The Balanced Embouchure for Horn

Tough to Squeak & Feedback from Dan

2012-02-02T10:37:00.000-08:00

It's long been a mystery to me how the Roll Out exercises (RO) could improve the upper register. It seems counter intuitive, but time and time again I get feedback of BE students claiming significant improvements in their upper register as well as the mid and low by practicing RO. I've come to accept the idea that whatever improves the embouchure will improve every aspect of it's performance. The following is an exchange I had with JB, a newbee to BE. Following this, I received insightful feedback from Dan whose experience is typical for BE students.

JP: The books and CD arrived safely. Roll out was easy - always had a pretty good low register.

Val: This is typical for horn players. RO is usually easy for most of us.

JP: Have been doing lip clamps. So far no lengthy squeak! Rats. If I get a squeak it lasts only two or three seconds, and definitely does not keep going if I put the horn to my lips - even gently. The sound I am getting in the horn sounds more like something dying.

Val: LOL! This is normal and expected. Some people can squeak beautifully, others can't. It doesn't matter. What does matter is this: first, you learn to roll your lips in and second, you learn to keep them rolled in while you blow air through them. The sound is less important than the technique and motion you will learn from practicing the exercise.

As you persist in this exercise, you will eventually learn how to keep your lips rolled in and produce a tone with the mouthpiece applied. The first tones are never beautiful. They oft times are messy with multiple buzz points. That's okay. It's only an exercise. Even now, after doing BE for 5 1/2 years, some days my RI exercises don't sound clear.... but I remember to tell myself, it's only an exercise. I have progressed very satisfactorily in spite of my not-so-pretty lip clamp squeaks and RI exercises.

JP: Has anyone else experienced no results after two days?

Val: Are you kidding? People struggle with this for weeks and months and work for years to perfect it. Don't worry. You're right on schedule.

JP: I'm hoping lip clamps will eventually provide enough strength to get a good squeak going.

Val: There's a little "strength" involved, but mostly executing the lip clamp squeak and the RI exercises is a matter of learning a technique that you will eventually be able to wrap your brain around.

JP: I majored in horn in college during the 50s, but could never develop the high register enough to consider a performance career. Did a career without playing horn, then, at age 72, took it up again after 50 years, bought an early Elkhart 8D, and now play in (location withheld). I like 4th horn just fine, but darn, I want endurance and a high register. I'm counting on BE.

Val: As you persist doing these exercises with extreme lip shapes, you will learn (both consciously and unconsciously) to "borrow" bits and pieces from these positions of RI and RO that can be applied to your regular playing to improve your range and endurance. Trust me, it works! :o) BE will deliver, but it takes time, persistence and patience.

Hang in there, you will succeed!

Warm regards,

Valerie Wells

------------
Dan's Feed Back

Dear Valerie,

I would like to tell you of my experiences with BE.
I have been working my way very slowly through the exercises and have not progressed beyond RI and RO 3. I've worked on them intensively but sporadically for about 6 months but I can now say that I have noticed great improvements in the strength of my high register.
For some time I did not see any progress but I kept the faith and it seems to have paid off. It may be of interest to some students that the exercises that made most of the difference were the ROLL OUTS! I had assumed that I needed to work on Roll Ins for my high register but this was not so. For some reason the roll outs were much more effective for me. Of course I still do the Roll ins but it was the Roll Outs that enabled me to do the Roll Ins. [Italics added.]
Regards

Dan DeWitt

Truth Passes Through Three Stages

2012-01-18T16:22:00.000-08:00

Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher (1788 -- 1860), wrote:

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

I believe The Balanced Embouchure method is approaching stage three. I am glad I haven't been "violently opposed" as I've promoted BE, but anyone who has followed this little saga since the spring 2007 can not deny that I've been opposed with vigor and venom! There remain only a few who openly ridicule me for what I do. However, The Balanced Embouchure for horn is now used by over 237 horn players on every continent, except perhaps Antarctica. It's exciting and satisfying to be a part of this.

Jeff Smiley is making a significant and positive contribution to brass pedagogy.

BE Update from Julia Rose

2011-12-13T22:25:00.000-08:00

Julia Rose has written a BE Update on her blog. Julia reports what I often hear from Balanced Embouchure students, that they return from a vacation with unexpectedly well functioning chops. She also articulates the finer details of how BE benefits her playing. I've seen other horn players "catch on" to BE very quickly like Julia has, but I've never seen anyone articulate the message with the same comprehensive clarity.

Here are a few excerpts that I found particularly impressive:

Ironically, the weirdness of the different embouchure sensations allows me to tune out how things feel and instead focus on what I want to sound like. The vast differences between the RI and RO embouchures have fine tuned my regular embouchure, making it more streamlined, with no unnecessary movement. The overall effect has been very freeing.

The TOL exercises have been especially groundbreaking for me. They have reminded me of the importance of tongue position in ease of range and tone color, along with articulation, and now I have another tool to work on those techniques.

Overall, I’ve been thrilled at the results I’m getting from BE, which I was not expecting at all. The exercises are fun, challenging, efficient and mercifully brief, allowing me more time to work on what I really care about in my practice sessions.

Thank you, Julia Rose for sharing your BE experience.

Feedback From a Horn Teacher

2011-10-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

Jane Swanson, a retired schoolteacher who teaches privately and plays horn in San Luis Obispo, contributed an article to the latest issue of "The Horn Call." She reports impressions of attending her first IHS horn symposium in June of this year. Here is what Jane wrote regarding BE:

Steven Park's Roll Out
Steven Park's Roll In
Workshops: BE: The Balanced Embouchure Method, presented by Valerie Wells with Stephen Park. This workshop presented an approach to embouchure development that was 100% new to me. Valerie and Stephen demonstrated the exercises up close and personal, which was essential because I had no idea it was legal or possible, let alone beneficial, to do such odd things with a face. I had only two choices: write them off as nuts or try it. Given Valerie's stunning demonstrations of producing super high, pianissimo, pure pitches out of thin air, and given Stephen's gorgeous sound and security as a performer (search for Steve Park to find some lovely video performances), I chose the latter. And sure enough, the BE exercises do not demand the dreaded "embouchure change" but do lead to embouchure improvement in all registers. I recommend their website (beforhorn.blogspot.com) as a source of information for those not at the workshop.

Jane emailed me to add a little more information regarding her progress:

My own progress with BE is hmmm..... maybe modest is the word but maybe not. I still don't squeak well - can't do what you do with those high sounds without and with the horn. But I am pretty consistent with the basics of roll-out and roll-in. And my endurance is still a work in progress. But here are my pay-offs:

1. Even when I play to exhaustion I do NOT have swollen lips afterwards or the next day! So I can jump right back into action.

2. In the midst of challenging playing, same story - my chops recover if I give them a few seconds off. That was not the case previously.

I am combining BE work with a focus on using air better, meaning those things we KNOW but which can slip away over time if we take them for granted:
monitoring speed of air
using more of it
using that low gut support every second

For me the combination is paying off nicely, and I know that more progress lies in my future.

Thanks for the feedback, Jane. This ability to recover more quickly is something I hear often from those who study BE. See the discussion on Julia Rose's blog about this.

The Rule Breakers

2011-10-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

Alexander Kienle recently shared a couple items that I find very interesting:

Baborak bunches his chin up as he ascends for the last note of Don Juan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc-S02MX4mU
Interesting to watch! And what a grand moment in classical music to savor. Does it get any better than this?

Some of you may have already come across Froydis' article about "nevers": http://www.hornsociety.org/en/publications/horn-call/online-articles/194-never-say-never-again As Alex pointed out, this is particularly relevant when discussing BE!

With examples like these, it's hard to see how some believe bunching the chin or puffing the cheeks is "bad" or even "damaging" to the embouchure.

More BE Analysis from Lou Denaro

2011-09-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

I've tried for years to analyse & understand BE. I've just about given up. The embouchure is such a fluid thing, and so difficult to analyze, I've adopted this attitude: Just do BE because it works. But..... Lou Denaro is different. His analysis on BE fascinates me. Lou's also teaching me a thing or two about the mysterious world of mouthpieces. Here's a discussion he recently initiated on my FaceBook wall.

Lou: Latest BE observation: I've compared it to a "Lip Stretch" (ala Yoga). Now I believe that it's really about using the settings to harden our too soft lip tissues. Ultimately the player ends up covering both sides of Farkas' "oboe reed" aperture, build up the inner tissues in roll out to maintain the larger aperture and build up the outer tissues in the tighter roll in aperture and it's simply a matter of intuitively playing to your dual strengths rolling in and out across the registers and keeping things nice and smooth and beautiful. Amen.
Lou: Also left out that this tonguing on the lips business is as basic/san artifice attack as most players can manage, it prompts the appropriate response in the appropriate tissues that should be engaged. All of my comments are not purely scientific, but I believe Jeff left it vague in order to let us explore for that reason.
David: Lou, great update. Question, given the increased strength of lip muscles due to rolling in, and out, have you found that the ID (inner diameter) of the mouthpiece is sufficient or have you switched, might switch to a larger or smaller id mouthpiece?
Lou: David, this is a put on right? It's almost too good that you're asking this question. I switched to a G&W 4.75 (the biggest cup in their lineup Inner Rim: .709 / Cup Depth: 1.040 / Throat: .184) 3 weeks ago. I also put a bigger rim ID on my Cantesanu piece (for the Paxman). I'm not proud of this. The thing is that Jeff's method is supposed to work with smaller IDs, but it got to the point that I was visibly overpowering the G&W 3.25 (modified Schmidt 10 copy) on my NiSi Schmidt last month. The 4.75 diffuses sax-player-playing-on-a-metal-reed effect that I was starting to get on the 3.25. Not that matters any way, because I can still play on smaller rims (provided the horn can take it), but Schmidt's have lighter more penetrating sounds than most other horns out there and having more cup volume up front gives you something to back off from and in any case I'm glad I've got more choices up front on how to power up these beasts.
Valerie: Lou wrote "but I believe Jeff left it vague in order to let us explore for that reason." Exactly! I think you've nailed the "universal principals" side of BE, Lou. The "vague" part that Smiley left out are the exact details of how these principles apply to the individual. I believe it would be impossible for Jeff to describe exactly how each person's lips achieve balance... so it's best not to speak of such things.
Valerie: I love the Yoga analogy!
Lou: I thought of it last month in Winter Harbor, I was up by myself doing BE on the seashore every morning crack of dawn, we had an Alexander Technique (efficient use of the body) class and participants shared that there was overlap between Yoga stretches and whatever exercise we were doing at 7:45am and then it hit me that I've been doing my own stretches since 6:00.

For more of Lou's insights see this.

Believe It or Not, The Balanced Embouchure is Not an Embouchure!

2011-09-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

In brass embouchure pedagogy, the usual training involves being told how to correctly place the mouthpiece and lips to play, such as einsetzen, ansetzen, 2/3 - 1/3, etc. Because of this context, when horn players hear of The Balanced Embouchure, they often assume it's another prescribed embouchure setting. And, because BE claims to work for everyone, horn players often doubt this claim knowing that there is no one "correct" embouchure setting that works for everyone. Here's an example. A thoughtful comment was recently left on James Boldin's blog that includes this sentence:

Being that there are anatomical differences from person to person, I don’t see how it is possible for one way to be “the right way."

If the writer of this statement believes BE is promoted as a "correct" embouchure setting that works for everyone, I agree that it's impossible to be "the right way." Fortunately that's not what BE is. In fact, theory and practice, BE is quite the opposite. BE is not an embouchure; BE is a set of well designed exercises that develop every embouchure.

One of the specific reasons BE works for everyone, is that it is not a prescribed, one-size-fits-all, embouchure setting. The application of BE to the embouchure is as unique as each brass player's anatomy. There are no instructions in the BE book that say, "set your lips this way for the upper register", "drop your jaw for low notes," "frown for the high register," etc. The only specific instructions in BE are how to set the lips for executing the BE exercises, not for regular playing.

