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Interesting observations.

My observation is less 'musical' and more of a maintenance/repair observation on fingering. When learing to play the trumpet, a strong emphasis was placed on finger placement and valve stroke being straight (i.e., pushing the valve straight down with the tip of the finger, not the flat of the finger). With lots of regular playing not pushing the valves straight can give an odd/asymetric wear patern to the valves and casings, causing earlier 'valve jobs'. to be needed. I have observed piston tuba players, who have always been tuba/low brass players being very sloppy about the straight valve operation. When I rented a piston tuba, prior to purchase of the rotary i have now, i had to learn to use the flat of my finger, and not push straight down. The valves stuck when pushed straight, and to look at them there was a wear pattern consistent with not being pushed straight down.

Regarding what rocksanddirt, I've only recently had to learn how to push straight down the tip of my finger when going from a 186 to my current Yamaha 621. The pistons combined with the inherently wacky ergonomics of the valve cluster made me learn to push the buttons straight down.

My teacher devoted considerable lesson time to my valve operations. I had the REAL bad habit of doing the "half-valving" to the extreme in legato passages. I was taught to be precise with the valves while also keeping a good air flow. As I'm working on more legato stuff now, though, I think I've just migrated (not on purpose) to a good balance between precision and the "half-valving".

I totally hear bloke on the mouth/fingers desynchronization. I call them "airballs". I especially had a problem with them at the very start (ie. after a break) of some passage. It's taking lots work for me to get better with the tongue/valve coordination.

Bloke,

Thanks for a great post. I have often wondered if other people had similar problems with fingering.

One thing that hasn't been specifically mentioned that used to really bother me was lifting fingers. As I would play my fingers would lift way too high. This usually resulted in my playing a hair behind the beat. I also had a lot of trouble playing fast passages. My solution was to simply be very aware of my fingers and play things very slowly.

One of the things my college professor used to tell me was to use "staccato" fingers. For me this meant a light, quick touch whether I was playing fast or slow. It took some time to overwrite this habit with better finger technique but now I don't even think about it, I just play.

I honestly haven't thought much about using a slightly, okay very slightly, slower fingering for legato passages. This will be something that I try out tomorrow night as I doubt my neighbors would like to hear me pick up a horn at this hour.

Thanks for the ideas.

Henry Gertcher

GoodMorning, I started taking lessons again..after 18 years and I couldn't understand why My valves stuck so much... Solved after first lesson... Here I had my hand at an angle and was actualy pulling my valves when I was fingering..which was causing them to stick.. the longer I practiced the more the valves stuck and the more I oiled... after so many years of doing it wrong.. it is really hard to do it the right way but I'm trying just had my birthday 66 you know at this age it is very hard to learn a technique that you never practiced,but hopefuly the old dog can learn a new simple trick that most people learned in jr high<s>BB

I do find with my students (as well as in my own playing) that finger tongue syncronisity is the main cultprit in sloppy articulation and technique. I have found that this exercise is especially telling: Play the section without buzzing (just valves) and listen carefully to the valve noise. I use a B.E.R.P. device for this. Most of the time it is uneven and often fingerings are just plain wrong. Then perform the section with buzzing and articulation, but on one pitch (no valves). This often proves to be very accurate. If we separate the rhythm from the pitches, we can isolate the real problems and correct them. This does not work as well in the classroom setting, but even then the kids can hear the sloppiness in the fingerings.