Non pressure method - myth or not

[adam0408]

I find, shockingly that kind of the opposite is true for me. When I really concentrate on not using pressure, high notes come out a lot better and more easily. Has anyone around here heard of the trumpet player Wayne Bergeron? Well he did a clinic here in po dunk ville MN at our jazz fest and talked about pressure. What he said was basically dont use it. So I try that every once in a while and the results are fantastic.

[Allen]

I only use enough pressure to make an airtight seal between the mouthpiece and my face.

[JayW]

I think it's a case for http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythb ... sters.html


Wouldn't that make a fun show

[MaryAnn]

I thnk it's weird that you had to use pressure on one tuba but not on the other with the same mouthpiece. User variability?

On tuba I find pressure useless, since you can't see my corners outside the rim of the cup; I'd only be pushing on my face bones. I have a decent range, from G in the treble clef all the way down below pedal C, and I can play forever, so my stance is that tuba playing does not require pressure.

On horn it is a different story because there is plenty of rim room to push my lips against my teeth, and it is an ongoing problem for me that I only overcome on occasion when I really pay attention to it. I have poor endurance on horn and a missing high range, although I get quite a decent sound.

I've been told that a pressure habit is very hard to break, and that the habit is formed early through bad mechanics (i.e., either lack of proper teaching or inability to understand on the part of the student.)

MA

[Rick Denney]

I had a curious experience the other day. While playing on my Miraphone EEb I found that I was hardly using any pressure between my chops and the mouthpiece. It wasn't having any sort of adverse affect on the sound and I had obviously come to be playing that way subconciously. Very weird.

Then later the same day I was playing using my Besson EEb and found that I was having to really screw the (same) mp onto my face to get anywhere the same sound. I know that the Miraphone is slightly larger bore than the Besson throughout the length of the horn - would that be the reason?

I was chatting with a well-known orchestra player recently, and his formula was this:

Playing too dark an instrument and trying to get a brighter sound encourages a smaller aperture, which increases air pressure, which in turn increases mouthpiece pressure to prevent leaks.

He was talking about high-end players, not guys like me. I use too high a pressure because I don't have sufficient strength in my embouchure to play the notes I want to play without resorting to pressure.

Same symptom, but two different diseases.

Rick "attracted to the Holton because of its bright sound--for a big tuba" Denney

[Ryan_Beucke]

You really just need to make sure you aren't damaging the tissue in your lips. That can cause fatigue. However, the ring on your lips thing is somewhat of an old wives tale. If you're putting metal to your mouth for an hour, regardless of the pressure, you're gonna get a ring. Plus some people's skin marks easier. I spent many years trying to figure out why I always got a ring, only to realize my skin marks like fingerpaint whenever you touch it.

[winston]

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[Steve Oberheu]

Hi Matt,

Sure, using different amounts of air pressure/mouthpiece pressure will change how anyone sounds when they play. My advice is, if you like the results....go with it.

Don't try to overdo it. Like with a golf swing...if you ease your wrist up a bit and give it some room to flex, you'll get a little more power and fluidity with your swing. But you can only go so far...if you ease up too much, you'll end up not moving anything or even dropping the club altogether.

So, if you like the sound better one way over the other...and you can usually tell in just a couple minutes....just go with it. Results are different from person to person, so trust yourself when you decide that you like the sound better. Make your results the right ones...regardless of how it works for others.

[elimia]

I started easing pressure back on the mpc seal recently, pushing myself to put more air in the horn, and found my sound quality to be much approved. I thought I had found a magic secret. It does require a strong embouchere and I still get the ring after an hour or two of playing. It is nice to get a little enriched endurance though.

And playing high - a little easier, yeah.