BE exercises "work" by extending the brass player's range of motion in directions and to degrees most would never imagine. In this ability stretching process, the intuitive brass player consciously and unconsciously finds positions, techniques, movements, lip shapes, etc. that can be applied to his/her embouchure. Jeff Smiley recognizes that the individual brass player is the one best suited to determine what does and doesn't "work" when that individual is given good tools to guide their choices. (See: I Am Not a Guru.)

See also: Why BE Works

More on Lip Swelling -- Make Lemonade!

2011-09-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

Larry Jellison, who has added so much to the discussion on lip swelling, recently wrote this to me on the topic:

When the lips are messed up from supplements and meds, my opinion is, go ahead and practice. Don't get upset about how you may sound. Practice the best you can. Many aspects of horn playing are worse-- tone, accuracy, high range, intonation. But, try really hard to play the best you can. With super concentration, you can play better. This kind of practice improves one's overall horn playing then when the lips are in good condition. Practice when playing is bad does bring overall improvement.

I love his making-lemonade-out-of-lemons attitude. Thanks, Larry.

Another horn player has added an item on krill oil to the list of things that can trigger lip swelling. See this new entry, #20.

Timm Leukel, Fast Responder

2011-09-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

I always encourage horn students who study BE to take their time, learning to work every exercise, to do "the whole thing." But I get surprising emails like this from time to time that leave me scratching my head asking myself, how could so little BE make a difference? But apparently it can and does or I wouldn't hear this same story over and over. Here's a spontaneous little message I received from European horn player, Timm Leukel, who graciously consented to my posting this testimonial of his early experience with BE. I will add here that it seems like those horn players who have the heaviest playing schedules seem to get the greatest boost from just a "little" BE work.

Hey it’s me again :D

I have some good news to share: This weekendmy heavy rehearsal and concert schedule started (20 hours of playing in the 3^rdand 1^st seat). And just fordoing those exercises—and I’m only talking about roll out 1, roll in 1, and lipclamps+squeaks—it seems that my rationally strong chops seem to be unlocked inthe upper register. This doesn’t mean that I’m able to play higher thanbefore. But it doesn’t seem to beimpossible anymore to play in the higher range without loosing my chops quitefast because of my corners cramping up. So I guess it seems to be quite the success to me. Luckily I only have about 2 hours of playing leftsince my chops seem to be finally breaking down, but what a weekend.

I can’t put into words how thankful I am fordiscovering the book Jeff wrote and for the help and support I’m gaining fromall of you. I’m looking forward to seewhat changes occur in my playing when I continue to practice theseexercises.

Updates coming soon :-) Timm

Julia Rose Is At It Again!

2011-09-04T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well, Julia Rose is at it again, and this time she made me laugh out loud. I won't spoil it by telling you what she wrote that made me laugh, but she made some thoughtful observations, great suggestions and a funny comparison! I left a comment that will refer you to a pertinent article I wrote nearly two years ago.

Julia Rose writes about The Balanced Embouchure

2011-08-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Here's an article Julia Rose recently published on her blog. I'll classify this as a positive BE testimonial!

I'm impressed with Julia, not only for the quality of the article's content, but also for her integrity. I appreciate that she took the time to give BE an honest, thorough investigation and trial period rather than dismissing it as some have without reading the book or trying the exercises.

Many thanks to you, Julia Rose.

Two New Testimonials!

2011-08-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

See the TWO new testimonials below from Luke and Colin Ng. Both were unsolicited, and both are deeply appreciated.

Luke Zyla, No Longer a Skeptic

2011-08-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

The following is a composite of remarks Luke Zyla shared with members on the Memphis horn forum with in the last week. Thanks so much for sharing your testimonial with the horn community, Luke.

Dear Horn Listers,

I am not what you call a "stellar" horn player, but I do make a decent second income from performing with the West Virginia Symphony and freelancing in the area. I have been practicing the BE method this summer and have found positive results already. I definitely have not mastered the exercises yet, but working on them has improved my high register and endurance. One of the things I find most valuable is that it is not a method that tears down and rebuilds a new embouchure, but one that gradually improves ones playing.
Being a second horn player, I always dreaded having to play pops concerts where one plays music arranged by people who do not understand the custom of having horns 1 and 3 on high and 2 and 4 on low. The music of John Williams always brought concern to my mind. I have found that these exercises have enabled me to have better endurance and a more relaxed high register. I am not at the point where I am ready to attack the screaming high baroque horn literature yet, but I expect that my horn playing will continue to become more effortless.
The BE method does not involve lots of time practicing the extreme embouchures. I find that it does develop my embouchure in a positive way. The immediate result is that my endurance is much better. I think the best feature of this method is that it is not a sudden change and restructuring ones embouchure, but a gradual exploration and development that can result in positive results. Personally, I do not bunch up my chin when I play. Just can't get my chops to be that relaxed. It is more relaxed than before, which is a good thing. One thing I have noticed about the really great players in the world is that they all seem to produce tone in every register effortlessly. The method does not result in a goofy looking embouchure. Check out Steve Park's videos on YouTube. I don't think anyone would fault his embouchure.

The method is very simple. I was very skeptical about the method for a long time, but have come to appreciate the benefits of the exercises.

I would encourage anyone to buy the book and give it a try. The cost of the book is small compared to the benefits one can achieve.

CORdially,
Luke Zyla, second horn
West Virginia Symphony Orchestra
www.wvsymphony.org

Colin's BE Testimony: A Zero to Hero Experience

2011-08-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

To the Memphis horn list, Colin wrote:

Dear Fellows,

I have been following the BE thread with great interest. I hope you do not mind me sharing my recent BE experiences so far.

I am a band instructor and a specialist horn tutor in secondary schools (junior high?). I ordered my BE book months ago (February?) and decided then I was too busy for BE; and I admit that it also seem radical then. I thought I was managing 'well' despite my struggles on my instrument, but recently I am going through both a career change and hence having more time for playing the horn; and I am also being put through a much needed embouchure correction under guidance from a friend who is teaching French horn in Germany. I was struggling with the embouchure change to what that should be proper (flat/pointed chin and einsetzen), and was incapacitated for past couple of weeks.

Having the luxury of time now, and watching with interest the recent BE controversy in the forum, I thought I might as well use the BE method that was collecting dust on my shelf. I have nothing to lose really, so I read carefully and struggled with the roll-out exercise #1 to #3 for one whole day and managed also to effect the lip clamp squeak.

I then went for a rehearsal the next evening not knowing what to expect and tried playing the concert repertoire of about 12 crazy pop pieces with my 'normal and proper' setup. Nothing BE about it, but the facility of the 'normal' embouchure increased many fold. I hop around between 4th horn and 1st horn parts with growing confidence. I enjoyed surprisingly good tone with no distortion, greater flexibility and accuracy; and I can now take my mind off to focus on articulation and more musical expression. It's a very real zero to hero experience for me.

The next evening (which was yesterday), I only did 5 minutes of the roll-out exercises, a clumsy warm up, and used a mouthpiece totally different from what I used the day before. Surprisingly I had the same success with this mouthpiece (which I felt wasn't a good mouthpiece before). The change in the sound, efficiency and facility is equally dramatic but my colleagues observed little or no visible change in my einsetzen setup.

Tomorrow is the 3rd repertoire session - "Mozart Serenade in C minor," I did nothing today save a couple hours of BE RO exercise #1 to #4 and lip clamp squeaking. I look forward to tomorrow and I am going use the most un-preferred mouthpiece in my inventory.

I have to say I still sound terrible when I struggled with the BE exercises for the 3rd day so far, but when it comes to 'normal' playing, the positive changes is both so dramatic and sudden, I can only attribute it to the effective of the BE program.

It give me back the same sparkle like how I fell in love with horn as a child 25 over years ago.

Hope this testimony is useful

Yours sincerely
Colin Ng
Hornfellow
Singapore

Soon after, I received the following in private email:

Dear Valerie,

I want to say a big thank you to you and Jeff Smiley, but words cannot express the extent of gratitude I am feeling now. All I can say is that the new playing experience is too sudden and too dramatic. It can only be BE.

If I was not brought to standstill and totally zero-ed because of the 'professional' embouchure change, I could not have experienced such dramatic improvement thru BE. The BE brought about what I previously thought would take months to experience through professional help.

Now I feel stupid to have put the book aside months ago then. It was so difficult to accept and understand because of our existing concepts and conventions. But BE is actually a very simple concept, so simple that we get to keep what we have and yet able to excel exceedingly. It's just that we have to approach with the attitude of the dry sponge, or the empty cup to receive and soak up what that was offered compassionately and sincerely.

Do give me a little more time and I hope to bring you more favorable progress report and perhaps seek validation on my BE progress.

Yours sincerely

Colin Ng
Hornfellow
Singapore.

Thanks, Colin for your inspiring words.

Why the EXTREMES?

2011-08-10T18:35:00.001-07:00

In a horn forum, Steve M. asked:

...I searched "balanced embouchure" on YouTube and all I found was a bunch of demented trumpet owners making horrible farting and screeching noises, so far I haven't heard any tone. Wassup with that?

Good question, Steve, although it may be a little insulting to trumpeters! ;o) There is a good reason BE exercises don't sound so pretty. What you see on YouTube are exercises specifically designed to develop tone while traversing the registers with the fullest range of motion possible. They are awkward by design and especially difficult to execute with a pleasing tone. Striving for and meeting this challenge enhances the player's ability to adapt the embouchure under the less extreme circumstances of "normal" playing. See: EXTREME EMBOUCHURES!

For an example of a fine musician who has used BE exercises for quite a number of years to keep his embouchure in top condition, see the links below. You may recognize Uwe Zaiser, the piccolo trumpeter and soloist, as the same gentleman who posted several BE exercises on YouTube. After viewing these clips, I doubt anyone would regard Uwe as a "demented trumpet owner."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o34NFyb9HKY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ3sDTFeN3o

Practicing BE exercises is like a football player running agility drills at practice. When it's game time, the athlete is better prepared for the rigors of the game. Like the BE exercises, you don't see the agility exercises in actual performance, but you do see the results of the training.

Exercising in the extremes to develop skills is not a new concept, but as far as I know, this has not previously been applied to horn pedagogy in this particular way. I suppose that's why some still considered BE controversial.

And, BTW, to answer the assertion one horn player has made that BE exercises will "damage" the embouchure, please note there is no evidence of damage in these clips nor in the experiences I've had working with over 200 horn and trumpet players studying BE for the past five years. As a matter of fact, brass players with "damaged" embouchures and health have testified that BE has helped them recover. (For examples see: Andrew Joy, Dave Stoller, lip swelling.)

I anticipate The Balanced Embouchure or a watered down variant will eventually be taught to brass players everywhere. Along these lines, Sandra Clarke wrote:

I believe that within ten years (less if there is any justice and fairness out there…), everyone will be teaching your concept of lip rolling – if not the entire spectrum of your method. (http://www.trumpetteacher.net/testimonials.html)

Also see: "Circus Trick" or Developmental Tool?
Also see: EXTREME Embouchures!

Joy Continues on The Balanced Embouchure

2011-08-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

My first contact with Andrew Joy was in 2008 when I received his enthusiastic email telling me how happy he was with the results of using the Balanced Embouchure for only 2 months. He commented that the improvements to his embouchure were "fairy tale like!"

In 2010 Andrew was interviewed by Dr. John Ericson for Horn Matters discussing his two years experience with BE.

Around the time of this interview, Andrew wrote me:

"Jeff Smiley is a genius and I'm on a serious mission to tell the world about it!"

Now that Andrew's been using BE for three years, his enthusiasm continues. He recently wrote on Face Book:

"The Balanced Embouchure is priceless genius. I spoke with an amateur horn player yesterday. It has also revolutionized her personal horn world and given her access to a greater playing experience. Jeff's a giant!!"

Andrew's concise description of what BE did for this amatuer describes my experience as well.

I agree with Andrew; Jeff Smiley is a genius and a giant!

Thanks Andrew Joy, for sharing your testimonial comments with the world.

Go back home.

