As an example, here are a couple bars of Milde 4, taken from my runthrough at the beginning of my 9/23 lesson.
Milde4-9-23-lesson-excerpt17m01s(init) by TFox17
My tone in general isn't really vibrant and projecting enough. To address this, from a playing perspective, we've been working on a bunch of things like wrapping lips tight around teeth, to reduce the area of lip damping the reed, tighter lips, so the reed is held in a harder surface, lips supported by teeth (but never biting! the difference between biting and support has never been obvious to me), sometimes different things in the mouth/throat (but opening your throat seems incompatible with closing your jaw for support), and most of all and always, working on support in the air column. Not just a little bit, nor just a little bit more, but basically as much as physically possible, all the time. From a reed perspective, wider tip opening, with some thinning of tip and sides to get the stiffness down.
Here's another attempt, not yet successful, from later in the same lesson.
Milde4-9-23-lesson-excerpt25m40s(bad) by TFox17
Here's an attempt that's better:
Milde4-9-23-lesson-excerpt26m50s by TFox17
I think the key there was less pressure on reed, more open jaw. Or something, maybe I just had more air pressure.
And finally, my teacher playing the lick.
Milde4-9-23-lesson-excerpt25m05s(M) by TFox17
Tone is a really difficult subject, incorporating zillions of reputed effects, some of which may matter, or not. Googling, I found a post from a flute player, tackling some of the same kinds of questions. And a flute is much simpler, mechanically, than a bassoon, since there's no reed, it's just hard metal and player.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Flams and frailty
I've been practicing quite a bit recently. I figure that, if I can consistently get up early, I can get a session in before I need to help get the kids out the door and get to work myself, and also do a session after the kids have gone to bed, and end up with two practices a day. This is probably more effective than a single longer practice, and I don't have the minutes to spend on a single long practice anyway. Plus, if you're able to take a nap sometime, you can get the neural growth benefits of learning while sleeping. My wife, who reads the neuro literature, assures me that 20 minutes is as good as a full night, at least as far as learning is concerned.
I need the time, too. Here's advice from an anonymous Hannover grad student, forwarded to an IDRS board:
I spend a lot of time on the scales. More than M says I should, really. But I'd really like to be clean, and my ear is well tuned to hear all the junk between notes. Sometimes I spend time practicing flams. Based on a drum flam, I'll take a note transition, say B to D above the staff (B3 to D4) and intentionally play it wrong, moving first one of my fingers before the other, then again reversed. This allows me to hear what the various inaccuracies sound like, and then identify what kind of mistake I'm making when I try to play it clean. The point between at which the note is clean is often surprising to me. It's astonishingly difficult to be as precise as the ear can hear: temporal resolution in hearing goes down to 10's of microseconds, JASA 113:2790, a time difference that can't even be represented in CD quality audio, since it's at ~100kHz. Note transitions are orders of magnitude slower than that, of course, I'd guess maybe 10-100 milliseconds, but it still demonstrates that there's tons of time for beautiful, or less than beautiful, music in between the notes. So, thinking about note transitions, plus relaxing my hands (especially pinkies) while blowing hard enough to make beautiful tone, for every note in the scale... and just my scales take me quite a while.
As a result of this unaccustomed practice regimen, I've started to experience a variety of physical symptoms. I had abdominal soreness one day last week for a day, doubtless a sign of increasing muscle use. A few days ago I spent a day with my lips feeling sore and perhaps somewhat inflamed. I've abraded enough skin from my lips to make me worry about what it would cost, in terms of practice, to actually develop a cut. And I've had some jaw muscle pain, which makes me wonder if I'm clenching, either while playing or during the rest of my life. I also have some thumb joint pain occasionally, particular in the left thumb, but as I focus on keeping every finger curved and relaxed at every moment while I'm playing, and keeping the motions small and from the largest joint possible, I hope these spontaneously resolve. Avoiding pain is probably important, Stephen Caplan has an article re training for double reed players to avoid pain, and I recall long sections about running injuries in The Lore of Running devoted to diagnosing and correcting the problems without stopping running.
Is this level of investment sustainable, long term? Or even necessary, long term? Probably not, and I've already started to get some pushback. But I'm hoping that there are skills that once acquired don't require multiple hours a day to sustain. After all, I'm an amateur, but I'd like to be able to make the horn play.
