try a new mouthpiece it feels and sounds great, and I wonder 
> why it took me so long to find my perfect mouthpiece.  Then usually after 
> two weeks or so, my embouchure muscles 'adjust' to the new dimensions, 
> rim, shape, airflow, resistance, etc. and more often than not the 
> mouthpiece turns out to be terrible, or at least not better that what I 
> was already playing.  Follow the suggestions of changing back to your 
> original equipment to see if that is the problem.  (Like Wayne, I have 
> never heard of such as thing as a sound being too dark.  Dead or dull 
> maybe, but those are different concepts completely.)
>
> The only other thing I can think of is the possibility of your embouchure 
> resetting itself to a more efficient position.  My progress can always be 
> charted by three or four steps forward followed by a step back, so to 
> speak. The more I practice, the faster these steps occur.  The step back 
> normally lasts about two weeks, and during that time I feel like I can't 
> play worth a damn, but then I come through and things just get a little 
> easier and sound better.  My embouchure has reset itself to a more 
> efficient position and I am able to use a little bit less air to play a 
> bigger, fuller sound.  Phil Teele outlines this very same idea in his 
> book, Embouchure Studies for Bass Trombone.
>
> Best,
> James
>
> ======================
> James N. Meador, Bass Trombone
> Orquesta Sinfónica de Yucatán
> +52-999-221-5845 cell
> +52-999-195-1144 home
> jamesmeador at hotmail.com
>
>
> From: julie harnois <super_toaster at hotmail.com>
> To: <trombone-l at server5.samford.edu>
> Subject: [Trombone-l] airy sound
> Sent: Friday, November 24, 2006 7:19 PM
> Hi!I'm kind of depress actuallysince 2 weeks i'm so confused by this 
> problem and it seems of
> nobody can help me around maybe you have suggestion..I'm in 1st year of 
> masteri practice a lot
> (4-5hrs a day) since some years i had reach a great soundbut since 2 weeks 
> its the worst time of
> my lifei sound like when i was in high schoolnot able to do anything 
> (range flex..)with a lot of
> air in my sound and tired after one hourI ha change my mouthpiece a month 
> ago...the one I had
> before was giving me a to dark sound so I change it to get something 
> brigther, It had work
> really well for 2 weeks... (I was playing on a laskey m47 and i switch for 
> a rath 5L)I had
> stared euphonium lessons 2 month ago at school...I don't know why its like 
> that but i am in
> trouble rigth now...and the only point I get from people around me is 
> ...try to play less or try
> to play more..I had change nothing in my warm up technique or whateverhow 
> coul this
> happens..thanks for your help!Julie
>
>
> 
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