New Information About Lip Swelling & Norvasc

2011-08-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

For those who have been following this topic, please see #19 at:

http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/05/lip-swelling-embouchure-performance.html

Back to home.

For BEST Results, Do The Whole Thing!

2011-07-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

LOU GETS IT!

When I initially began studying BE, I formed a misconception that I've since observed in other horn players who study BE. I believed that the roll-out (RO) exercises were obviously designed to develop the low register and the high squeaky roll-in (RI) exercises were obviously for developing the upper register. Fortunately for me, I didn't apply this idea to my practice of BE exercises. I worked the whole program and enjoyed very satisfactory results.

The truth is, roll-out and roll-in exercises are designed to develop the embouchure, not a particular register. When the embouchure is developed in a balanced fashion, all registers are improved. RI exercises will improve your upper register, as well as your mid and low registers. RO exercises will improve your low register, as well as your mid and high registers. (Funny how that works!)

The elements of roll-in need to be balanced with the elements of roll-out to develop balance overall.

It's true that some people may benefit more from RO than RI and vice versa, but it may not be obvious exactly what exercises are needed. For me and quite a few others, learning RI seemed like a miracle pill that opened up the upper register. Since I've been working the BE system for 5 years, I now see benefits from practicing RO exercises in myself. I've seen experiences in other horn players that support this as well.

For example, one of my young horn students was struggling with the upper register. After introducing him to Roll-Out #1, he came back one week later thrilled because playing high notes became easier. Jonathan Penny is another who has had unexpected benefits from RO that were not even range related. http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html It's a good thing Jonathan didn't decide to ignore the RO exercises!

Jeff has shared similar stories of RO exercises improving the upper register of trumpeters. Keep in mind, compared to horn players, trumpeters don't even have a low range. Yet, an exercise that appears to a horn player to be designed to develop the low register actually helps trumpeters develop upper range (as well as other aspects of playing).

If you decide you may not need Roll-Out or Roll-In exercises, be aware that you run a risk of missing important elements in the BE system that can help you develop a balanced embouchure.

If you want the maximum benefits of The Balanced Embouchure development system, you need to work the whole program, not just a few exercises.

Lou Denaro has recently been tootling around with the BE exercises. He's found early success with increasing his upper register and recognizes the value of working both extremes. He recently wrote this on the Yahoo Horn:

I think Jeff laid out the book well and users have to work both Roll-Out and Roll-In as Jeff intended and I do believe the overall results in the upper register come from retraining the soft inner lip tissues (roll-out) to work with the harder outer tissues (roll-in). In fact, if you really want to be solution oriented, I suspect that is the whole point of this BE thing.

Thanks, Lou, for sharing your insights. You've stated in just a few words a concept I've been struggling to both understand and communicate for years! For more recent comments by Lou, see this.

Some have asked why Jeff Smiley doesn't make public one or two of his BE exercises so people can try them out and see if BE really works. There's a good reason Jeff does not do this. BE is a comprehensive system that is greater than the sum of its parts. One part, one exercise, taken out of context and practiced alone will not yield the desired results that the BE system will.

HOWEVER.... to keep things in perspective, doing the "whole thing" doesn't necessarily mean practicing every exercise every day. Some have found success by rotating and/or alternating the exercises. See Pressed for Time and Practicing BE.

Kerry's Questions

2011-07-24T08:14:00.000-07:00

Q: Is BE a program one can undertake on their own, or is it something best done with a teacher?

A: The Balanced Embouchure is a self help book written for trumpet. Most trumpet & horn players learn it on their own with a little email support as required. A few people have difficulty learning from books, so for them there's the opportunity for skype if there are no instructors in their area. I've heard some say that having an instructor helps them catch on more quickly. Jeff has a list of BE friendly instructors on his website. http://www.trumpetteacher.net/teachers.html

I learned BE directly from the book with support from The Balanced Embouchure forum in The Trumpet Herald. The BE forum is monitored by Jeff Smiley. http://www.trumpetherald.com/

Q: What supporting materials are there for somebody who wants to look into it? Books? Videos? A Web site?

A: The BE book comes with a CD of the exercises played by Jeff Smiley's young students (they're amazing, too!). The BE book is well written & provides detailed illustrations. With very few exceptions for placement of harmonics in the range, BE works exactly for horn as it does for trumpet. I distribute the BE exercises adapted for horn as well as other supplemental materials, for horn players to anyone who owns the BE book regardless of when or from whom the book was purchased. My adapted exercises are available as a PDF email attachment or as a bound booklet for $3.00 (to cover printing costs).

Also for horn players who study BE, I periodically distribute a "BE for French Horn" email that contains updates, motivational material, etc.

Since Jeff Smiley discourages BE students to copy the "look" of another's embouchure, there are no "official" videos provided for BE study. However there are a few recordings of enthusiastic trumpet players who have published YouTube videos of themselves performing BE exercises. Steve Park and I are have put together a a little video with a few of the basics of BE on horn, mostly to encourage horn players by showing that BE exercises can be done on horn. The link to this private video is available with the purchase of the BE book.

There are several links on the right to helpful sites provided by Jeff Smiley and other trumpeters discussing The Balanced Embouchure.

Hope this helps, Kerry.

EXTREME EMBOUCHURES!

2011-07-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Can you hear the cheesy radio/TV ad announcer attempting to increase adrenalin levels with: "EXTREME demolition derby!" "EXTREME sports!" "EXTREME thrills!" Hmmm.... How about a cheesy announcer to say...

"EXTREME embouchure exercises!"

These are still shots of the extreme embouchure settings I use when I practice some of the BE exercises. This is how it works for me:

(1) If I can develop tone, range and facility in an extreme embouchure; then tone, range and facility with a "normal" embouchure will be easier.

(2) If I can learn to play in both extremes, I'm bound to find settings between the extremes that work well for me.

(3) If I systematically practice in the extremes as well as transitioning from one extreme to the other, I'll eventually learn maneuvers I can use to navigate efficiently within the less extreme registers I encounter in daily playing.

Works for me!
Also see: Why the Extremes?
Also see: "Circus Trick" or Developmental Tool?

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The roll-out and roll-in exercises can be performed "correctly" with or without air pockets as seen in the examples contributed by horn players here. Air pockets are an option, not a requirement in BE. Some people can't do the exercises without them; others can't do the exercises with them. It's an individual thing and nothing to stress over either way. I like practicing with air pockets as pictured, because it helps me isolate and control individual muscle groups to play with less overall tension.
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Cute comment from Iris: Thanks, Valerie— these pictures are great! I was just joking earlier this week with my daughter (an accomplished trumpet player) that everyone would want to try BE if it was called "X-treme Embouchure!" The photos also helped to show me that I'm on the right track with my goofy-faced ROs and RIs! ~Iris
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If one picture is worth a thousand words, then multiply that by what you see here!

"Circus Trick" or Developmental Tool?

2011-07-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

On Yahoo Horn, Aleks wrote:

I suspect that your understanding of an einsetzen embouchure has been dictated by trumpet players who roll their lower lip out and put it practically outside the mouthpiece cup to play pedal tones. This is not an einsetzen embouchure, but a circus trick.

Aleks, Thank you so much for your comment. You may call this a "circus trick", because you aren't aware of its value and use to the brass player. I would also call it a "circus trick" if I didn't have positive experience using it. I will agree that it has little or no direct application in regular performance, but I do regard this technique as a valuable tool for embouchure development. I liken it to buzzing, which also seems useless to those who have never used it systematically. No one actually performs free buzzing or buzzing the mouthpiece alone, but this is never-the-less a valuable development tool for many.

The technique of playing with the lower lip completely rolled out below the mouthpiece rim, which I consider an exaggerated or extreme form of einsetzen, is the foundation of the roll out exercises in the Balanced Embouchure system. Trumpet players and horn players alike use this technique to help them develop their embouchures. Those who have benefited from this development tool, are very grateful for this "circus trick!" Here are links to one horn player's positive experience working with this exercise:

http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/02/discovery-and-experience.html
http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2010/06/just-got-this-today.html

Also on Yahoo Horn, Richard Hirsch defined einsetzen as one in which the mouthpiece is set into & stays in the lower lip. After thinking about this, I realized that his definition closely describes the activity of one particular BE exercise (RO#4) which I practice daily. This exercise employs this set up to develop the ability to play the fullest range possible while keeping the rim of the mouthpiece set into the lower lip as much as possible -- pretty close to Richard's definition.

There's another set of exercises, the roll-in's, that do the opposite. These start way up high with an exaggerated rolled in set-up, then drag the setting down as far as possible into the lower ranges. This set up, which I believe may be a form of ansetzen, could also be called a "circus trick", because in its most exaggerated form, has no direct application to regular performance. I regard it as a valuable tool for embouchure development, practice it daily, and am pleased with the results.

Working with both extremes of einsetzen (roll-out) and ansetzen (roll-in) on a systematic, daily basis as presented in The Balanced Embouchure, provides comprehensive experiences for discovery that are not part of any other embouchure development system I've seen. These exercises expand the range of motion and abilities of the average brass player far beyond anything most could even imagine possible.

"Everything's impossible until someone does it." --Bruce Wayne

Dave on Barrows and BE

2011-07-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Dave Stoller, who studied with John Barrows at UW recently wrote. Below is Dave's description of his experiences with John Barrows and BE. For a little background material, see Dave’s testimonial on Jeff’s website from a couple years ago: http://www.trumpetteacher.net/testimonials.html I'm very grateful to Dave for being willing to share his personal insights & experiences. Here are Dave’s words:

Barrows died in 1974 and there was no BE back then. But Callet and Caruso were around in the trumpet world. The horn world at that time was very glued to the Farkas system. Barrow's emphasis was on aperture and total focus of the air stream. He could do things with the air stream and holding one's finger about a foot or two from his chops. You could feel the pin point accuracy of his air stream that far away. He did not like bouncing chins or sloppy chop settings. His focus was so acute it was scary. Barrows was a protege of Wendell Hoss, the leading hornplayer in LA back in the 30's and 40's. Wendell also had this amazing and mind boggling focus. I had the pleasure of playing quartets with him at his house in Glendale CA about 1970. He confessed that Barrows was, arguably, the finest player to pick up the instrument in those years. I wish there was a video of him playing so you could observe what he did with his chops. It was so clinically correct and so incredibly efficient. I just could not get over his virtuosity compared to other major players I heard.

I studied horn with the master of masters, and probably was his worst student ever from a chop standpoint. He took four years to help me develop an embouchure that would work effectively. Then I honed it more as I got into more challenging playing situations. But I have always had slumps when something would go haywire. Or I would have a year where I did not do much playing.

Obviously I could go on and on about all this, but I have given you the salient stuff. And you can post it on your blog since I believe the other hornplayers need to know about Barrows. These are only my observations about him and his teaching.

Only a handful of Barrows students are even around anymore. But I dearly wish you could have seen and heard him play. It was beyond comprehension, but a very different approach - so refined - so elegant that many horn players would not "get it."

Barrows was the true genius of the horn but few players even know about him. Obviously great horn players like Barrows, great brass players in general, have been using many of the universal principals taught in BE, but without formal knowledge of the BE program as Jeff Smiley presents it. What BE does for so many of us is to pull it all together. Yet so much of it is personal and hard to explain.

I can pull out of a slump in 15 minutes with BE. I just run the summary page and take it in about four different keys. It is the best way to open up that range without simply hammering away on high notes. Hammering away never has worked for me and I have to approach all the ranges from a literature standpoint. In other words I have to work the BE around etudes and solo/chamber works, along with orchestral stuff.

For instance, using RI coming down off of the real high licks. I never mastered that until I got into the BE protocol. You must keep the RI (rolled-in setting) going even down into a neutral range. It is almost like we have many little embouchure's and we combine them for what we are doing - subtract some - add some in. I know this sounds loony but it is hard to explain. It is more than muscle memory and allows a soloist to move more freely through very difficult phrases. I cannot imagine playing anymore with the same old chop setup. It’s like being stuck on … ‘chop stupid.’

