cathylynn wrote:
as someone who has played both, i can say that the trumpet i easier than the violin.
At a college level or beyond? It is by no means easy to play music like Wagner, Bach's Brandenburg concertos, or soloist pieces like trumpet concertos. One technique that is particularly hard, just as hard as any technique for the violin, is the technique of double tonguing notes in order to play fast notes without legato (slurring notes together): you alternate between articulating a note with the tip of your tongue and further back on your tongue, it helps at first to think of it like your are forming a "t" and then a "g". Not to mention that it is very hard to develop the kind of embouchure needed to play music like Bach or Wagner. Also, violinists don't have to drastically increase their lung capacity in order to play long passages without breathing. Trumpet players playing at the highest level often have to cultivate a lung capacity greater than opera singers.
Regarding embouchure, each person playing a brass instrument has to intuitively figure out his or her own anatomy without much help in the way of instruction as opposed to violin students who should know
exactly what it is they need to do and exactly how it should feel if their instructor is good. No matter how good a brass player's instructor is in the end he/she ultimately has to figure out most everything beyond the basics through intuition and practice.
From the wiki page of embouchure:
Quote:
Even today, many brass pedagogues take a rigid approach to teaching how a brass player's embouchure should function. Many of these authors also disagree with each other regarding which technique is correct. Research suggests efficient brass embouchures depend on the player using the method that suits that player's particular anatomy (see below). Individual differences in dental structure, lip shape and size, jaw shape and the degree of jaw malocclusion, and other anatomical factors will affect whether a particular embouchure technique will be effective or not.
In 1962, Philip Farkas hypothesized that the air stream traveling through the lip aperture should be directed straight down the shank of the mouthpiece. He believed that it would be illogical to "violently deflect" the air stream downward at the point of where the air moves past the lips. In this text, Farkas also recommends that the lower jaw be protruded so that the upper and lower teeth are aligned.
In 1970, Farkas published a second text which contradicted his earlier writing. Out of 40 subjects, Farkas showed that 39 subjects directed the air downward to varying degrees and 1 subject directed the air in an upward direction at various degrees. The lower jaw position seen in these photographs show more variation from his earlier text as well.
This supports what was written by trombonist and brass pedagogue Donald S. Reinhardt in 1942. In 1972, Reinhardt described and labeled different embouchure patterns according to such characteristics as mouthpiece placement and the general direction of the air stream as it travels past the lips. According to this later text, players who place the mouthpiece higher on the lips, so that more upper lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air downwards to varying degrees while playing. Performers who place the mouthpiece lower, so that more lower lip is inside the mouthpiece, will direct the air to varying degrees in an upward manner. In order for the performer to be successful, the air stream direction and mouthpiece placement need to be personalized based on individual anatomical differences. Lloyd Leno confirmed the existence of both upstream and downstream embouchures.
More controversial was Reinhardt's description and recommendations regarding a phenomenon he termed a "pivot". According to Reinhardt, a successful brass embouchure depends on a motion wherein the performer moves both the mouthpiece and lips as a single unit along the teeth in an upward and downward direction. As the performer ascends in pitch, he or she will either move the lips and mouthpiece together slightly up towards the nose or pull them down together slightly towards the chin, and use the opposite motion to descend in pitch. Whether the player uses one general pivot direction or the other, and the degree to which the motion is performed, depends on the performer's anatomical features and stage of development. The placement of the mouthpiece upon the lips doesn't change, but rather the relationship of the rim and lips to the teeth. While the angle of the instrument may change as this motion follows the shape of the teeth and placement of the jaw, contrary to what many brass performers and teachers believe, the angle of the instrument does not actually constitute the motion Reinhardt advised as a pivot.
Later research supports Reinhardt's claim that this motion exists and might be advisable for brass performers to adopt. John Froelich describes how mouthpiece pressure towards the lips (vertical forces) and shear pressure (horizontal forces) functioned in three test groups, student trombonists, professional trombonists, and professional symphonic trombonists. Froelich noted that the symphonic trombonists used the least amount of both direct and shear forces and recommends this model be followed. Other research notes that virtually all brass performers rely upon the upward and downward embouchure motion. Other authors and pedagogues remain skeptical about the necessity of this motion, but scientific evidence supporting this view has not been sufficiently developed at this time to support this view.
Some noted brass pedagogues prefer to instruct the use of the embouchure from a less analytical point of view. Arnold Jacobs, a tubist and well-regarded brass teacher, believed that it was best for the student to focus on his or her use of the air and musical expression to allow the embouchure to develop naturally on its own. Other instructors, such as Carmine Caruso, believed that the brass player's embouchure could best be developed through coordination exercises and drills that bring all the muscles into balance that focus the student's attention on his or her time perception. Still other authors who have differing approaches to embouchure development include Louis Maggio, Jeff Smiley, and Jerome Callet.
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There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.
Nahj ul-Balāgha by Ali bin Abu-Talib
15 Jun 2014, 9:12 am
