Tension-less Playing Made Easy

Copyright 2013Clint 'Pops' McLaughlinwww.BbTrumpet.com

Trumpet playing is a strange thing. Thousands upon thousands of amateurs play using lots of facial tension, yet the professionals don't.

What did you just say Pops?

I said:Pros don't play with the same amount of facial tension that average players do. They usually don't use the same muscles either.

Several studies using infra red photography have shown that Pros tend to use the muscles within inch 1 inch from the lips and NOT the cheek muscles. However; almost all hobby and amateur players use the cheek muscles more than any other.

Average muscles used by Pro Brass Players.

Green means the muscles are lightly used.

Next you will see the muscles used by High School, College and comeback players. You will notice they are yellow and some red. Yellow is strenuous use and red is severe overuse.

Average player.

(I used a drawing because I didn't have permission to publish pictures from the studies.)

One study is:

Bertsch, Matthias; Maca, Thomas. Jean-Pierre Mathez (Hrsg.). Visualization of Brass PlayersWarm up by infrared Thermography. Brass Bulletin: International magazine for brass players, 114. Vuarmarens (CH): BRASS BULLETIN, 2001.

The 2 groups are using different parts of the face. This is the 1st thing I change in every student I get.

Tension from the side prevents tongue arch from working because it locks down some of the movement. Remember arch helps when it causes the angle of lip alignment to adjust. If the face is stiff and locked down then this can't happen.

Tension also tires you out and it hinders the lips and makes it hard for them to vibrate which prevents resonance and harms range. OK I know most won't believe this so: place your finger on your resting lips and then make your embouchure. Did you stretch the lip out, flatten out the cushion, cause it to become tense itself. For 9 out of 10 the answer is yes.

This tension comes from several reasons. 1st we are all told to keep the corners firm but there are 2 problems. The corners that teachers talk about are the corner of the buzz and NOT the corner of the lips. And when we talk about firm corners we mean to use the frown muscles that go from the top lip to the chin and NOT the cheek muscles.

Sadly in the 6th grade you didn't ask for clarification and so the confusion happens.

Another place comes from teachers using sloppy phrases like tighten up instead of saying use lip to lip compression. These sloppy phrases cause 90% of our playing problems but they are widely used anyway.

For 30 years I have talk about people over-dampening their lips and killing resonance. What happens is you make the lips tight and they are hard to vibrate. This prevents the buzz from being big enough to give our upper harmonics.

Buzzing the stiff tissue for the desired note means the upper harmonics have no place to form and so there is no resonance.

Most Pros are resonant. That is a combination of being relaxed in pitch center AND allowing vibrations to happen inside the aperture tunnel. Most hobby players fight to keep the vibrations outside but that prevents the upper harmonics from being strong enough to make you resonant.

If you record a professional player and look at their sound through a spectrum analyzer, you will see that there is more intensity in the 2nd 4th harmonics than in the fundamental. The octave above the note being played is stronger than the fundamental as is the fifth above that and the octave above that.

A resonant players loudest frequency is NOT the note being played but an octave above.

Because the average player plays on the stiff tissue only their loudest frequency is the fundamental and they have no resonance. When you force the note to be played on stiff tissue there is nothing left to vibrate for the higher harmonics. Vibrating inside the aperture tunnel allows the higher harmonics to automatically vibrate on the outer stiff lip tissue and BOOM you have instant resonance.

So I am telling you what you always knew but didn't want to admit.

Pros play trumpet differently from everyone else. This can't be a surprise to anyone.

Pros play 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 hour days and the average player has already lost some range at the 30 minute mark. You knew that they did something vastly different. You just didn't know how to get there.

Well with some help everyone can get to the point where they have a decent range for 2-3-4 hours. You can do what you need to do and enjoy it with just a few changes.

I am going to tell you how to change to a Pro player embouchure in this book. If you need visual help my trumpet course shows clips of us doing these things.

http://www.bbtrumpet.com/vseriesall.html

Relaxing the facial tension and becoming resonant takes several steps. I normally teach this as an all day lesson. That is 6 hours with me, on your own it could take twice as long.

1st Step

I start by having them anchor tongue. That is when the tip of your tongue is always behind the lower teeth and you do your tonguing with the TOP of the tongue against the top teeth or gum line.

This causes a natural and constant tongue arch. (You will need this later.)

I make them practice anchor tonguing too too on the top teeth for notes from low C to 3rd space C. Tee tee for notes 4th line D to G on top of the staff (around the gum line.) And finally tiss tiss for all notes higher than G above the staff. This tiss is when the TOP of the tongue hits the ridge about inch higher than the gum line.