Some more observations concerning how I apply BE. There are many wicked licks in the standard repertoire and orchestral literature. With BE they simply are not that wicked anymore. For example I might take a solo lick in Mozart and use RI for the whole thing - never relaxing my setting back to neutral. It is like having many little mini computer programs that one uses for the tasks in a piece of music. This is so contrarian to the orthodox world of horn playing/teaching where one uses a very rigid and doctrinaire approach to the music. And this traditional approach robs so many younger players from ever having great high chops.

Apparently I am in RI way more than RO (rolled-out setting). I am naturally in RO because of my classic einsetzen chop setting. It was BE that got me to change much of my chop approach and RI has allowed me to play/perform tunes that I have never done before in public. Yet I cannot explain this to someone who is not grounded in BE.

If there is one salient point about BE, it is that BE gives the player permission to be who they are, and not have to reinvent the wheel to be a second rate copy of someone else. I guess I can draw a parallel to one of the great lady golfers since they are having their US Open here at the Broadmoor Hotel Complex. Few people have the gift of the perfect swing and perfect physique to be a lady golfer, nor the innate talent that separates someone from the rest of the pack. But one can take what they have and use it to the best of their ability. That is the essence of BE from my perspective.

Gotta go, Dave

After reading this article, Eric Johnson added:

For what it is worth. I heard John Barrows play at an International Horn Society workshop in the 70's. He played the Hindemith Horn Sonata, and a couple of Alec Wilder's works as well. At that time he was retired from the University of Wisconsin. He still sounded great and, as usual, his wife was his accompanist.

He did a lot of his recordings on a very old Schmidt Horn. However when that instrument finally died, he went to a Holton H-177 (the 178, only in nickel silver) He always said: "the Holton plays close to the old Schmidt and does everything I need a Horn to do. What more could one ask for!"

The Holton was what he was playing at the time of the workshop.

Thanks to Dave for the testimonial & to Eric for sharing his experiences.
Go back home.

My Comfy Horn Strap

2011-07-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

I've just launched a blog with pictures and ordering information for my Comfy Horn Strap. Group orders and BE students get a discount.

Go back home.

How Steve Park Came to BE

2011-07-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

In his own words:

I found BE courtesy of Andrew Joy, principal horn of the Cologne Radio Orchestra. Andrew contacted me after watching some of my Youtube videos. He contacted me through Youtube and asked me if I was familiar with Jeff Smiley and The Balanced Embouchure book. He said that I looked like I used the concepts found in Jeff's book in my playing. I became curious when he said that he had added an octave to his range and improved his endurance by 70% after using the BE exercises. He also said it really improved his understanding of how to play a brass instrument. So I contacted Jeff Smiley to order his book. I sent Jeff a link to one of my Youtube videos. He agreed with Andrew that I looked like I was already doing many of the things that he talks about in his books. He referred me to Valerie Wells. He told me that she was the expert on BE for French horn and that she had modified the trumpet exercises for horn.

I contacted Val and ordered the book. When it came, I looked through it briefly and set it aside. That might have been the end of it, except that Val and her husband came to Utah and while they were here they stopped by my home and Val gave me a BE lesson. I was amazed at her range and what she could do. This was in April of 2010. On June 8, 2010 I had emergency brain surgery and was out of commission for about a month. When I started playing again, I started practicing the BE exercises. I found that they validated and re-enforced most of what I was already doing.

When school started last fall, I started teaching BE to my horn students. This is when I really got excited. Several of my students had reached a plateau and weren't really getting any better. After I started BE with them, everyone of them began making excellent progress. This was very motivating to all of us. Every single student I teach has improved their range and their confidence substantially. To me, this has been the most rewarding and satisfying part of my BE experience.

Steve Park

Thanks, Steve Park, Andrew Joy and so many others for sharing testimonials & lending support.

Steve playing Dukas Villanelle.

Go back home.

Back & Forth, Trumpet to Horn

2011-07-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Brigitte from France, now playing in Germany, recently shared this testimonial:

Since I started the BE, I improved a lot, my sound is much more stable and I can play much longer. Another important thing is I am able now to play again trumpet and can switch from one instrument to the other, practicing the BE with both ...

I started the trumpet as the first instrument more than 20 years ago but was not a good player because I had no real good basic practice and after 45 minutes to 1 hour I was unable to play because the lips were "gone".

I cannot tell if I can play more now because my favorite instrument is still the horn, but for horn I never stop playing because the lips are fade up, but only because I have something else to do ...

Kind regards,

Brigitte

Go back home.

San Francisco was GREAT!

2011-06-27T14:43:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful week we had in San Francisco last week for the 43rd International Horn Symposium! My sweet husband came along to lend general support and help with book keeping. Doug Wagner stayed close by lending moral support and helping promote the BE message. I enjoyed getting better acquainted with Steve and Lorna Park. (We'd only met once before the symposium in April of 2010.) And, I seriously enjoyed meeting some of my BE for horn friends face to face, and was thrilled to welcome more horn players (and even one tuba player) to the BE group! I learned much from the many horn players who stopped by my exhibit to chat and share experiences.

I believe the symposium this year was historic. It's probably the first time in IHS history that a embouchure method written for trumpet has been formally introduced at a symposium for horn players! Pretty cool, huh?

Steve Park (with precious little assistance from me) really knocked the BE message out of the park with his presentation. In Power Point, he showed dramatic "before" and "after" pictures of his embouchure. The "before" picture showed a mass of soft flesh protruding from under his top lip which had at one time prevented him from developing an efficient high range. The "after" picture showed how the problem was corrected by rolling in. This was graphic proof of one benefit the roll in exercises can provide.

Steve believes that about 2/3 of his students have a mass of soft flesh that protrudes from under the top or even both lips. He also believes that most great brass players who are "naturals," don't have a this problem which enables them to play the full range without the need for much rolling in.

Steve also showed a video of 12 middle school students each playing a "double pedal" F (our fundamental) followed immediately by a high C. Undeniable proof that anyone, any age can learn BE & develop expansive playing range. (Don't expect this video to appear on you-tube. It would require permission from 12 parents before this could happen.)

One of the BE students on horn, a gentleman pushing 80 years old, asked me for a BE lesson. He had felt insecure in his progress so did not allow me to use his name for promotional purposes. In our lesson, he played RO#4, starting on double pedal F (fundamental F on the Bb horn) and slurred all the way up to high F above high C while solidly nailing every note in between. He did this without resetting, but rather in a smooth clean motion. Sheesh! I had to ask, "Exactly what part of BE isn't working for you?"

Another BE student I worked with played his RI exercises with such a lovely tone, he could easily use this as his normal performance embouchure provided he could learn to tongue efficiently with this set up.

Milton, a horn player (not a BE student) who played principal horn for many years told me of an experience that resonated with me. After attending our presentation Milton said he realized what he'd been doing for many years was actually a part of BE. (Well, of course! All successful brass players use the principles of BE whether they know it or not.) Milton had used a rolled in setting on both trumpet and horn which gave him a wonderful high range, but eventually it"morphed" into something too extreme to allow for flexibility. In other words, his chops became unbalanced and too heavy on the roll in side to be efficient. He was forced to go through a difficult embouchure change to correct it. I believe this could have been avoided or even corrected had Milton been practicing the BE roll-out and roll-in exercises consistently all along. (Too bad BE wasn't available back in the day for Milton.)

Another exciting happening came from David, a BE trumpeter in the San Francisco area, who came Thursday for our presentation. David brought a book describing the Maggio method. The descriptions of the Maggio method had a few striking similarities to the embouchure that trumpet players often develop studying BE. What was especially interesting was that David had studied Maggio's embouchure for 30 years, but in all those years never made the progress like he had in just two years of studying BE. This shows where Jeff Smiley's genius is. Jeff has taken the elements from past players as well as his own teaching experiences and organized these elements into a system that is so simple, even children can learn it.

And, BTW, David picked up my horn and played a fundamental pedal F, then slurred through the partials to a double high C -- each note with a nice full tone. Don't we just hate it when trumpet players do that? ha ha ha!

A representative from Conn-Selmer, a tuba player, was intriqued by BE so bought the book. I'm eager to hear how this works out for him. I know only one other tuba player who uses BE.

For all the BE newbies, I'm hoping to make email contact with each and everyone of you. Unfortunately, I don't have all your email addresses, and some of the email addressed I've tried have failed. So if you don't soon hear from me, please contact me by email at: ValerieW78 "at" gmail "dot" com.

Valerie

Go back home.

BE in San Francisco

2011-05-25T14:56:00.001-07:00

A few things:
(1) I've been invited to do a presentation on The Balanced Embouchure (BE) at the upcoming IHS symposium in San Francisco. Since Steve Park is an accomplished horn player, music educator and very enthusiastic about BE, I invited him to assist. He has agreed and will be performing a solo as part of the presentation. Whoo hoo! I can hardly wait for that. For information about the Symposium see: http://symposium.hornsociety.org/

Steve recently gave a presentation about BE to the Utah Horn Club. He wrote me this about the experience:

"Hi Valerie - The BE presentation went very well last Saturday. I got some great feedback from Larry Lowe and Jeb Wallace. They said that the most impressive and convincing part of my presentation was the video that shows all of my young students playing a pedal F and a high C. Larry said everyone knows that young students can't play a high C. And yet there were 12 of my young students doing it. -Steve"

(2) Since I've been invited to present BE formally in SF, I've decided to attend the symposium as an exhibitor rather than a participant. This means I will have a table where participants can purchase a book and stop by for a chat. (Please, please stop by!) I will make myself available to as many BE students as possible for extra help with the exercises while I'm in San Francisco. I don't know how I'll work the logistics, but even if it means using my husband's and my dormitory room as a make-shift studio, I'll do it! I plan to have a "Help w/ BE" sign up sheet on my table.

(3) I have designed a Comfy Horn Strap which has become quite popular in my home town among students and my horn friends. It's fully adjustable, lightweight, non bulky, strong, requires no professional installation and, most of all, very comfortable as it takes the pressure off the left hand while playing. It fits every horn and hand I've tried it on so far. I'm testing the market to see if it's worth my while to make and sell these. I'll have a limited number available at the symposium, but anyone who orders one before the symposium is over will get the "introductory price." Email me if you're interested. ValerieW78 "at" gmail "dot" com. (I've used mine for four years & it's holding up well.)

Lip Swelling, The Embouchure Performance Wrecking Ball

2011-05-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

Lip swelling can impair embouchure performance for brass players. Lip swelling can be caused from medications, allergies, certain dietary supplements, foods, mechanical stimulation (vibration/pressure), infections, cosmetics and who-knows-what-else. Lip swelling seriously reduces endurance, range and the ability to make clean attacks.

For some, the embouchure muscles are well conditioned, the players have good mechanics, technique and range, but for various reasons, their lips swell as they play. For these folks, performance is seriously diminished before they begin to feel fatigue in the embouchure muscles.

How can you tell when your lips are swollen? Larry Jellison wrote:

I can tell quickly my swelling condition by putting the mouthpiece on my lips and playing for a couple seconds. If my lips are NOT swollen, then both lips feel like feet being in roomy shoes-- lots of room for the lips to move around which is important for dexterity and overall response with a good buzz. When the lips are swollen, there is less room for the lips to move around in the mouthpiece ... less dexterity, less ability to start notes consistently.

More recently, Larry added this sage advice.

When the lips are messed up from supplements and meds, my opinion is, go ahead and practice. Don't get upset about how you may sound. Practice the best you can. Many aspects of horn playing are worse-- tone, accuracy, high range, intonation. But, try really hard to play the best you can. With super concentration, you can play better. This kind of practice improves one's overall horn playing then when the lips are in good condition. Practice when playing is bad does bring overall improvement.

Sometimes the cause of lip swelling can take a long time to identify and resolve, but sometimes a few simple interventions remedy the problem. The following is a list of various causes and possible remedies I've gathered through personal experiences contributed by others:

1. Those who have swelling due to prescription medications, may talk to their doctors about changing medications. For example, some blood pressure medications work by dilating blood vessels which can lead to swelling. Changing to a medication that treats hypertension with another strategy may ease the swelling. (See #19 below for a specific medication.)

