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I was recently told by a well respected performer/teacher that for playing extremely soft, you should tense your abdominal muscles. He said this help keep the slow air flow constant. This surprised me because I was taught that bodily tension anywhere while playing is something to always be avoided.

What do you do in your teaching? What are the conditions where you would allow a student to be "less than relaxed" while he/she's playing?

I think the main thing is to be controlled. Second guessing why a private teacher said something to a student gets into the realm of guessing the context in which it was said, which is silly over a BBS. I always want to be relaxed, but controlled regardless if the circumstance is playing at fffff, -, or ppppp.

Having a student be too relaxed, or too tense is not right. Prescribing what an individual student needs at any particular time is why there are well respected performer/teachers.

This is very common!

The concepts of respiration for musicians came out of the 19th century, primarily in the vocal school. It spread to the world of wind instruments with low flow rate instruments. This theory advocated tight muscles and no upper chest breathing. This was taught to generations of brass players.

Many years later there were those who applied human physiology to these concepts and discovered that tight musculature was against the body's physiology. Mr Jacobs was the primary person behind this movement and taught loose musculature.

Today hearing both sides of the story is common. A majority of teachers teach the way they are taught themselves. Years ago, their teachers taught them what was considered the standard concept, tight musculature. Then that theory changed to loose musculature. Now there is a dilemma, your teacher lead you down the proper path with everything else but the theory of tight musculature vs. loose musculature changes. Who do you believe? This is one of the reasons that change like this takes a lot of time!

Next, in the brass world, we have trumpet players, especially the scream players. That specialized playing requires little air but a lot of air pressure. They can play with tight musculature (and still advocate it big time). On the tuba, in the low range we go through a lot of air with very little pressure. These are two different ways of blowing! To say you blow all wind instruments the same way just doesn't work!

This was the one area that Mr Jacobs specialized in. I must admit that many felt this was controvercial and I saw a few people walk out of his masterclasses in disgust. Today, I start a breathing session going through this subject, take a look at a condensed version that I put out a few weeks ago at
http://www.windsongpress.com/almost%20l ... ng%201.htm

You need Windows Media Player and a high speed connection! Take a look and let's hear some comments.

This could be an interesting thread.

For what it's worth - I have always felt that there was a distinct difference between supporting what you are trying to do on the horn, and having a rock hard abdomen. The "old school" (pre-Jacob) method of a tense hard stomach has been debunked awhile ago, but some still use tension when playing soft.

I find that if I relax myself to the point where I can still support the air column while a slow focused air stream is possible, then I can achieve a nice soft dynamic. Remember - "tension kills tone", no matter if it is in the throat, arms, chest, wherever - you will kill your sound." Try to achieve all of this without tension. I know, easier said than done, but there are a few exercises that I do to help this.

These are all from the new publication, "The Brass Gym", which is either out already, or will be soon. This book was done by Patrick Sheridan and Sam Pilafian - both of these guys know a thing or two about breathing.

Anyway, then discuss playing at the soft dynamic, and then offer the following exercise. Perform a scale (any scale) in the mid-low range (or where you can't play soft). And make it a simply pattern (quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter). Try to perform this staccato at the softest dynamic possible. Make sure that the tone is still present, and slowly (over a matter of weeks) creep your dynamic down. Not only will you be able to control your air stream like a madman, but you will also notice that you have unbelievable control over both the loud and the soft dynamic.

Hope this helps. And, if this book is out - definitely go buy it. It is awesome!

- Pat Stuckemeyer

Also concur.

To condense another post, tight abs are for elimination, not exhalation. Expansion for inhalation and controlled contraction for exhalation. The better the control, the better your dynamic playing. This is not the same as tension, which implies a steady state to the muscles, but progression of contraction keeping the airflow steady.