I need the time, too. Here's advice from an anonymous Hannover grad student, forwarded to an IDRS board:
Work on sustaining your tone - LONG sustained TONES with tuner in front of you!
STOP vibrating until you have absolute control on your tone. Just so you know: vibrato is only a mean of expression, thus you use it when you decide you want to add color to a note that is important. When you decide you want to vibrate don't do it below the low F - it's ugly - think open string cello string, otherwise it sounds like a 72 year old baritone singer! Later on after you fixed your problems and get a solid tone, don't vibrate all the time, it's like not vibrating at all. Less is more this time. Do vibrato exercises for 6 months - 1 year, without actually vibrating in your playing! Don't use your vibrato randomly, or to hide your pitch flaws.
NO VIBRATO! I promise things will be better. PATIENCE! and lots of practice!
4 hrs of practice a day MINIMUM! STANDING! I am very serious...any respectable future artist/bassoonist should be beyond comfortable doing that. It will improve everything!
Aprox. 2 Hr of "warm up":
1.long tones from low b flat, nice round resonant, full, singing tone ( not ff) to the highest note you possibly can, and back - same even nice round tone ALWAYS. Try to have a firm embouchure, but not squeeze. Just let the air flow!!! Don't be scared!
2.Stacatto on the same note from low F to the highest note in 16th notes , equal, 8 beats each note. Start at a lower tempo. quarter note 116...and try to achieve a goal of lets say 140. lol
3. Trills, half and whole step...on all fingers...start slow and controlled! in mf-f.
4.SCALES: control so its sounds like a piano...THAT exact. in 8th notes and then 16th notes, legato, stacato, two slurred two tongues, slur every 2 16th notes, and then move the slur one 16th note. This is the msot important part of your routine for even fingers. See that you always have a nice, round even tone. The problem is the sound dying in the tenor register.
-different patterns in slow 16th WITH METRONOME ALWAYS! But you have to also do them in THIRDS, FOURTHS and ARPEGGIOS
- different articulation. First slow, controled and then increase speed over time.
DO THEM EVERY DAY! not every other day, not three times a week ..and so on! Practice with the metronome marking at the highest where you can play everything even, clean and clear!!!! so as low as quarter note 60...or less! The point is NOT speed, but accuracy!
Start with Weissenborn, then Milde! JUST those two will be great for now.
ALWAYS - very important - be careful at every tie, every link note to note...no crack, no pop, no hiss, no weird percussive sound. When you tongue it should always be clear, but not hard! Listen to lots of singers, opera how they phrase...good ones: Pavarotti, Domingo, try to be as smooth as them, listen to Dag play, Azzolini, Thunemann!
Try to also work on your imagination in playing, make a plan.
Not only will make you better, but it will make you GREAT! But it will ONLY make you as great as you are willing to REALLY be picky about the accuracy of them! All of this I am telling you is pointless if you are not REALLY picky! Don't let anything slide, everything clean and perfect!
A little advice: I hope you are serious about this...otherwise you might think of an alternative career. It is really hard to make it as a good bassoonist, there are plenty of good bassoonists. But if you really love it and are COMPLETELY dedicated to music and bassoon then go for it, you are made for it. But it is all up to you. Remember: when YOU don't practice, SOMEONE else is! Ok? But this has to be an EVERY DAY thing, otherwise you're wasting YOUR time and resources.
ALL has to be done STANDING up. Lessons, practice, not ensembles of course!
Try investing in a Heckel Bocal: CC2 or CC1. Those are the best. I use on, Dag uses one, and every other good bassoonist uses one! Call www.mmimports.com to try some. I know they're expensive, but if you ever decide to sell them, they're easy to sell! It will make ALL the difference in the world!
Practice with the metronome marking at the highest where you can play everything even, clean and clear!!!! so as low as quarter note 60...or less! The point is NOT speed, but accuracy!
ALWAYS play on good reeds!
Forget about solo/orchestral suff for 6 months! Ok? Because you have a whole lifetime to play those. But if you don't get the fundamentals right, you're screwed..bad habits that will haunt you and you will have problems all your life with. So, 6 months doesn't seem that bad, eh?