2. One hornist explained that a rushed, strenuous warm up used to cause his lips to swell and stiffen. He now gets better performance because he's using Wendell Rider's gentle warm up. (I also use Wendell's warm up and love it for this and other reasons. http://www.wendellworld.com/html/HornBookSamples.html)
Another horn player doesn't play at all the day of a performance only blowing a few easy notes just prior to the concert for warm up & preparation.

3. Taking aspirin or ibuprophen before a performance helps three horn players I'm acquainted with. One reports that prescription doses of ibuprophen are the most effective.

4. Supplements that have been reported to increase lip swelling are fish oil, arginine, niacin, so one horn player routinely abstains from these products for at least six hours before performing.

5. Two horn players I know find the dietary supplement, Serraflazyme (serrapeptase) very helpful for reducing and preventing swelling. Another finds this same supplement to aggravate swelling.

6. Two reported that if a salty food touches their lips, they can not play for hours after.

7. A young lady posted on a horn discussion forum about trying a new lipstick that made her lips swell so badly before a concert, she was unable to play the concert.

8. Many report that arnica, an herbal anti-inflammatory, helps reduce swelling. Arnica is available in OTC products such as ChopSaver, creams, gels and tablets. (BTW, every product I've ever used containing arnica makes my lips burn and swell. Go figure.) At a master class I attended, Gail Williams said she uses oral arnica preparations as well as ChopSaver.

9. Several trumpet players I know put a cold can of beer against their lips during strenuous performances. One said forget soda pop, only beer will do! ;o)

10. Sometimes, if I'm exposed to something I'm allergic to, nothing helps but an antihistamine/decongestant. Yet, one horn player's lips swell more if he takes antihistamines. (Go figure.)

11. Also, certain foods can cause embouchure swelling. I personally have experienced embouchure problems after eating red or green peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, kiwi fruit and pineapple. I've heard of some who have problems with spicey foods, highly acidic foods or beverages, such as citrus & berries. One horn player reported a disastrous performance after eating spicy chicken verde enchiladas prior to her concert debut as principal. Ouch!

12. Another cause for my lips to swell is dehydration making them feel hot and burned, then swell and I end up "clamming" all over the place. [Since clams are aquatic creatures, it stands to reason that they'll stay calm & quiet if given plenty of water. ;o) ]

13. Aside from dietary interventions & antihistamines, something else that has helped me is to get allergy tested, start allergy shots and remove as many allergens from my home possible. In testing I was found to be highly sensitive to insect proteins & molds. I don't live in an area where insects are a problem, but I did have a lot of silk in my bedroom. (Silk is an insect protein.) Removing the silk bedding, drapery and throw pillows made a significant improvement in my embouchure function and overall well being. My husband and I also had the 30 year old moldy insulation in our attic replaced and that has really helped, too. (It was surprisingly affordable.) I only occasionally need antihistamines anymore, whereas previous to the interventions in this paragraph, I used them twice daily for many years.

14. (5/6/11) I just heard from a horn player who took hydrocodone before and after surgery. He wrote,

"It worked for the pain, but made my face swell enough that playing the Horn was very inconsistent. For a while I used one of my Neill Sanders wide rim mouthpieces, because it was easier to move around in. After the surgery it took about 3 months for things to get back to normal. Now I am back on either my trusty Schilke #30 or a mid 70's Giardinelli F-16. (Giardinelli's version of the original Farkas mouthpiece)"

"It took me several days to realize it was the Hydocodone, that was the cause of the problems with my Horn playing. My first reaction was: Oh damn, along with everything else, I have the first stages of embouchure dystonia! It was only after my brain kicked in and said: A doctor's first question would be: What have you eaten, taken or done differently recently? With that thought in mind I looked up the side effects of hydrocodone in the internet. "

15. One horn player with embouchure dystonia reports that symptoms are more manageable if he reduces lip swelling with ibuprophen before a performance.

Of course, what works for me and others mentioned in this post, may not work for all. I'm sharing ideas hoping that something here will help any who may be struggling with performance problems related to lip swelling. If any have additional related experience, please share so I can add it to this list. Feel free to leave a comment or email me directly ValerieW78 "at" Gmail "dot" com. Thanks to all who have contributed.

16. This just in (5/10/11) from one of a BE correspondents in Europe :

About lip swelling, it was an issue for a couple of years ago. It was mainly due to bad lip functionning and the overuse of mpc pressure for extensive periods of practice. I had to play a really big mpc so I could get low notes. Since BE helped me improve my lip functioning, I do not have that problem any longer. I can play for hours without any swelling, neither on the moment nor the next day. I now play a Holton Farkas MDC, which is a fairly small mpc diameter wise (it is already quite a deep cup) and my low register has never been better.

17. This from Larry:

BE DOES help with the lip swelling, the RO-RI helps to adjust the lips the minimize the worst of it. You touch on a key concept-- an inefficient embouchure will make swelling worse, and this because the lips are getting "beaten up", thus aggravating the swelling. Swelling may at least be partly a symptom of an embouchure problem.

18. Reading this jogged my memory of my first few months back to horn. The center of my upper lip was always swollen, sometimes bruised and a few times it tore leaving a tiny thread of loose skin attached to the underside of the lip. This particular problem completely resolved after I began BE.

19. A specific hypertension medicine may adversely affect horn playing. This came today (8/15/11) from one of my readers:

There are many Internet sites that describe the side effects of Norvasc. Here is one: http://www.drugs.com/sfx/norvasc-side-effects.html . Side effects include flushing and swelling. Supposedly, these side effects apply to a small percentage of users, less than 5%. In my case, I experienced both flushing and swelling. Swelling was noticeable in my ankles. The flushing is gone and the swelling is reducing since quitting the medication.

I am one data point that indicates that these the side effects happen. The swelling affected my lips and my horn playing. Playing was difficult, and most aspects of my horn playing were affected. I suspect that flushing and swelling occur together, so if one experiences flushing, the swelling is likely occurring.

Within one week of quitting Norvasc, my horn playing improved and my lips were more comfortable while playing horn. Norvasc (amlodipine) is a calcium channel blocker used to treat high blood pressure and angina. Similar reactions as described above can be expected from other calcium channel blockers.

20. This just in (9/9/11) from a reader:

My embouchure hasn't functioned well in the morning for years. I just thought it was my "normal" not to play well until about 2 or 3 PM. I stopped taking krill oil with breakfast three or four days ago and have been frankly surprised at how much better I'm playing in the morning now. If my doctor insists I keep taking krill oil, I'll try taking it at bedtime or I'll ask him to suggest a substitute.

21. Bizarre thing happened to me this past weekend. On Friday, the insides of my mouth suddenly became so sensitive, eating my normal lunch left the insides feeling burned. After about a hour, I looked in the mirror and saw that much of the mucous membranes had turned white and were actually peeling. It looked like burns, as if I'd taken a big bite of hot cheesy pizza, except it was in a perfectly symmetrical pattern. I hoped it was only a temporary thing, but the tenderness continued. By the end rehearsal that evening, my lips were significantly swollen and I clammed quite a bit. I discussed it with a dentist who plays in the orchestra. We agreed that it wasn't a chemical burn and could possibly be the first signs of an impending viral infection, possibly a herpes virus similar to those that cause fever blisters. The dentist suggested I try lysine. Before I got home, I stopped at my local grocery store's health food department and purchased some L-lysine. When I got home I looked in the mirror and saw there were swollen ridges and a few blisters inside my lips and mouth. (PANIC! I was preparing for a concert in two days! Herpes infections typically last a week or more.)

I reasoned that if this was the beginning of a viral infection, I might as well do all the anti-viral things I could think of. So that evening, in addition to large doses of L-lysine, I began taking large doses of vitamin C w/ bioflavanoids, oregano oil & olive leaf extract, echinacea, and zinc lozenges. The next morning, Saturday, I continued with the supplements taking them every 2 to 3 hours. As the dentist and I suspected, I developed a low grade fever with chills. I spent the day in bed feeling just awful, mostly sleeping. I was scheduled to attend the fiinal rehearsal that evening and wasn't sure I was going to make it. By 4 PM, the chills & fever "broke." By 5 PM I had energy again. By 6 PM, there were no more blisters inside my mouth and no sign of lip swelling, just a little remaining white peeling tissue. I attended rehearsal and played pretty well. I continued the supplements the next day and performed in the concert with well functioning chops. Nailed my solo with the high sustained G. Whoo hoo!

22. A similar incident recently occurred involving a friend of mine. About 6 PM and two days prior to a critical concert, one of my horn friends found his lower lip swollen up two or three times its normal size & he couldn't play a note. There was no pain, there had been no injury or trauma, he had no allergies that he was aware of. He called his friend who is a nurse. She suggested he alternate ice packs with warm packs, take a vitamin C tablet every hour or two (to tolerance) and follow recommended doses of an over-the-counter antihistamine. He reported to me that within an hour the swelling began to resolve and he was back to normal within 24 hours.

23. Larry contributed the following December 19, 2011:

I have knowingly been struggling with lip swelling for a year that adversely affects my horn playing. The struggle may have occurred much longer; I just didn't know that it was going on until Dave Stoller recognized the symptoms I was having after he read my comments about my playing that I posted on a hornlist. David e-mailed me and told me my problem could be lip swelling,and he suggested some solutions.

I started studying my condition and studied how food, supplements, and medications affected my horn playing. Hypertension medications were the worst, and I went through different hypertension meds to find some that worked the best for my horn playing. I finally got down to taking only beta blockers (atenolol, propranolol) and a diuretic (water pill- hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ)). I had always taken the HCTZ once a day away from my horn playing time, as I assumed that it would be a problem. My doctor then doubled my HCTZ dosage to 25 mg. twice a day. I could no longer keep this med away from my horn playing. When I doubled the dosage of HCTZ, I noticed a remarkable improvement to my horn playing. I then tested this further by dropping off the med for a few days, played horn, then resumed taking the med, followed by playing horn. The beneficial effect could be noticed a within a few hours of resuming the med. All aspects of my horn playing improved, most notably tone, accuracy, dexterity, high range, and endurance. I noticed that my lips felt roomier in the mouthpiece, and the increased room actually created a minor temporary problem of needing to strengthen my lip support structure within the mouthpiece. I will check later to whether I can downsize to a smaller mouthpiece rim; for now I will stay on the Laskey 85G. The amount of improvement is significant, and I am able to play more confidently.

24. I personally experienced troubling episodes of swelling, tooth sensitivity & break outs of rashes in the mouth for a couple months before discovering that it was all caused by a bad tooth. Once the dental problem was resolved, the symptoms went away.
Go back home.

BEyond Description

2011-04-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

When I first began studying BE, I enjoyed an instant boost to my embouchure performance because I was "allowed" to roll my lips in and out. I remember thinking how grateful I was to Jeff Smiley for letting me in on the big "secret." At the time, I thought that's what BE was all about: rolling in and out. I shared this idea with others in the French horn world and some began experimenting with the idea and teaching their students to roll in and out. Of course, they reported success from this simple intervention because it is based upon a universal principal of embouchure function -- rolling lips inward raises pitch, rolling lips outward lowers pitch.

It wasn't until later, after working the BE exercises consistently over time, that I began to see the bigger picture and realize that the power of The Balanced Embouchure is found in the system, not one specific technique. BE is much more than rolling in and out. BE is a comprehensive method using multiple techniques that can stimulate a faulty embouchure to self correct. Consistently following Jeff Smiley's instructions can actually provide guidance for the hornist to find a new and more efficient embouchure set up. Sometimes this improvement comes with a subtle repositioning or reshaping of the lips; other times it often comes with radical changes in embouchure mechanics.

BE uses a variety of specific techniques including rolling in and out, to provide a wide range of experiences for the embouchure components (lips, tongue, teeth, air, cheeks, breathing apparatus, etc) that the BE student can experiment with and choose from. Using sensory feedback (hearing, touch, proprioception, etc.) and innate intelligence, the player is guided, both consciously and unconsciously, to make choices that optimize embouchure performance. Simply rolling the lips in and out cannot provide the horn player as comprehensive a range of experience.

