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Dear Netters,

I'm sure many of you've heard about Mr. Claude Gordon. Can you please tell me why is he considered the King of Brass? I dont know his achievements etc., so I'll be glad if you could help me out with any infos!

Thanks a lot!

If you do a Google search - Claude Gordon king of brass - you will find a fair amount of material about him.

Don't get caught up in the hype. "King of Brass" "King of Beers" "Kings of Swing"---its all about marketing--all about the $$$

goodgigs wrote:King of brass players maybe - but king of brass teachers NO WAY IN HELL!
That __________ said that every trumpet player in the world should use the same mouthpiece!
Need I say more.

You are so right Brian. All trumpet players in the world using the same mouthpiece would create severe problems in matters of hygiene and logistics. Alone the 5 part trumpets in big bands would be impossible if the players had to share the same mouthpiece.

I never read much about Claude Gordon, but I got his trumpet embouchure method in 1983. That improved my embouchure approach immensely giving me a much wider range than before. I mainly worked with it on my small King 2B+ trombone, as it took immense amounts of air on my larger instruments. Yet the results translated to the larger and smaller instruments very well.

Personally I don’t find long note exercises very productive, as they only are challenging, controlwise, in the last end of the note. I also find these exercises somewhat stiffening. Claude Gordon’s approach to me represents a much better combination of longer notes, control, and exact movement. He made me really get into fake notes and going below the 2nd open pedal on trombones (for that matter also on trumpets).

Klaus

Not to mention that trumpet players tend to be high ego...

I never heard that title given to anybody, but I agree with the comment about marketing. Mr. Gordon had a lot of attention paid to his method when I was learning to play. He made hay out of rehabbing the chops that were destroyed by would-be Maynard Ferguson players. Evidently it was a rich market.