Trumpet Tips: Playing in the Red (and how to fix it)
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- Опубліковано 27 кві 2024
- Trumpet players: Looking for tips to stop playing in the red? Check out this video for tips on how to form a balanced embouchure.
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Microphones: sE Electronics V7
In this video, our resident trumpet player and teacher, Freddy, breaks down his experience with playing in the red both in his own career and in teaching his students. Freddy uses his background in trumpet pedagogy to suggest theories as to underlying causes for playing in the red, and he breaks down the process that he went through to build a stable embouchure.
Timestamps:
0:18- Playing in the Red
2:50- Why Trumpet Players Play in the Red (a theory)
5:06- Abdominal Compression
6:27- Oral Cavity
10:11- Embouchure Strength
13:21- Should You Change Your Embouchure?
15:10- How to fix Playing in the Red
I used to play in the red. I had been playing for 4 years when I realized it. I didn’t start off that way, but I think I started to gradually slide the mouthpiece lower on my face around my 3rd year or playing. That’s when I started playing first trumpet parts, and the range came easier with playing in the red. I could play high Cs and Ds above the staff, but my tone was pretty thin all around the range of the instrument. Low notes were pretty difficult to control and play with a full sound. My accuracy was pretty bad too. If I had to play two notes that were more than a third interval apart, I would often crack the notes or undershoot/overshoot.
I decided I wanted to pursue an envoy hire change, and it took a solid octave off of my range. It became difficult to play a b in the staff. It took a year to get my range back to around an A above the staff, and almost two years before I could confidently say I was a much better player than before the embouchure change. Looking back though, it was worth it.
Interesting Bob.
I started with 12 on a cornet without the help of a teacher and in a few months I could play a double a (above high C).
My tone in the middle register was more or less okay, not very strong, but in the low it was bad and the high notes were thin and not really dominating. My set up was weird and not as it should be. Anyway I stopped with playing cornet and started the play picolo and later flute. Also without the help of a teacher.
At that time I did not realise the the emboyuchre for flute is also very difficult and complicated.
I have reached a level of a more or less good flute player in brassbands, but struggled again with the flute embouchure.
Later I picked op the trumpet again and do it a lot better now then before, but Im still looking for the right tips to devellop a good trumpet tone and embouchure. I have met great teachers, but they dont see and cannot tell me what is my problem.
Everything looks good, but it does not allways sound good.
Does this work for trombone too? I'm new to brass instruments and I'm used to flute
A lot of it does, yeah! Freddy’s points about air support especially are compounded on larger brass instruments, as the air needs to travel a lot further from your mouth to the bell. And his exercises are applicable to all brass instruments!
However, since the mouthpiece is bigger, playing in the red isn’t as much of an issue. Embouchure problems are a lot more prevalent among trumpet players as on instruments with larger mouthpieces, your lips are already resting slightly inside the mouthpiece rather than being largely in contact with the rim like on the trumpet, so there’s not as much of a tendency to drag that lip inside the rim.
Well said, Soren
Just saying: you don‘t need any anti-pop on your microphone … just looks better without ;)
Is a high mouthpiece embouchure bad for you?
You seem like the kind of trumpet player I would enjoy shutting down a bar with and chatting brass ped..
In the state where I am currently teaching private lessons, there is a big push to get kids to play as high and loud as possible, and it's typically at this point that I see embouchures get.. unique.. One of the symptoms I've noticed is students playing in the red of the embochure, but that is typically not what bothers me the most. Head positions being either too forward or too far up (or some combination of the two) causing a choking of the air stream, likely in a misguided attempt to generate compression, is one of the most common things I've noticed. The other thing I've noticed that I've found to be severely detrimental is kids that thin their lips out to play. It's hard to describe in text, but the student will set the mouthpiece on their bottom lip, slightly off to the side. Then slide the top lip over towards the center, stretching the tissue. I have no idea why students do this, but the theme that inspires these unhealthy habits is always tyrannical band directors and marching bands that demand too much too quickly from students.
There is a balance between lip tension and air volume/velocity (depending on the register) that needs to be achieved and the ultimate goal, in my opinion, of trumpet playing is to be able to move effortlessly around the instrument while perfectly maintaining this balance. The orbicular oris are a relatively small set of muscles and fortunately do not take that much time to develop. Most of the stronger high school students I've met have more than enough strength for most classical (lead/commercial playing being its own beast) music demands and it's a matter of unworking those muscles or recalibrating the muscles to work efficiently. In my personal experience when I was playing and teaching in the north east, if you can focus on this element while putting the idea of a sound full of overtones/resonance, the embochure will generally fix itself over time in a much less emotionally disruptive manner. Rather than "Do not put your mouthpiece in this position on your face" you are having the student go, "I will play leading with the air and I will know when I am there when I get this rich sound that I hear in my head."
If a student is dedicated to developing their internal sound concept, like you were saying, and takes the time to generally be more aware of their body, head positioning, and breathing, I have found that the embochure will naturally steady itself. I feel like I have a couple of different sets depending on if I'm playing baroque trumpet, piccolo, solo, or in the orchestra that all conform to the acoustic demands that the music and ensemble require. In certain circumstances, I have found myself nearing the red on my top lip despite normally playing on an 80/20 upper: lower split most of the time. I believe this was something Craig Morrison said in a masterclass once, but the quote went something along the lines of, "Every technique and every sound you can make on the trumpet is applicable at some time somewhere in your career." I love that -- When tackling new music or being asked to produce a different sound, this idea frees me personally to experiment with anything and everything, including mouthpiece placement and where the compression is being generated.
It sounds like your journey has been quite cumbersome and unique in terms of jaw tension, facial tension, and tongue strength and your perseverance is admirable. Love that you're doing these video series - Would love to meet you and your ensemble one day.