Through the past five years I've been working BE, I've enjoyed discovery after discovery, AHA moment after AHA moment. Most of the details of the changes and improvements are beyond my ability to analyze and describe, but can only be personally "felt." When I try to share the specifics of what I've learned through BE, I often find myself "tongue tied" by the effort. There's little more of substance that I can add to this simple statement:

"Do the Balanced Embouchure exercises because they work!"

Those who only apply rolling in and rolling out to their regular playing may get a boost in embouchure performance, like I did. But if they don't work the whole BE system, they are missing the bigger picture, the remedial and long term benefits that the complete Balanced Embouchure development system provides.

(I wish to thank my son, Aaron, a philosophy student, for sharing the quotation in the comments section below. This quotation provided the inspiration for this article. Since I can't accurately describe what goes on inside the mouthpiece of any single horn player, I chose to remain silent about the details!)

Go back home.

Embouchure Experience and Discovery

2011-02-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

For some, The Balanced Embouchure system brings an overall, general improvement to the established embouchure by enhancing the various elements of playing such as range, endurance, tone, flexibility, security, accuracy, etc. But, for others, the BE system enables students to make major embouchure transformations as they discover fundamental flaws in and subsequent solutions to their embouchure settings. Such was the case for and Jonathan and me.

In my very first week on BE, I discovered a fundamental flaw in my set up. The flaw was not discernable to visual inspection, appeared ideal by Farkas standards, but did not deliver Farkas results. In spite of several years of qualified instruction, I only discovered the flaw when I began to practice the roll-in exercises in The Balanced Embouchure.

For Jonathan, it wasn't as quick. Jonathan struggled for months almost quitting at one point. After taking a little time off his horn, he came back fresh and began BE anew. That's when he discovered a critical element he needed while working with the roll-out exercises. Here are Jonathan's latest comments to add to his testimonial:

I'm still working with BE off and on (more off than on, lately) ... but it led me to an embouchure setting that gives me a much better tone, more flex, and more volume.... still working on the upper range. It is a much more relaxed setting and fits with my theory that it's more about discovering and practicing a setting that allow better playing with less work, rather than try to "muscle up" the notes with a poorly chosen embouchure. It also seems to explain why accomplished players "make it look so easy" .... because for them, it IS easy! And I don't believe it's just because of years of physical toning of the supporting muscles; I believe they have developed a setting that they can easily leverage to do whatever they want with tone, volume, range, pitch, etc.... Just my rambling thought here....

This reminds me of something I once heard in church: "There are some things that can not be taught ... these things can only be learned." I don't believe anyone could have directly taught, "shown" or described to Jonathan or me what a well functioning embouchure looked or felt like for us individually. But Jeff Smiley's simple exercises guided us to discover what we needed through a wide range of embouchure experiences provided in his method.

Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing your insights.

See original article, "Huge Breakthrough" with Roll-Out Exercises here.

Go back home.

Pressed for Time?

2011-01-20T12:35:00.000-08:00

There's no need to find a huge block of time free of extra responsibilities, gigs and rehearsals to start BE. Of course, working the whole program is the most ideal situation, but as little as 3 to 5 minutes a day on one or two BE exercises can make a difference.

One horn player I know who had been playing horn for 7 years had very limited range & endurance when she started BE. She had a job, young children at home and was very limited in practice time. She could only dedicate 3 to 5 minutes of her daily practice to BE studies. After three years, she developed a formidable range and played first horn in a community band like the Energizer bunny beats his drum!

I recently introduced the first BE Roll-Out exercise to a high school horn student. He came to the next lesson apologizing for not practicing much during the week due to unexpected & disruptive events including an automobile accident. But, he was still pleased because he said his high notes were definitely becoming easier and more secure. All he had been able to do that week was take a minute or two before or after each daily band rehearsal to run through one Roll-Out exercise!

In my first two years of BE, I was a come back maniac. I played in 6 ensembles and numerous ad hoc groups. I stripped down BE to 7 minutes a day including what I considered at the time, the BE basics. I progressed very nicely with this schedule. Of course, when I cut back on some of the ensembles, leaving myself more time to concentrate on the finer details of BE, I made significant advancements in all aspects of my playing. But, my point is this: a little BE can go a long way.

How can just few minutes of an exercise or two make such a big difference in embouchure function? Every little bit of BE helps because each BE exercise is targeted to efficiently teach and develop a specific, universally beneficial embouchure skill. When one skill is developed in an exercise, part of it can then be incorporated into every day playing with or without the player's knowledge of how it's done.

So, if you're pressed for time, start with something small, BE patient, BE persistent and watch big things happen!

Valerie Wells

Back to home.

The Terror & Thrill of Horn Playing

2010-12-15T12:15:00.000-08:00

I think every horn player can identify with the sentiments my friend, Doug, recently shared with me in a spontaneous and unsolicited email.

Valerie,

Our Castle Rock Orchestra had a Christmas concert today. . . The concert was great fun, and if you recall, I was principal. What made that remarkable was that I stewed about it for several weeks. I practiced everything that mattered. I practiced fingerings, I thought about phrasing, dynamics, articulation, and intonation. And I psyched myself up, so determined to play as well as I could.

Today arrived, concert day. Yikes! I tried to avoid thinking about what it meant not to do this well, and I stayed just this side of being really nervous. I turned that wonderful corner where nerves turn into determination and concentration, and adrenalin is your friend. Of all the things I thought about, there was one thing I never thought about. The one thing that it most depends. I never gave a single thought to my chops.

After a year of BE, and weeks of practicing those parts, I never questioned whether or not I could slur up to a high A and hit it cleanly. I'm not saying I didn't chip any notes, but I hit all those high A's as clean as a whistle!

I had several thoughts occur to me as the concert went on. The first was, "What a fool I was to quit playing for all those years." The second was, "This is where I really belong, it doesn't get better than this." The third was about what a stretch it is for me to be playing these first part solos and that I had to bring everything I knew. And finally it cocurred to me that if you're lucky enough to be a horn player, then you're lucky enough.

I'm close to a year past discovering BE, corresponding with Jeff, and exchanging the first email with you. What a year of discovery it's been! I've never been bungee jumping, but I don't believe it could hold a candle to playing the horn, either for the terror or the thrill. I wouldn't trade any experience on earth for the thrill of playing the horn this afternoon. I don't think I have the words to describe it. It's that feeling deep down inside that something came into your life and made such a huge impact, that you wonder how you could have accomplished something so personally meaningful if you hadn't been touched in that way. . . I couldn't have risen to the challenge today without it.

Joyful Christmas to you and your family, and God bless you and yours for all that you do.

Doug
Doug's testimonial

Unconscious Control

2010-11-30T13:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a new comment to an older post. Thanks, Kenny.

A lot of playing the trumpet is controlled by the subconscious. Think about it for a moment - if we had to have an aperture setting of .015 of an inch high by .015 of an inch in width with 4.7 psi of air pressure and lip compression of .0025 pounds to achieve note X - how could we possibly do this? We could not. It would be physically impossible. We do not posses the conscious control over our bodies in this extreme. Only the subconscious mind can control things on this level. It's like picking up a glass of water. You don't think about how much grip the fingers must exert or how much lift your arm must provide - it just happens because we let it happen. It is learned through feel as there was a time when you were a toddler that picking up a glass of water (or tying your shoes) was quite a challenge; yet we now perform these task on a subconscious level. Thus the reasoning behind Jeff's method - the exaggerated extremes of RO and RI kind of sets where the stops are. Once your mind conceives these stops it then tries to refine the whole range of motion to find ones particular balance point. Some people may have a natural balance that falls in the motion exerted in the RO, some will have it to fall within the RI, some it will be somewhere between. The old saying - get out of the way of the horn and let it play - has merit. Our body wants to achieve the sound concept that we have in our mind if only we will let it.
Kenny Clawson
By clawsonk on I don't get it. on 11/29/10

A Music Therapist's Perspective

2010-11-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

From Lyle Sans, Music Therapist

Hi, Valerie - Since leaving that comment over on Horn Matters, it's dawned on me why Jeff's method is so appealing to me as a music therapist. All the neuroscience that's coming out points to how there's all kinds of things going on simultaneously when we make music, and Jeff's book does a way better job of addressing all the different things going on than any other method I've ever encountered. Plus, he respects the student enough to lay out the tools and approaches and let the student find their particular way. Here's a post I did when I first realized all this. http://registeredmusictherapist.blogspot.com/2010/10/jeff-smiley-neuroscience.html

Also, was delighted to see the note down below talking about the F horn. I spent most of the summer (when community band was on hiatus) just on the F horn, just trying to get the best tone I could on the octaves on either side of middle C. It's made all the difference in my playing. Sort of going back and making sure I was walking really well and naturally before returning to the leaping and running involved in 1st horn parts. And I discovered I prefer the tone of the F horn to that of the Bb, maybe because
somehow I think it resonates more in my upper body. So that note down below
was validating.
By Lyle Sanford, RMT on "Horn Matters" Linked My Blog - Wow!
10/24/10
testimonial

One Year on BE, a Cheery Update

2010-11-09T13:19:00.000-08:00

I love getting emails like this:
Valerie!
Just wanted to give you a one year update on my progress. BE has truly changed my playing for the better and while I was also one of those "freaks" that saw immediate improvement, my playing continued to improve throughout the past year of doing the BE exercises. Even though I was able to perform at a relatively high level prior to BE, I always struggled with endurance issues and good and bad days and had to use separate embouchures for regular playing vs extreme upper register work. Now my playing is much more consistent and my balanced embouchure allows me to play low to high to extreme without changing my embouchure. My endurance is so much better that it almost feels like I'm cheating sometimes! haha.
I can just imagine if I had started BE earlier and think it's almost a crime that BE isn't taught to more beginners and students to maximize their potential faster. There would certainly be alot less brass players quitting out of frustration if they had only tried BE from the start!
Ron
In a few years, Ron will be even more pleased with his progress. The improvements will continue. BE is dynamic system that keeps on giving for years to come.

"Horn Matters" Linked My Blog - Wow!

2010-10-22T18:13:00.001-07:00

Dr. John Ericson has posted an article, "Joy on The Balanced Embouchure," featuring Andrew Joy. He's also linked my humble blog. And please note Lyle's excellent comments. http://hornmatters.com/2010/09/joy-on-the-balanced-embouchure/

It's thrilling to know that I'm part of a movement that's helping hornplayers get more satisfaction from playing their instruments. It is also thrilling to see BE recognized by a respected horn professor with a very popular blog. (Wow!)

Back in March of 2007, when I made my first awkward attempts to introduce BE to the horn world, I was met by a surprizing amount of opposition. I'm glad to see hornists from all over the globe embracing BE in spite of my awkward publicity efforts.

Congratulations to all of you who bravely went where few hornplayers had gone before! (I'm hearing the Star Trek them in my mind!) Thanks to Dr. John Ericson, Andrew Joy, Lyle Sanford, and Steve Park and all my BE friends for your contributions and continued support to the BE movement. But, most of all, my heart felt gratitude goes to Jeff Smiley for developing and publishing The Balanced Embouchure.

The progress of The Balanced Embouchure in the horn community demonstrates the power of the BE message.

Warm regards, Valerie Wells

BE for French horn Poster Child!

2010-10-21T15:18:00.000-07:00

I just received this email from Keren in Sydney. Keren's experience in her first two weeks with BE is as close as can be to being text book perfect. Keren could be the BE for French horn poster child! Here is her testimonial:

Hi Valerie

Just thought you might like an update on how things are progressing.

It's been just over two weeks since I received the BE book - I've been practising pedal notes & lip clamps/squeaks every day and all of a sudden just now I've noticed some progress - When I picked up my horn today I suddenly found I could hit a high c - not just one - but over and over and without all the mouthpiece pressure. So I am thrilled! I just hope that it works tomorrow too!