I spend a lot of time on the scales. More than M says I should, really. But I'd really like to be clean, and my ear is well tuned to hear all the junk between notes. Sometimes I spend time practicing flams. Based on a drum flam, I'll take a note transition, say B to D above the staff (B3 to D4) and intentionally play it wrong, moving first one of my fingers before the other, then again reversed. This allows me to hear what the various inaccuracies sound like, and then identify what kind of mistake I'm making when I try to play it clean. The point between at which the note is clean is often surprising to me. It's astonishingly difficult to be as precise as the ear can hear: temporal resolution in hearing goes down to 10's of microseconds, JASA 113:2790, a time difference that can't even be represented in CD quality audio, since it's at ~100kHz. Note transitions are orders of magnitude slower than that, of course, I'd guess maybe 10-100 milliseconds, but it still demonstrates that there's tons of time for beautiful, or less than beautiful, music in between the notes. So, thinking about note transitions, plus relaxing my hands (especially pinkies) while blowing hard enough to make beautiful tone, for every note in the scale... and just my scales take me quite a while.
As a result of this unaccustomed practice regimen, I've started to experience a variety of physical symptoms. I had abdominal soreness one day last week for a day, doubtless a sign of increasing muscle use. A few days ago I spent a day with my lips feeling sore and perhaps somewhat inflamed. I've abraded enough skin from my lips to make me worry about what it would cost, in terms of practice, to actually develop a cut. And I've had some jaw muscle pain, which makes me wonder if I'm clenching, either while playing or during the rest of my life. I also have some thumb joint pain occasionally, particular in the left thumb, but as I focus on keeping every finger curved and relaxed at every moment while I'm playing, and keeping the motions small and from the largest joint possible, I hope these spontaneously resolve. Avoiding pain is probably important, Stephen Caplan has an article re training for double reed players to avoid pain, and I recall long sections about running injuries in The Lore of Running devoted to diagnosing and correcting the problems without stopping running.
Is this level of investment sustainable, long term? Or even necessary, long term? Probably not, and I've already started to get some pushback. But I'm hoping that there are skills that once acquired don't require multiple hours a day to sustain. After all, I'm an amateur, but I'd like to be able to make the horn play.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Mozart, with orchestra
I play in a modest community orchestra. Is it the best orchestra in town? No, but it was the most enthusiastic when it heard that I was a bassoonist looking for a place to play, a year ago when I'd just picked up my horn again. Last season, our conductor programmed a movement of Mozart's flute concerto, starring our flutist and my friend R. I guess he liked it, because at the end-of-season party in the spring he chatted with me about doing solo repertoire again, this time with bassoon. I tried to sound as enthusiastic as I could without immediately committing, since, well, it's not actually all that easy a piece. And I'm still in the beginning stages of coming back. Nevertheless I practiced over the summer. And started lessons, one of the main purposes of which was to help prepare, and evaluate whether doing it was reasonable. I explained the situation at my first lesson, and the response was, "Sure, no problem, you have lots of time." Of course, that was before he'd worked with me much. At my last lesson, M said something like "Maybe you could work on the piece this year, then get it programmed for next year. Sometimes hard problems disappear after a break like that." But I'd never really given a definitive answer, and still spent most of my practice time trying to play scales cleanly at moderate tempos, and work up my etude.
This evening was the first rehearsal with our conductor back (he'd missed the first rehearsal of the year). I wasn't looking forward to it, since I was of mixed mind. On the one hand, I don't want to suck. When R played the flute concerto, I thought, wow, I'd love to do that, and in a couple years maybe I'll be ready. It's a life-long dream, really, playing a solo piece in front of an orchestra. When I was in high school, playing in the orchestra, I had no idea how it ever happened that one might get put in front. And a couple years after I left, my teacher had another student at the same school who did play a concerto movement with the orchestra. That was Vance Lee, who later became a pro with the Hong Kong Phil. I was so jealous. So life-long dream, never thought it would happen. I once read an article about a business magnate whose dream was to conduct some symphony. Being rich, he hired a major orchestra to play under his baton. Win-win, really: he gets to realize the dream, without having to both devote his life to music plus win the conductor lottery; and the orchestra got a donation of I think it was $250k, back when that was real money. He was, according to the orchestra members interviewed in the article, apparently quite good: he really knew the music, came in with the score memorized, and was technically able to conduct the group. So that was one way I could imagine to become a soloist: get rich, then buy it. But now the opportunity has come, but I'm not ready. And maybe can't be ready in time.
