[Trombone-l] Technical Question

[Richard Corliss]

Let me suggest a  source for answering your question. Go to the Trombone-L
Forum. Look there for the name Joe Jackson who I think now runs that forum.
At least he has been a moderator. Go then to his website and check the
material he has on the upper range.

Forgive me if what I say has been said before. I have been absent for a
while.

When I started to study this problem from the discussions on the forum and
here I adopted the view that the key to upper range was the frequence that
the lips fibrate and that the key to this was the speed of the air. The key
to the speed of the air is the size of the apeture formed by your lips. To
this needs to be added the importance of the source of air - a push from
below and a reliance on that push. What I thought was the mastery of the
upper range depended on is practice and on the development of muscle to
control  the push of air from below into a small apeture.

I still think that there is truth in the above picture. What Joe has
convinced me, however, is that mastery is more about technique than it is
about muscle. Here Joe instroduces a number of different factors - the place
of the tongue, the character of the oral cavity, etc. I suggest checking out
his website.

Richard Corliss





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Samuel Keyser" <keyser at MIT.EDU>
To: "Trombone-L" <TROMBONE-L at server5.samford.edu>
Cc: "Samuel Keyser" <keyser at MIT.EDU>
Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 2:43 PM
Subject: [Trombone-l] Technical Question


> Dear T-listers,
>
> I have a technical question about playing tenor trombone in the upper
> registers.  I'd be interested in the opinions of the listers.  I have
> heard several of you on CDs and via streaming.  Obviously, you know
> what you are doing.  I'd like to know what you are doing.
>
> In particular, here is my question. If the upper lip is the lip that
> is vibrating (as I recall reading in a recent thread), then it seems
> that the higher one plays, the tighter the upper lip edge should be.
> That, I take it, is the counterpart to moving one's finger down a
> violin string toward the bridge, i.e. shortening the vibrating length.
>
> Assuming the truth of the above, then it ought to be the case that
> the higher one goes, the greater one tries to spread the lips. I take
> it spreading the lips is tantamount to shortening the vibrating
> length of the lip qua string.
>
> However, a professional trumpet player friend of mine tells me that
> he does exactly the opposite; namely purses the lips as one goes up.
> He is a fine player, pure upper register tone and plays up there
> effortlessly.  Whatever he is doing works for him.  And lip pursing
> is part of what he does.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jay
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Trombone-l mailing list
> Trombone-l at maillists.samford.edu
> http://maillists.samford.edu/mailman/listinfo/trombone-l
>