I could already play the pedal notes quite easily - but the roll in embouchure was a
challenge - For two weeks I've been making primitive airy erratic squeaks (Goodness knows what the neighbours think) Very occasionally, out of the blue, I would hit a high note which felt good - but I could never repeat it. I kept re reading the book and the BE info on the internet was very helpful too. Anyway the persistence seems to be paying off. I've noticed that air pockets seem to make the big difference for me - it was helpful to see the youtube videos on the trumpet teacher website of players with big air pockets.

So now that I can hit the high notes I need to try and tame them - also my head has to get used to all of this - I get very lightheaded and headachey when I play the high
notes. Lip clamps are a good exercise to do while driving - but lip squeaks make me too giddy - so I thought I better be careful with those!

Anyway - now that I can play high notes with the roll in embouchure I'm looking forward to working on the exercises properly.

I'm so glad I stumbled across BE on the internet. I'm very impressed with how well the book is written - How precisely it describes the mechanics of working out your own effective personalised embouchure - I'll certainly be recommending it to any brass players I know.

Thanks for your help - I'm enjoying the feeling that high notes don't have to be a no go zone anymore!

Kind regards
Keren

Love Stories

2010-10-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Most of the comments I post on this blog are related to honists' success in overcoming the technical aspects of horn playing. The following two messages are little different. These unsolicited comments were sent me in emails expressing tender feelings of why the writers study the horn.

The first is from Doug Wagner who has a professional background in low brass, but now pursues the illusive horn tone with passion.

I think it was Barry Tuckwell that wrote that the F side is very inefficient in terms of the way the instrument is built. Somehow the physics of the instrument make it more difficult to create a centered tone that can be played without danger of splitting and chipping, BUT --- that's what gives the instrument its great sound. I'm working more and more on the F side because the sound is so much better in the low and middle ranges. In some cases, I play on the F side even into the higher register, because there is a subtle but very real difference in the tone quality. For many years, I wrote arrangements that featured the horn because I loved the sound so much. As a player, I'm constantly striving for that great horn sound. When I make it, it is such a thrill!

The horn is the greatest instrument ever. It stands to reason that it would be more difficult than all the others, otherwise anyone could play it. And even though I know I'll never be the master of it, the joy is in the pursuit. And every once in a while, it's just pure magic. When I create that gorgeous sound, even for a moment, it's what keeps me going.

Last Sunday [my two children] and I played an arrangement I wrote at a recital. What a great time we had! The piece was well received and we had fun. It was such a thrill to play with my kids! What fine young persons they are. My proud Poppa buttons were bursting! It was worth every agonizing minute I have spent wrestling with the horn, all the times of self doubt and discouragement just to be able to play competently along with my kids. There is a tremendous thrill at seeing my children grow into young adults and excel at something I have loved so much.

I let music go for a long time because I burned out. Now that I've re-kindled, it's even more fun. I'm listening to music again and finding more enjoyment than ever. What a marvelous thing to experience. I loved [my daughter's]answer when I asked her if she wanted to major in music. Her reply was, "What else would I do?"

Indeed.

Doug

The second quotation is from Larry Jellison, a retired engineer who returned to his childhood sweetheart, the horn, a little over 10 years ago.

Hi Val,

Just checking horn playing on Youtube, came across this performance. ... I could guess the shape of the horn bell by listening. It is a medium belled horn. The recording is enhanced with some reverb. He is able to play high without becoming shrill. I admire this recording, because it focuses on what horn playing should be-- total beauty of the sound of the horn. I'm encouraged that one thing musicians like us can do is achieve an incredibly beautiful horn tone. I had just finished listening to Mason Jones on the Internet play Chabrier, using a large belled horn. Much
different sound, yet still total beauty. I think Mason played an 8D.
Articulation becomes different with a large belled horn, more difficult, but the
challenge is to find an articulation that stays true to the characteristics of the horn without sounding sluggish.
Titanic:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wek4b4pfPjI&feature=related
Mason
Jones:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-36ynieLPw
Larry

Looks can Deceive

2010-10-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a splendid example of why we should not try to look like someone else when we play the horn:

Hi Valerie,
When I play I have a RI (rolled in) feel and when I look in a mirror at my embouchure it is still significantly RO (rolled out) . . . and that is up to high F with a
strong sound up to high E! That is weird, but h--- it works ;-)
Guillaume
Comment from Jonathan West:
I've had discussions with Lyle Sanford that touch on this issue. In orchestra rehearsals, conductors talk about what they want from the strings in terms of tone. They describe the techniques to be used - heel or tip of the bow, pressure vs bow speed, start on or off the string. Likewise percussionists have a well-established vocabulary for their techniques - stick speed and weight, whereabouts on the surface to strike the drum, hardness of stick etc. But for wind players, there isn't that same vocabulary of techniques. The vocabulary is more about effects than techniques. This is because what goes on for a wind player is internal (air support, tonguing etc) or consists of minute outwardly imperceptible changes around the lips. And I rather suspect that everybody visualises what is going on internally and with the lips a bit differently - and almost all the visualisations are wrong to some degree. This is probably why, if BE works for you, you can't quite tell why or how. What you See more... think is going on is probably different from what is really going on. But that doesn't matter all that much. What matters is whether the visualisation involved works for you!
By Jonathan West on Looks can Deceive on 10/14/10

BE can Revolutionize Teaching

2010-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Steve Park began studying BE 7 months ago. He related that Andrew Joy originally recommended he investigate it. Steve said he was intrigued by Jeff Smiley's website because it described the way he had been playing for years. Steve hoped to use BE to improve his students' embouchures. Below is a letter Steve recently wrote to a horn colleague about BE.

Just in case anyone reading this has never seen or heard Steve Park play, here are links to two of his outstanding youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2J9cvNRs1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA-CIwRw6Qk

Hey M---, Last Monday I taught my first lessons of the new year at Utah State University. I have a new student who is a music major. She is on scholarship and plays really well. Her embouchure is set up a lot like yours. She sets the rim of the mouthpiece into her lower lip a little bit. Her high range tops out at around a G or A on a good day she said. I showed her the rolled in exercises and yesterday at her 2nd lesson she played several easy high C's. I was amazed that she figured it out so quickly and she was delighted. She said "this is fun!" She took lessons all through high school and no one ever showed her this stuff. I have another new student who also took lessons all through high school from Bruce Woodward, who is a good teacher. His low range was aweful. He could barely get the C below middle C and it was weak and
unstable. I showed him the rolled out exercises for low playing and at his lesson yesterday he played a pedal F. He said that he had never gotten anywhere near that note before. I think I said to you last Sunday that these strategies and exercises have revolutionized my teaching. I look forward to the lessons because I know how to help the students and every one of them is making great progress. I have 25 students and only one of them can't yet play a high C and a pedal F or lower. (I just started her on the exercises last week as well. I'm sure that she will be there in a few weeks or sooner.) Contact Valerie Wells and order the book and exercises. Then we can get together and I will show you what I have been doing with my students. You are about to become a high horn playing maniac!!!
Steve

Flat Chin: Andrew Joy Sets the Record Straight!

2010-06-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

Andrew wishes to set the record straight about his chin:

Hi Valerie, I was working in the orchestra this week and only now got around to reading your blog. I was surprised to read that I play with a flat chin. I don't know where that opinion comes from. It is definitely not mine. My former teacher in Cologne, Erich Penzel is really big on the flat chin (or was in my time with him). My limit, using his method, was a high B flat and on a good day, like when I won the Cologne audition, I could squeeze out a passable high C.

A couple of years later whilst preparing Daphnes and Chloe for a German tour with the orchestra, I stumbled on the roll in technique when ascending. Subsequent investigation revealed Barry Tuckwell (in the Farkas book) doing the same. Since I was a great fan of Barry's playing, I assumed I was onto something important.

Those days I didn't make the further connection of the tongue touching (and supporting) the bottom lip. I then got completely off track preparing and recording the Ligeti Trio and actually hurt my bottom lip. An injury thereafter, a blister in the middle of my bottom lip with a tiny hole in the middle of it, led me to talking with a trumpet colleague who introduced me to Jerome Callet. Which led to Jeff Smiley and BE.

Looks can be deceiving. I am acutely aware of the "FEELING" difference between a flat and a bunched chin. My "FEELING" when playing these days is definitely bunched.

Best wishes,
Andrew Joy

Thank you, my dear friend Andrew, and my sincerest apologies for misrepresenting your agile chin! Your point is well made and well taken.

Here are links to a couple interesting interviews with Andrew.

http://hornmatters.com/2010/09/joy-on-the-balanced-embouchure/

http://high-c.com/content/andrew-joy-horn-nerves-and-water-keys

Valerie Wells

I Don't Get It

2010-06-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

I'm my previous article, Jonathan describes what he calls a “huge breakthrough” from doing the Roll-Out exercises (RO). He believes he was prompted or guided to change his embouchure set-up in the right direction by something he experienced while practicing RO. Jonathan's experience is consistent with stories Jeff Smiley has shared about trumpet players whose embouchures were transformed through practicing only the RO exercises but not the Roll In exercises (RI).

I understand that RO can and does improve embouchures, often in dramatic ways. What I don't get is HOW it is done. The mechanics of this process escape my reasoning ability. I can only postulate that the trumpet players Jeff talks about, like Jonathan, were missing some weighty element on one end of the range of motion spectrum. Adding RO provided the needed weight that brought “balance” to their chops. It's a nice & tidy sounding theorem, but what does this mean in a mechanical nuts & bolts way inside the mouthpiece? I don't know.

When I started BE, I experienced a "huge breakthrough" directly from the RI exercises. It was easy for me to see, feel and understand the connection: roll in, play higher, clearer & stronger on a firmer part of the lips! Tadah! But for me, exactly HOW Roll Out exercises can produce similar and dramatic improvements remains the mysterious part of BE. Seeing results such as JP and others have had with RO proves to me that BE is more than just rolling in for high and out for low. The opposing techniques of RO and RI as well as other techniques in BE merge to produce something greater than these do when used singularly.

I’m glad I don’t have to understand the inner workings of the embouchure to help myself and other horn players improve. It’s satisfying enough to know I can help others by simply encouraging them to do the exercises. That's easy. Like Doug Wagner writes: "Spend the time, do the exercises. It works."

Below are responses and insights to what I've written above:

I don't get it.--oh, yes you do!

This does make sense. I agree with your postulate. I would take it even farther by speculating that BE allows one to search for one's best embouchure in ways that mysteriously could involve more than just RI and RO adjustments: for examples, it could allow one to feel for one's best inner-cup embouchure that Farkas writes about; it could allow one to adjust the vertical alignment of the lips; it could allow one to discover that embouchure position could be more dynamic and changeable than we usually think of it as being-- I know that I don't always play with the exact same embouchure, that through BE practice, my lip positions are more versatile to move around a bit similar to an experienced baseball pitcher being able to change his body and arm positions in throwing pitches (I love the comparison of a horn player hitting a note to a baseball pitcher throwing a strike!). Why would I move my lip positions around? Well, for us older folks and those on medications, I find that my lips aren't the same everyday; indeed, my lips change during a single playing session, and I need to make slight embouchure adjustments to accommodate lip swelling and other idiosyncratic lip changes. As a youth I never seemed to need to deal with changeable lips, or, at least, I wasn't aware of it at the time.

If we aren't crazy to decide to play the horn, we eventually become crazy as we learn to play the horn.

Larry
--------
Understanding how RO exercises can make an embouchure work better, even on high register, can be a challenge. I got myself the most benefits from RO practicing, but I am not sure I really understand how it works. I have clues but may not get the whole picture. Three months after starting on BE, I was able to play up to high F when practicing RO#4. I had a big week of rehearsal and concert, very tiring, after which I lost this ability to play higher than High C. After a few months of patience, it is back, but with a slightly bigger proportion of RI, and a much better connection with the rest of my range. It is hard to catch for our analytical minds, but even my high F on the horn and even my high F on the trumpet show some elements of RO.