On the other hand, the future is uncertain. My original imagined timeline gave me another year. Heck, M's comment at last lesson was about another year. But I don't know if I'll even be living here a year from now. If I'll have a job. If I'll still be able to spend lots of time practicing bassoon. If my conductor will still be leading that orchestra, and if he'll still have lost leave of his senses, and want me to play the solo. So many uncertainties. Maybe I'd rather do it badly than not do it at all? And the opportunity may come only once per lifetime.
So yeah, of mixed mind, and realizing that I'd have to talk to him about it. At rehearsal tonight, he gave a short speech to the orchestra talking about the season, and talked about programming solo work in a vague way, but mentioning using "someone in the winds, maybe a bassoon" (looking at me) but also leaving himself room to schedule some vocalist, and alternate years with internal and external soloists. At break I went to talk to him, told him I'd been practicing, and started lessons, but there was a lot of work to be done, but the future is uncertain, and I'd rather do it badly than not do it at all. Which he basically took as a Yes not the Maybe I Hope So But I'm Not Certain I'll Be Ready This Year that I think I'd intended. He said, everyone could always be more ready. He said, Thanks, you've taken a load off my mind. So that's it, it looks like I'm committed. Mozart Bassoon Concerto, Kv191, first movement, this spring. Me. Standing in front of an orchestra. Assuming, of course, it's not a total disaster. Easy for the guy waving the baton to say it'll be fine, I'm the guy struggling to play scales cleanly at 60 bpm. A total disaster is possible, of course, in which case I think we'd take it off the concert and play something else, we've done that before.
And oh yeah, I ended up volunteering to serve on the executive. I didn't really want to, but what goes around comes around.
This evening was the first rehearsal with our conductor back (he'd missed the first rehearsal of the year). I wasn't looking forward to it, since I was of mixed mind. On the one hand, I don't want to suck. When R played the flute concerto, I thought, wow, I'd love to do that, and in a couple years maybe I'll be ready. It's a life-long dream, really, playing a solo piece in front of an orchestra. When I was in high school, playing in the orchestra, I had no idea how it ever happened that one might get put in front. And a couple years after I left, my teacher had another student at the same school who did play a concerto movement with the orchestra. That was Vance Lee, who later became a pro with the Hong Kong Phil. I was so jealous. So life-long dream, never thought it would happen. I once read an article about a business magnate whose dream was to conduct some symphony. Being rich, he hired a major orchestra to play under his baton. Win-win, really: he gets to realize the dream, without having to both devote his life to music plus win the conductor lottery; and the orchestra got a donation of I think it was $250k, back when that was real money. He was, according to the orchestra members interviewed in the article, apparently quite good: he really knew the music, came in with the score memorized, and was technically able to conduct the group. So that was one way I could imagine to become a soloist: get rich, then buy it. But now the opportunity has come, but I'm not ready. And maybe can't be ready in time.
On the other hand, the future is uncertain. My original imagined timeline gave me another year. Heck, M's comment at last lesson was about another year. But I don't know if I'll even be living here a year from now. If I'll have a job. If I'll still be able to spend lots of time practicing bassoon. If my conductor will still be leading that orchestra, and if he'll still have lost leave of his senses, and want me to play the solo. So many uncertainties. Maybe I'd rather do it badly than not do it at all? And the opportunity may come only once per lifetime.
So yeah, of mixed mind, and realizing that I'd have to talk to him about it. At rehearsal tonight, he gave a short speech to the orchestra talking about the season, and talked about programming solo work in a vague way, but mentioning using "someone in the winds, maybe a bassoon" (looking at me) but also leaving himself room to schedule some vocalist, and alternate years with internal and external soloists. At break I went to talk to him, told him I'd been practicing, and started lessons, but there was a lot of work to be done, but the future is uncertain, and I'd rather do it badly than not do it at all. Which he basically took as a Yes not the Maybe I Hope So But I'm Not Certain I'll Be Ready This Year that I think I'd intended. He said, everyone could always be more ready. He said, Thanks, you've taken a load off my mind. So that's it, it looks like I'm committed. Mozart Bassoon Concerto, Kv191, first movement, this spring. Me. Standing in front of an orchestra. Assuming, of course, it's not a total disaster. Easy for the guy waving the baton to say it'll be fine, I'm the guy struggling to play scales cleanly at 60 bpm. A total disaster is possible, of course, in which case I think we'd take it off the concert and play something else, we've done that before.
