[Trombone-l] lip weight trainer

[Tom Ervin]

Ralph:
I do not know, honestly, if these chop-sticks are especially good.  
Maybe in  some cases? Maybe in most cases?  Dunno.
A trumpet grad student at UA developed them and sells them. (I don't  
sell them, do I? I don't have any.)

She was a  very good player, and persuaded a number of our brass  
players to try them and to log their practice. Their logs and their  
comments were the subject of her Music Ed research project.

They generally found improvement, or said they did.  However some  
improvement usually comes whenever one starts logging practice and  
setting goals. Only a few of my weaker students found time to work  
with them, and most of them lied about their logs, if I remember right.

I tried them only a little.  This came in the last several years of  
my teaching career.  I sensed that they did help build some muscle,  
on me, which is generally good UNLESS the muscle development is  
"uneven" or causes other problems.

There's a tale about Philip Farkas, the wonderful Chicago horn  
player. Phil hated flying.  The CSO had a series of concerts in Los  
Angeles. He drove. He had been reading about "isometric exercises,"  
the kind Charles Atlas used to hawk, stationary force exercises such  
as pushing your hands together, or pulling them apart. Very little  
motion.  All across the country, Phil couldn't really play and  
practice, so he made a firm embouchure and just HELD it for long  
periods.  When he got to LA he could barely play. Now, that's the  
story as I heard it, may not be true at all or maybe a little.

Such isometric exercise will be no substitute for playing a lot and  
practicing well. It might help some weak embouchures develop.

TE




On May 5, 2009, at 11:50 AM, rrodri1034 at aol.com wrote:

> Tom,
>
> Hi, and thanks for the bit of info. I have a quick question  
> regarding the "lip weight trainer" chop-sticks.  I am returning  
> Tbonist and besides all the normal work with long tones and slurs,  
> is this technique any good? and what are adv and disadv?
>
> Thanks in advacnce for the response, and by the way I bought your  
> Rangebuilding book, is phenomenal. I started using some of the  
> pieces of the book.
>
> ralph
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Ervin <ervint at u.arizona.edu>
> To: Trombone-l at samford.edu
> Sent: Tue, 5 May 2009 10:53 am
> Subject: [Trombone-l] shipping costs, shameless plug
>
> I might point out that at my little website, such as it is, shipping
> is One Dollar.
> You buy more, it's still One Dollar. Flat rate (in the USA and  
> Canada).
> Folks write me and won't believe it, thinking the site must be
> broken. No.
> It's turned out to be a pretty good model, at least for me.
> Get greedy, buy more, get multiple copies for gifts, give 'em to the
> students (graduation presents?), load up the truck, get shirts too,
> save on shipping, yeah!
>
> *******++++++
>
> Tom Ervin
> ervint at u.arizona.edu
> Prof of Trombone, Univ Arizona (Emeritus)
> ...now a recovering trombone player.... ; >}
> (520)241-4411 (cell)
> website:     <tom-ervin.com>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>

*******++++++

Tom Ervin
ervint at u.arizona.edu
Prof of Trombone, Univ Arizona (Emeritus)
...now a recovering trombone player.... ; >}
(520)241-4411 (cell)
website:     tom-ervin.com