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RE: Physics vs Desire

Sorry this response is so long after the original exchange.

Somewhere in the loft I have a copy of a booklet entitled "The Easy Way To
Play A Brass Instrument"... if only.  This discusses the merits of building
up the embouchure muscles by dangling your instrument (!!!!!!!!) from a
piece of string (or rope for you BB players) and quotes some euph player
whose multi-octave register was attributed to this ritual.  The physics are
very simple:  the string/rope is adjusted so that it holds the instrument at
the right height (doubling-up the cord can help avoid unwanted twisting).
The length of the cord, weight of the instrument and angle you manage to
push the instrument away from its rest position will combine to give a
contact pressure from negligible to about half the weight of the instrument
(unless you can balance it on your gob, in which case it will be the full
weight!).  Just make sure before going to all this trouble, though, that A)
the strength of the cord is adequate, B) the attachment point is sound, C)
no-one is watching, D) your instrument insurance policy is up-to-date, and
E) you really believe there IS an easy way to play a brass instrument.

All the concept boils down to really is "buzzing" exercise - and that's just
what it sounds like on the instrument.  It will certainly beef up your
chops, but so does buzzing (most beneficial if done on your normal
mouthpiece with as little pressure as you can get away with).  As a fairly
impressionable 21 year-old who had been fired up with all sorts of nonsense
on the "NO pressure method" I collared Syd Lawrence and asked him if he
himself used it.  "No," he replied, "I just blow the  thing!"  It was
the answer I deserved.

At an unforgettable Arturo Sandoval master-class at - of all places - Wigan
Pier (honest) he was asked how much pressure he used to reach some
unbelievable stratospheric notes in a demonstration passage he had just
played.  After a suitably long pause he simply said, "Plenty!"  This is
someone who I've witnessed playing through more than FIVE octaves in a few
seconds of glorious showmanship.  His advice, and that of my friend Bobby
Shew, is to use just sufficient pressure to plug the leaks at the edges and
to properly locate the edges of the mouthpiece.  By his own admission, Bobby
used to belong to the "pinch-and-pray" school of playing in the days when he
was lead trumpet for legends such as Woody Herman and Buddy Rich.  Splashes
of blood from his punished lips still adorn manuscript in that late drumming
genius' library.

After much soul-searching and a dislocated jaw caused by extreme pressure,
he determined to approach the task more scientifically and now places a huge
emphasis on building up the buccinators rather than biceps.  He also goes to
great pains to explain HOW to use the diaphragm and other groups of muscles
to achieve both power and "altitude."  Too often one hears the trite advice,
"Use your diaphragm!"  In fact we all use our diaphragm every time we draw a
breath.  His advice (gleaned from, amongst others, Maynard Ferguson) is much
too detailed to try to repeat here.  If anyone wants to learn more, try to
get to one of his many master-classes around the world.  At one that I
organised a few years ago when I played for Darrol Barry's band, Tyldesley,
Bobby joined us on the last chord of an introductory fanfare written by
Darrol, with the most incredible super-C.  It was his FIRST note (he'd
warmed up during the short car journey by lip "fluttering" and a few short
bursts of mouthpiece buzzing).  I'll copy this message to him and see if he
has any more comments he'd care to add to the subject.  In the final
analysis, though, it's what comes out of the end of the
trumpet/cornet/ophecleide/serpent/euphonium/baritone/bass/horn/trombone and
how long it can be sustained that matters.

Hope these witterings are of some interest (at least to Ian and Simon).

John McLoughlin


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