And oh yeah, I ended up volunteering to serve on the executive. I didn't really want to, but what goes around comes around.
On not flicking
The octave keys, or flick keys, are unique to the bassoon. There are octave keys on other instruments, of course, but they are part of the fingering, held down for the entire duration of the note. On the bassoon, the key is used only when initiating the note, to prevent a split attack, a brief multiphonic when tonguing, then released to avoid affecting the tone of the held note. They aren't necessary on most slurs, just tongued attacks. Also, there are three of them: one for A, one for Bb, B, and C, and one for D. Or that's the theory, anyway. Many students learn simplified fingerings which ignore these, and then must later learn, with great difficulty, to add them in order to advance. Some schools of playing ignore them entirely, accepting the split attack as part of the color of the sound. Then, there's how I first learned, when I was about 13. My teacher taught them as part of the fingering: that's how you play those notes, with those keys held down. His idea was that it would be easier later learn to release them after the attack, than learn to add them later. And its true, it's deeply ingrained for me, when I go to play one of those notes, my thumb goes to the key. My first bassoon didn't have a D key, so when I got one with a D, I had to learn to use it. It's still not as natural as the others, but I'm pretty good about getting it down.
Of course, now I have two problems. One is using them when it's not necessary. Slurred scales, I'm still going to those keys, even when there's no possibility of a split. This is a problem because it's wasted motion, and reduces fluency, as well as messing with the tone and intonation of the note. And getting off them quickly enough: to avoid the split, you just need to crack the hole open momentarily at the right moment, and then the rest of the note is unaffected. By default I'm jamming the key down, then start to think about releasing it. There's also risk: there are some nasty squeals hidden in a careless brush across the wrong key at the wrong moment. So I use those keys more often than absolutely required, and hold them down too long.
This comes up from the Mozart, the opening notes to the first trill section, which has a sixteenth-note D4 on the main first downbeat. I'm struggling with fingering this note anyway, since I've added the Eb vent to the fingering. But I'm pretty good these days at flicking it... good, right? No: M noted that at that speed, the D key is down for probably half the note, screwing up more than 50% of a rather important (but fast) note, and that D doesn't split anyway. I tried, and it's true: no multiphonic, even with no key. *sigh* So now I have to relearn again, learn to *not* flick my D's.
Of course, now I have two problems. One is using them when it's not necessary. Slurred scales, I'm still going to those keys, even when there's no possibility of a split. This is a problem because it's wasted motion, and reduces fluency, as well as messing with the tone and intonation of the note. And getting off them quickly enough: to avoid the split, you just need to crack the hole open momentarily at the right moment, and then the rest of the note is unaffected. By default I'm jamming the key down, then start to think about releasing it. There's also risk: there are some nasty squeals hidden in a careless brush across the wrong key at the wrong moment. So I use those keys more often than absolutely required, and hold them down too long.
This comes up from the Mozart, the opening notes to the first trill section, which has a sixteenth-note D4 on the main first downbeat. I'm struggling with fingering this note anyway, since I've added the Eb vent to the fingering. But I'm pretty good these days at flicking it... good, right? No: M noted that at that speed, the D key is down for probably half the note, screwing up more than 50% of a rather important (but fast) note, and that D doesn't split anyway. I tried, and it's true: no multiphonic, even with no key. *sigh* So now I have to relearn again, learn to *not* flick my D's.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Blue
Had a lesson yesterday. It sucked. I mean, I guess I wasn't expecting much, coming just a few days after having a week off, and I also missed practicing Wed evening entirely (though I had gotten a few minutes in the morning), but still, it sucked. Lack of confidence didn't help, so I experienced the "I played this better when I was practicing" sensation, but that's connected to practice, too. There's a confidence that comes from preparation, you know more or less how it will go. Knowing that you're badly prepared, on the other hand, can wreck your ability to even fake your way through something even to the level that you're at. Better to be well prepared, or to at least feel like you're as prepared as you can be, given your constraints. All psychology I guess, beyond the obvious (more practicing).