I have people tongue scales and the tonguing exercises in the Arban book I like the ones starting on page 28. However; there are many good tonguing exercises, Brandt, Clarke Supplemental, Williams...

2nd Step

After they can tongue using the anchor tonguing, I have them play a didgeridoo. I do this because it is the only thing we can blow that is pass / fail. You either relax and play the drone note or you don't.

Some examples are you can play pedal tones but 9 out of 10 people actually tighten their face to play these and so pedals don't relax the offending muscles. We could even play a trombone mouthpiece but again we can keep tension in the face when doing this.

You simply can't have tension and play the drone note on a didgeridoo. I want you to play the didgeridoo wrong however.

I want it centered on your lips like playing tuba. You relax and allow the lips to slightly go into the didgeridoo and vibrate the INSIDE of the lips.

A.Imagine a horse blowing through its mouth and flapping its lips. Do this yourself without the didgeridoo by loosening your lips and blowing with enough air to let them flap naturally. Keep your lips flapping evenly and constantly.

B.Place the didgeridoo to your lips with just enough pressure so no air escapes from the sides. Relax your lips and blow gently, allowing your cheeks to puff out as you blow. Your lips should start vibrating to produce a drone sound. If it helps, start your lips vibrating by moving your tongue as if you are spitting out a watermelon seed.

If you make a tooting sound, your lips/face is too tight.

If you make a whooshing sound, your lips are too loose.

Here are 3 videos on youtube about didgeridoo and trumpet with me and my student Keith Fiala.

http://youtu.be/qCTwioRxsSQ

http://youtu.be/31TeKiYACL8

http://youtu.be/owq3bue4fjg

If it isn't working then this and others are also on my website.http://www.bbtrumpet.com/buzz.html

Didgerdioos are cheap and easy to find. I have seen them on Ebay for 10-15 dollars and at stores for 25. You can even get a 1 dollar golf club bad tube but it will take longer to relax into it because it is smaller in size.

Once you can play the drone. (This can take 10 minutes to 10 hours depending on how tight you are.)

Anyway; once you can play the drone note on the didgeridoo you are ready for step 3. The lack of tension you feel playing the didgeridoo is the same as what your low C should feel like.

I have had people tell me that their low C is 10 times as tight and it was but they learned.

3rd Step

Play the drone on the didgeridoo and then with the same relaxed face try to play a note on the trumpet. 9 out of 10 will play well below low C often even below pedal C.Stop.

Play the didgeridoo again and then when you try the low C on the trumpet, keep relaxed but use tongue arch (whistle) to find and center the pitch for low C. (This can take a few tries for some people.)

Don't rush this step everything else builds on this. Stay relaxed for Low C go back and forth playing the drone on the didgeridoo and playing the relaxed Low C. Do this until it starts to feel more natural.

4th Step

Play the drone on the didgeridoo again and play your new relaxed Low C. Now with just using slightly more tongue arch, play a Low D. Master these 2 notes relaxed and then play a relaxed E, F, G... Up to Middle C.

You now have 1.5 octaves of effort-less and tension-less notes. Low F# to Middle C.

5th Step

Play some exercises and songs in this 1.5 octave range. Your Arban book is full of them.

6th Step

Using the tee syllable and anchor tonguing at the upper gum line you can work the tension-less playing up to G on top of the staff.

Somewhere in the D, E, F and G at the top of the staff you will of course start to add some tension back but it should be or even of the tension that it was yesterday in this same range. Let the trumpet play rather than force it to play.

This is the step that sometimes throws people. When you need to add a little and that means LITTLE tension, do NOT use the side of your face.You want to use the frown muscle slightly.

So we need to FIND how it feels to use that group of muscles. I like people to experiment with holding a pencil with their lips. Feel the different muscles doing the job and focus in on the frown muscles. IT can take a few tries but once you feel them contract you will notice that they don't tighten up the top lip. The frown muscles create lip compression without lip tension because the lip muscles don't get pulled on from the sides.

7th Step

Using the tiss tonguing syllable work on playing easier notes above the staff up to High C. Again we want to start at Low C really relaxed and let arch, hiss and finally compression play the notes. We don't want to use the muscles on the sides of our face to do this.

This means that getting a relaxed G is vital. Then getting a relaxed A, then a B and finally a relaxed C. This means don't rush to the end, work on the process. The process is what changes your playing NOT finally getting to High C.

