There was a certain day in January, 1973, when I was alone with my tuba in the tuning room just off of the Symphony Hall stage, in Boston, that I called out into the air, “Jesus! If you are real, will you let me know?! Immediately, He, his Presence, was felt by me, and I […]
Commit yourself to never, ever playing mf, and that should reduce doing so to about only 75% of the time.
If you want to inhale silently, take in a given amount of air more easily, and more quickly, engage the nasal passage (the nose) when inhaling. Doing this then makes it possible to set your emouchure, with playing pressure, before you breathe, top and bottom center on mouthpiece rim, so that you, after your breath, […]
For those of you, particularly tuba players, who drop your jaw and form your oral cavity so as to say, “hooooo,” or, “huuuuuu,” will find that when you inhale using your nose as well as your mouth, that it will be almost physically impossible to form those vowel sounds. This is OK. One should not drop […]
When preparing to play an instrument, if you are inhaling only through the mouth, you can add approximately 1/4 more quantity of air, and breath much more quickly and quietly, by adding an “open nose” to the process. Nose-breathing is also the way you breath — automatically — all day long…..to sustain your life.
Are long tones useful? The predominant tendency, while holding a long tone, would usually be to increase playing pressure, tighten the embouchure, or unconsciously activate various improper actions as one continues to hold the tone. If one can manage to maintain proper ease of playing pressure, etc., it may be worthwhile, yet I really cannot see what value […]
Long tones are good, if the sound is good. I have my doubts about the value of bad sounds being held for a long time.
Some more here for you wind instrument players. Continuing on the subject of Getting Air. I have discovered THREE WAYS of getting the air into the lungs, so that it can be blown forth through your instrument. 1. “normal” breathing 2. “sniffing” between notes while playing 3. cyclical, or, circular breathing. 1. “Normal” […]
AIR OK. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject of AIR. There are two things we should know about air, if we are to use it to make music, either by playing a wind instrument or by singing: 1. How to get it, and, 2. How to use it. At this point, let […]