Practical Horn Pedagogy! Dr. Abigail Pack ABC 2017!!

Transcription

1 Practical Horn Pedagogy Dr. Abigail Pack ABC 2017 Session 1: The Fundamentals of Posture and Mouthpiece Placement Session 2: Embouchure and Tone Production (review and troubleshooting) Session 3: Technique and Troubleshooting

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3 I. Air and Breathing OH Hot soup, lasagna or [insert favorite hot food of choice] OH TEW mmmm pew/tew ***avoid technical explanations and stick to familiar sensations and ideas, such as balloons and wind***

4 Simple Breathing Exercises check out my warm-up hand-out for breathing patterns hold out your hand in front of your face (or piece of paper) with horn embouchure and aperture to feel stream of cold air BUZZ EVERYTHING ON THE MOUTHPIECE have students do jumping jacks (to get body reacting to needing air as a cardio response, then blow through horn) all breathing exercises should be with a horn embouchure and horn aperture

5 2. Tongue position and tonguing tip of the tongue to the top of the teeth? (I disagree with this) Say Tee Tu Toh and consider where your tongue touches Does the tongue actually go up and down or back and forth? Golden Rule: PLAY WHAT SOUNDS GOOD

6 3. Range (and Tongue Position) arch the tongue/ say eee (cold air) keep tip of tongue to the front of the mouth behind bottom lip blow airstream down the chin/bottom of mouthpiece fast air and tight corners drop tongue/ say aww (warm air) drop jaw and open oral cavity blow airstream to center of mouthpiece fast air and tight corners

7 4. Sound refinement (intonation, tone and volume) What affects pitch? room temperature hot=sharp, cold=flat slide placement in=sharp, out=flat right hand position in=flat, out=sharp valve combo/alternate fingerings poor use of air leadpipe angle and embouchure strength, mouthpiece pressure, oral cavity

8 More on that last one. (leadpipe angle and embouchure strength, mouthpiece pressure, oral cavity) Facts: - brass players use too much pressure because their corners are weak - brass players leadpipe angles are too high (caveat: no dental issues) because they are pinning the upper lip to hold the buzz - if students free buzz and mouthpiece buzz, they will create more strength in the corners - there is good pain and bad pain - good pain=muscle gain - bad pain=nerve constrain keep reading there s more

9 More facts - the tongue has great influence and control over pitch - eee or closed jaw on a pitch that needs a slower vibration and air stream=sharp - aww or open jaw on a pitch that needs a faster air stream will cause pitch to sag=flat - pitch will sag, also, from lack of air support (air support means more air, but only if the corners are tight)

10 And lastly, tone and volume Fast facts: - controlled loud playing can only come with strong embouchure - controlled soft playing can only come with strong embouchure - controlled tone of ANY kind can only come with you guessed it, strong embouchure - What s the best way to get a strong embouchure? 1) and 2) - have students practice long tone patterns with crescendi and decrescendi (include articulated notes in there too) (Insert another cool demo here)

11 5. Troubleshooting Basic Technical development/refinement of sound and tight corners other things that help: - wet lips - horn off the leg for better control - lip slurs and arpeggios - changing vowel shapes with tongue (maybe another cool demo?)

12 and tight corners other things that help: - free buzzing and mouthpiece buzzing - LONG TONES - LONG TONES with a tuner - and then more LONG TONES

13 3 letter word, starts with A (but also) - efficient valves - weight distribution of horn - relaxed posture/right arm/no tension

14 What to do about F R A C K S AIR - Arpeggios (articulated and slurred) - Buzzing entire passages/etudes/solos on mouthpiece" - feeling and hearing pitches (could be a good time for cool demo)

15 Questions and Comments