8th Step

OK now you can play with much less tension than before. In a month you may want to do all those steps again and reduce the tension even more.

However; you do want to work on playing in the aperture tunnel and getting more resonant.

I mentioned the aperture tunnel 12 years ago in a book and the idea seemed to surprise some people.

Too many people think of the lip vibration as going 1 way. It has a length side to side. Well the vibration has a height top to bottom and more importantly a depth front to back.

If you were a normal player, then you spent years or decades holding your lips tight against the teeth because facial tension does that.

This means that you vibrated the outside of the lips but never inside between the lips.

Playing in the aperture tunnel is vibrating in-between the lips.

Here is a youtube video of me showing the difference between the 2.

http://youtu.be/OAib4KorZVg

If it isn't working then this and others are also on my website.http://www.bbtrumpet.com/buzz.html

You get this feeling when playing the didgeridoo.

You also get this feeling when playing really LOUD on a mouthpiece.

I often let people over-blow the mouthpiece so they can feel it and then have them try at normal volumes.

More about Aperture Tunnel

Many of you have already noticed that as you play higher or lower notes that your compression moves your vibrating surface. I know this because some of us have discussed this in email.

Some embouchures put it way toward the inside. For example if we use a pucker the outer part of the lips can always remain open but between the cushion and mouthpiece pressure the aperture tunnel itself closes.

The buzzing or vibration closures would in this case be closer to the teeth than to the mouthpiece. This is why some people dont like puckered embouchures. For them the buzz moves in too far and the soft tissue inside the lips doesnt give them the sound they want (or are used to).

The reverse is also true. Some people dont get the sound they want (or are used to) from a curled in embouchure because it vibrates so far out into the stiff part of the lips.

The lower lip pushes against the top lip making both a smaller lip aperture and a longer aperture tunnel for the air to go through. This takes the place of tension/ pressure of people who do not roll in and can be done with less muscle mass and less fatigue.

The lips can change pitch by making a smaller vibration (length), by becoming stiffer and more reluctant to vibrate (tension) and by making a longer aperture tunnel to resist the air better (compression).

If the vibration is on the outside of the lip it is a different length than if it is allowed to be inside the aperture tunnel.

Different tissue stiffness affects this a little but the strength supplied from the tunnel supporting itself accounts for much of the difference.

We normally make these changes in where we vibrate to change resonance or tonal color but some people always play in front (BAD a great many skills are missing this way) and others always play in the tunnel. (Not Bad but boring maybe).

There is a reason why some players can easily do things that others can't do. But to understand it and gain the skills you have to look into things that you don't already do.

Generally speaking curl and tension keeps the vibrations in front of the aperture tunnel. Pucker and relaxing moves the vibrations into the tunnel.

Now our natural jaw position which affects the lip alignment alters this so it varies from person to person. You will notice that moving the jaw will move the vibration point.

The tissue inside the aperture tunnel is much softer, always moist and allows bigger vibrations to happen easier. This is why vibrating there produces more vibrant sounds.

Once you allow the vibrations to happen in the tunnel simple things like compression won't move them out. (Compression AND tension or curl WILL move them out.)

Yes this is repeated. So remember it!

If you record a professional player and look at their sound through a spectrum analyzer, you will see that there is more intensity in the 2nd 4th harmonics than in the fundamental. The octave above the note being played is stronger than the fundamental as is the fifth above that and the octave above that.

A resonant players loudest frequency is NOT the note being played but an octave above.

Because the average player plays on the stiff tissue only their loudest frequency is the fundamental and they have no resonance. When you force the note to be played on stiff tissue there is nothing left to vibrate for the higher harmonics. Vibrating inside the aperture tunnel allows the higher harmonics to automatically vibrate on the outer stiff lip tissue and BOOM you have instant resonance.

Conclusion

I hope that this as opened you up to some new possibilities. That is what teaching is all about. Like all things in life some people will read this once and they are off and running. Some will have to read it several times and practice the ideas.

As always I am available for lessons on Skype and can lead you through it if you need the help.

A little patience and a lot of practice can work wonders.Along those lines I rewrote the Arban book to include all keys on the exercises. Look at the scales. C major has 16 exercises but most keys only have 3 exercises. I use every key and I also raised the range up by steps so you have practice material for E, F, G... up to double high C.

There is also a lot of new exercises I wrote that fit today's playing better.

In all it has over 950 pages so it should last forever.Check it out. http://www.bbtrumpet.com/NewArban.html

Good luck and enjoy playing an easier way.

Clint 'Pops' McLaughlinhttp://www.bbtrumpet.com/