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Whilst I was in grad school, the famous Leon Rapier had a cool technique for teaching high range with as little pressure as possible. In his studio he had a trumpet hanging from the ceiling by two strands of monofilament line. He would walk up to the trumpet and do slur studies on open partials, and the trumpet wouldn't move. Impressive.

Obviously, if he had put too much pressure on the trumpet, it would simply swing away from his body, so he (or his students) had to rely on the chops instead of what usually permits too much pressure.

Being a grad student, I naturally was intelligent enough to realize that if I hung my tuba the same way I would not get the same result... but it did make me realize that my left hand was doing a lot more than just keeping my first valve slide company... I was using it (and the right hand) to pull the instrument toward me (or to keep it from moving away.) More pull, more pressure.

Now whenever I think I'm applying too much pressure in the high range I limit my left hand's involvement in holding the horn to one finger (since I do tend to lean just a tad into the horn instead of sitting perfectly upright.) Too much pressure, and that one finger won't be able to keep the instrument from being pushed over... at the very least it gets very sore. Try it! You'll see!

Slamson wrote: Being a grad student, I naturally was intelligent enough to realize that if I hung my tuba the same way I would not get the same result...

Of course not. If you hung up a tuba horizontally like a trumpet you couldn't reach the mouthpiece. Doh.

bloke wrote:Rafael Mendez was the original "no pressure" guy, and hanging a trumpet by a string was originally his gimmick.

I hope I spelled his name correctly...I'm going to post without googling.

That looks close enough for classical.

I played with him twice back in the early 70s when he did a lot of high school and small town concerts. He was not a no-pressure player from what I remember though I suppose he did the trick on occasion.

There are a lot of stories about him, I wouldn't want to dispute any of them. A couple of people have told me he could play with the mouthpiece anywhere on his chops. I've heard he rebuilt his embouchure a couple of times after accidents, and various people are alleged to have helped him.

When I met him I was way too inexperienced to be a good observer of pressure or much of anything else. I did ask him about how his incredible projecting tone, and he said he worked on tapering a note down to nothing. I didn't understand that but that's all I got.

Home video of Rafael:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ewzmfzlzXQ" target="_blank

One note per day.

Or..... you could try one of these.....

https://www.thomann.de/gb/stoelzel_meth ... 3bdc988efb" target="_blank

Roger