That, and the recording I tried to make cut out after the first few minutes.
So, what'd we do. Spent time on tone, playing just C3, the C in the staff. He took my reed, G11 I think?, and opened it up, to brighten the sound, then shaved lots off sides and tip to reduce the strength. An improvement, but then it felt sufficiently different when playing to be yet another distraction. Part of the process, though: gotta be able to play a forte, gotta be bright enough to be heard, and have to do whatever it takes to make that possible.
Scales. I currently play my set of scales as 16ths, quarter note a little under 60 bpm. I'd calculated how fast I'd need to move this up to play at say 120 in a year, improving on a log scale, and it starts about 1 bpm per week. So I'd moved up to 60, since the schedule says I need to be at 61 by the end of September. Whether 120 is a reasonable goal is totally debatable: the ABRSM starts at quarter-note=50 at Grade 1, and goes to 132 at Grade 8, but doesn't seem to specify whether the scale is 16ths, 8ths, or what. I'm guessing 8ths. Range is up to D5, slurred, legato tongued and staccato, major, melodic and harmonic minor, plus thirds (F, G only), chromatic and whole tone, and triad, dominant seventh, and diminished seventh arpeggios. I could do all that slowly now, I think. Barrick Stees does specify speeds, and starts at 60, ends at 120, over the whole range of the instrument up to about a high E (E5). That's college-level, for performance majors who presumably have more time to practice than I do, and four years to get through it anyway. Still, 120 is maybe a reasonable ultimate goal, even if the time frame is unreasonable. That said, M listened to my scales (done worse in lesson than at home), and suggested: 1) dropping the speed by a factor of two or so; eights or quarters and 2) focusing on how far my fingers move. So explicitly practicing the range of finger motion. He hasn't complained about that in awhile, but he definitely complained at my first lesson, when again I think I was nervous. I seem to recall my old teacher advocating that fingers would naturally come closer to the instrument as speeds increased, but maybe the direction of causality is reversed. So now, when I practice, I just need to think about 1) new fingerings 2) totally unfamiliar embouchure 3) very different air support 4) exactly how far I'm moving my fingers, while of course 5) relaxing completely at all times. Easy, huh.
We spent some time on the etude (Milde scale study 4, which I tried to take slowly, but played terribly anyway) and Mozart, but I've mostly forgotten what was said. And I have no recording.
I did practice this morning, since I probably won't get to tonight. Spent it all playing a C major scale. *sigh*
That, and the recording I tried to make cut out after the first few minutes.
So, what'd we do. Spent time on tone, playing just C3, the C in the staff. He took my reed, G11 I think?, and opened it up, to brighten the sound, then shaved lots off sides and tip to reduce the strength. An improvement, but then it felt sufficiently different when playing to be yet another distraction. Part of the process, though: gotta be able to play a forte, gotta be bright enough to be heard, and have to do whatever it takes to make that possible.
Scales. I currently play my set of scales as 16ths, quarter note a little under 60 bpm. I'd calculated how fast I'd need to move this up to play at say 120 in a year, improving on a log scale, and it starts about 1 bpm per week. So I'd moved up to 60, since the schedule says I need to be at 61 by the end of September. Whether 120 is a reasonable goal is totally debatable: the ABRSM starts at quarter-note=50 at Grade 1, and goes to 132 at Grade 8, but doesn't seem to specify whether the scale is 16ths, 8ths, or what. I'm guessing 8ths. Range is up to D5, slurred, legato tongued and staccato, major, melodic and harmonic minor, plus thirds (F, G only), chromatic and whole tone, and triad, dominant seventh, and diminished seventh arpeggios. I could do all that slowly now, I think. Barrick Stees does specify speeds, and starts at 60, ends at 120, over the whole range of the instrument up to about a high E (E5). That's college-level, for performance majors who presumably have more time to practice than I do, and four years to get through it anyway. Still, 120 is maybe a reasonable ultimate goal, even if the time frame is unreasonable. That said, M listened to my scales (done worse in lesson than at home), and suggested: 1) dropping the speed by a factor of two or so; eights or quarters and 2) focusing on how far my fingers move. So explicitly practicing the range of finger motion. He hasn't complained about that in awhile, but he definitely complained at my first lesson, when again I think I was nervous. I seem to recall my old teacher advocating that fingers would naturally come closer to the instrument as speeds increased, but maybe the direction of causality is reversed. So now, when I practice, I just need to think about 1) new fingerings 2) totally unfamiliar embouchure 3) very different air support 4) exactly how far I'm moving my fingers, while of course 5) relaxing completely at all times. Easy, huh.
We spent some time on the etude (Milde scale study 4, which I tried to take slowly, but played terribly anyway) and Mozart, but I've mostly forgotten what was said. And I have no recording.
I did practice this morning, since I probably won't get to tonight. Spent it all playing a C major scale. *sigh*
Monday, September 13, 2010
A week off
An unexpected trip to spend time with my parents, and now I'm trying to recover from a week away from the horn. After a couple of days it starts to come back, but the process is painful.
Starting to think a bit about anatomy of the lips: I'm just curious what the names of the muscles are that I'm trying to train. I'm trying to develop the lips-curled-around-the-teeth thing that M advocates, rather than the just-slap-the-lips-on-the-reed-and-blow thing that I seem to do naturally. There are, unfortunately, a lot of them, and it's not so easy to figure out which ones are controlling the process, and how. Doesn't matter, anyway, you learn faster by listening and trying things.
Did realize on interesting thing, while trying to clean up some flips and junk between notes, working on Milde 4. Going between a B2 and D#3 (ie B to D# in the bass staff), I still had some junk, even when very slowly and precisely moving all fingers simultaneously. But simultaneous movement is, I now realize, wrong: you want the *holes* to change simultaneously. But the Bb key starts to open its holes as soon as you touch the key, whereas opening a hole with a finger may take more motion before it's open, and closing a hole requires completion of the motion. So cleanness requires synchronization of all the mechanical delays to get the pitch to shift cleanly. Nothing for it but more practice, I guess, and focusing on those note transitions.
Another aspect is that, as you speed up, the junk between the notes occupies more of the total time of the note. So you have to be really clean in order to play fast clean. I guess this is why everyone says to practice slowly to play fast. Still, I hope I do end up getting faster at some point.
Starting to think a bit about anatomy of the lips: I'm just curious what the names of the muscles are that I'm trying to train. I'm trying to develop the lips-curled-around-the-teeth thing that M advocates, rather than the just-slap-the-lips-on-the-reed-and-blow thing that I seem to do naturally. There are, unfortunately, a lot of them, and it's not so easy to figure out which ones are controlling the process, and how. Doesn't matter, anyway, you learn faster by listening and trying things.
Did realize on interesting thing, while trying to clean up some flips and junk between notes, working on Milde 4. Going between a B2 and D#3 (ie B to D# in the bass staff), I still had some junk, even when very slowly and precisely moving all fingers simultaneously. But simultaneous movement is, I now realize, wrong: you want the *holes* to change simultaneously. But the Bb key starts to open its holes as soon as you touch the key, whereas opening a hole with a finger may take more motion before it's open, and closing a hole requires completion of the motion. So cleanness requires synchronization of all the mechanical delays to get the pitch to shift cleanly. Nothing for it but more practice, I guess, and focusing on those note transitions.
Another aspect is that, as you speed up, the junk between the notes occupies more of the total time of the note. So you have to be really clean in order to play fast clean. I guess this is why everyone says to practice slowly to play fast. Still, I hope I do end up getting faster at some point.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
An electric trumpet setup
Here's another complex audio/electronic setup. Ben Neill's "mutantrumpet", which has 3 bells, two sets of valves, midi controllers, 3 laptops, controlling video and audio. I'm particularly interested in the pickup and the pitch-to-midi converter, seeing as I bought a Little Jake a few weeks ago and am still working on getting it fully up and functional. He describes the sound coming from the leadpipe mic as being "like you're inside the instrument", and doesn't use it for audio, rather just for pitch, from which I'd gather that the sound isn't that nice/useful, at least as compared to a bell mic, which he also has.
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