I think it is hard to understand mainly because the perfect RO set up is not that easy to find, and the RO feel is harder to get on the horn with our narrow rim mouthpieces. I really feel RO much better on the trumpet with a more cushioned rim. Also, on the horn, we tend to associate RO with soft lips, and relaxed muscles, whereas I believe RO relies more on firm lips than we would believe.
Guillaume
--------------
This seems to directly contradict the understanding you showed when pointing out that RI is not just for high notes, and RO is not just for low notes. ...it sounds remarkably contradictory to the strongly-worded essay you posted on why RI does not equal high notes. Maybe its just me, but I have a difficult time getting that contradiction out of my mind.

The actual shape of the lips dictate how much RI or RO is required. For some players, with a particular lip architecture, both lips rolled out could actually facilitate high notes, as they have a double fold of inner lip tissue which acts as the vibrating surface. Other players actually use the tongue in place of the lower lip with great success. Both conditions are rare, however.

Jeff Smiley
------------------
Hi Valerie - one of the great things about BE is that it does not purport to be a one size fits all thing. It's ok to roll out more than roll in...if that works for you...and vice versa. One of the problems some folks have with previous attempts at technical codification is that their successes were sometimes devalued because they were 'doing it wrong'.
It's kind of like what Duke Ellington said about music - 'there are two kinds of music...good music and bad music.'
We could go on for a LOOOOONG time about how today's success can often be breeding tomorrow's failure - short cuts and dead ends and all that. But in the end, our audience does not care 'how' we do what we do...they simply prefer excellence over mediocrity...music over technical display.
The horn and brass in general are difficult...but we often make it more difficult than it is by our desire to know - to the nth degree - every why, where, and how.
Sandra Clark, Toledo Symphony Orchestra
Back to home.

"Huge Breakthrough" with Roll-Out Exercises

2010-06-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

This made my day! Read what Jonathan just wrote to me.....

So here is the latest in my saga...I have recently changed my embouchure setting to put more top lip in the mouthpiece and setting the rim on the bottom lip; it is completely different than my old setting which was apparently all wrong, because I have seen an almost overnight improvement in endurance, accuracy, mobility and slurs. It has also allowed me to play fff in the mid and low registers and add some edge when needed. I cannot play the high register with this setting (yet). I believe that this new setting is a result of the RO exercises, and it is probably what most other players are using, but since it is hard for them to describe what they are doing, and you can't see inside the mouthpiece while they're playing, I never realized that I was using a setting that was inefficient and holding back my progress. I feel like this is a huge breakthrough for me!

I keep forgetting that BE does not prescribe an "ideal" setting, just what works, and BE helps you find that.... apparently BE has done that for me; I NEVER would have even thought of playing with this new setting. So, this new setting is like riding a stallion; it has raw power and grace, I just have harness it. My practice now is aimed at getting the "feel" of each note with the new setting...

I KNEW that there was something fundamental that I was doing wrong, the symptoms told me that... unfortunately no one but you and BE steered me in the right direction. I got the classic list of solutions from teachers, friends and pros, none of which (important as they each are) got to the heart of the problem.... you need more air, you're too tight, too loose, too puckered, too smiley, too much pressure, not enough pressure, too much practice, not enough practice, not enough support, wrong mouthpiece, wrong horn, it's mental.... believe me it was MAKING me mental!!! Not any more.... I'm loving my practices.... thanks Val, you're the best!

Jonathan

Thanks, but Jeff Smiley deserves the credit! All I did was provide the book and a little encouragement to stick with the program.

Valerie

Back home.

Forget the Chin!

2010-05-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

“I don’t think BE will work for me, I play with a flat chin.”
“Andrew Joy plays with a flat chin, so that's not really BE.”

I've read statements like this. They are based upon a misconception that BE is an embouchure method that forbids a flat chin and requires a bunched chin. BE is not a particular embouchure (and thus there is no "BE embouchure") but rather a set of exercises that guides the individual horn player to develop an efficient embouchure regardless of how it visually appears.

Some BE'ers, including Andrew Joy* and Sandra Clark, play with flat chins. Some BE'ers, like myself, played with flat chins when they began studying BE and have seen gradual changes in chin shape. Some BE'ers have never played with a flat chin. However, anyone who regularly practices one or more of the BE exercises is legitimately developing their own personal BE embouchure regardless of their chin appearance.

The flat chin is neither a requirement nor a taboo in BE. A bunched chin embouchure is not the goal of the BE development system, however it is sometimes the result. The goal of BE is an efficient embouchure, not a specific chin shape.

Many believe Jeff Smiley is "against” the flat chin. He is not. Jeff Smiley is against requiring a flat chin. Here’s a related experience Guillaume, recently shared:

Yesterday was high F day! I went to my favorite horn shop in Paris after work and tried a couple of mouthpieces, mainly for fun... I ended up playing high F after high F on one of my regular mouthpieces (Holton Farkas MC). Even the Farkas SC gave lesser results. I just started higher (i.e. in the staff) than I usually do when I try to play above high C (usually start on pedal notes). I just hope I can have this back in the next days and weeks... And as strange as it can be, my lips were not fully RI [rolled in] ... I still had a significant bit of RO [rolled out] and almost no bunching chin... I am a bit puzzled by this I have to say...Those are my last experiments… And after one year on BE, I guess I can be proud of the way I already travelled... thank you for your advice and Jeff for writing the book.

A few days later Guillaume followed up with this:

It's still there. It is just another embouchure set up I can use for extreme high wire range or heavy 1st horn parts, I can more or less make it work from middle C. My regular RO [rolled out] set up gives me a fuller tone, but "only" up to high D (E flat when lucky). I started to see how I can transition between both... it seems doable. The real fun is to see how my chin can move freely, even on high F, up, down... whatever.

Guillaume summarizes the BE chin issue with one word: “whatever."

*Since this posting, I've learned that Andrew's flat chin days are long over. Please see the posting on June 25, 2010 to read Andrew's response.

Doug Wagner's Testimonial: It works!

2010-05-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

I am filled with admiration of Jeff Smiley for taking on the whole academic establishment with his assertion of BE. What a great statement of certitude! Here - Do this. It works. No apology, no hedging. It works. Spend the time, do the exercises. It works. So I bought the book, taking on faith his certainty. Guess what? It works.
Doug Wagner

Thanks for sharing, Doug.

Transition Period: The Darkness Before Dawn

2010-05-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

Valerie,

BE is going very well for me; I can't exactly describe it, but there is a more positive "feel" to my embouchure, the tone is more substantial.... particular notes that were always thin, stuffy, or unresponsive are sounding much better; arpeggios, both slurred and tongued are much improved, and the endurance and range is improving.
Jonathan

Jonathan has corresponded with me regularly since he began studying BE five months ago. He was so frustrated with his lack of progress a couple months ago, he put his horn down for a few weeks to take a break from the intensity of the situation. He was discouraged having failed with various other embouchure methods in the past and seemed tempted to stop studying BE.

I call a few BE students "fast responders" because improvements come so quickly it seems almost instant. But for the vast majority, it takes months to a year or more consistently practicing the exercises before they realize significant improvements.

The BE path is usually one of gradual and steady improvement, but for some it's not. I've gotten feedback from a few who have experienced a significant period of difficulty as their embouchures began to change.

One particular BE student after three months of seeing few visible signs of progress labeled herself as a "slow learner." While her overall tone continually improved from the very beginning of her BE study, she was frustrated that her endurance and range seemed "stuck" in the same spots they were prior to BE. She never-the-less persisted her BE studies and at the end of month five joyfully reported a breakthrough in both endurance and range.

The transition period challenges the BE student's will to continue. Those who weather the storm and persist find the dawning of a brighter day.

Decisions, Decisions....

2010-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Several great questions came from a Doug, a three month BE’er:

"Is there some point in time or development where you're supposed to start moving from RO to RI as you ascend?"

Yes, as soon as you learn the RO and RI exercises you should begin practicing the Advanced Slip slurs to start the process of bridging the gap. The goal is a "continuous flex" as we ascend with no breaks. However, this goal comes from a trumpet player. Trumpet players strive for a no break, no reset embouchure and I believe they can achieve it more readily than a horn player. After all, when compared to horn players, trumpet players only have a mid and high range, no low register. Many horn players have a break, or a place where they must switch or shift their embouchure setting to accommodate the requirements of the range. Doug continues,

"I've been working on bringing the playable notes in RO up as high as I can. I think this is an area where I could use some face to face instruction."

I'd love to work with Doug face to face, but I'm not sure I have the answers he seeks.

At this point he has several directions he might move towards:
(1) switching from RO to RI seamlessly somewhere along the way up and vice versa
(2) developing some sort of RO-RI hybride to play the full range
(3) developing a RO that plays the full range
(4) developing a RI that plays the whole range
(5) developing a RI and a RO that significantly overlap to avoid resetting within phrases
and/or....
(6) doing something completely different that I can't even imagine!

The Advanced Lip Slurs are designed to extend the range upwards and downwards step by step so the player can use techniques learned in RO and RI exercises to discover movements to eliminate or minimize awkward "breaks." It's impossible to say where any one player will shift from RO to RI or if they will need to. It will depend on personal architecture as well as the embouchure they start with, playing needs, personal choices, practice habits, etc.

BE students are encouraged to experiment with the extremes of the exercises to help them discover lips shapes and movements to develop more efficient "chops." BE is not like other methods that prescribe mouthpiece placement and exactly what one must do with the lips, the tongue, the teeth, for regular playing. Because BE is based upon universal principles, BE exercises compliment other methods so the BE student is free to explore and investigate other methods. One never knows where an important piece of the embouchure puzzle will be found.

Below is an example of a bold move a fellow horn player on BE recently made to tackle a very challenging situation.

"I have been flirting with BE for over a year with few results--I still can't get a decent RI. When I work on BE, my regular playing suffers, particularly high and soft playing, though TOL has helped that. The problem with my accustomed embouchure is that it is "conditional," and I don't have good endurance. However, a week ago I was faced with a grueling concert last night preceded by a rehearsal. First horn on Gershwin's Cuban Overture, Rhapsody in Blue, and American in Paris, plus I'm rehearsing Tchaikovsky's fifth, which is a lot of high playing, and I'm trying out for the solo. So, a week ago I did what you shouldn't do: I switched to the smaller mouthpiece I use with BE and changed my embouchure to lips together and air pockets behind both lips. Result: I got through the rehearsal and concert with no endurance problems. I could have played another concert. I had more clams than usual--usually when the air pockets collapsed, but the high notes sailed out, as well as the low. Today my chops feel fine.
"This is not a 'BE embouchure,' if there is such a thing, but certainly was influenced by the BE practice.
"It looks like I'm committed. I would expect that BE practice will only help with this setup. Sometimes desperation helps."

I have to disagree that Henry did what he "shouldn't do." I also disagree with his conclusion that this isn't a "BE embouchure." If it worked, it’s correct. And if BE exercises influenced it, then it is a "BE embouchure," no matter what it looks like!

I’ve encouraged Henry to work on this set up & see what he can accomplish with it. If he can make it perform cleanly with a nice tone, why not use it? He can call it his personal BE embouchure! :o)

Through my experiences with BE, I’ve had the privilege of getting well acquainted with some super good horn players. Some use a rolled in setting for the high range and gradually transfer to a more rolled out setting for the low. A few use a rolled in setting for all of their playing, even the low register. Others use a hybride of both roll in and roll out in varying degrees depending on the range. It varies from player to player.

If anyone is dissatisfied with their embouchure, it is important to actively explore as many avenues as possible, even things that seem strange or radical, in our pursuit of one's personal "balanced embouchure."

Knowing, Understanding vs Feeling

2010-04-12T14:12:00.000-07:00

I learn so much from my BE horn friends. Read this interesting comment from Gill [italics added].

Dear Val,

Yesterday evening, I went through a nice experience. I was trying a couple of BE things on my trumpet, without any real other aim but having some fun after my day at work, and I suddenly found a lip set up (I'd say, 90% of RO and 10% of RI) which allowed me to hit high Cs one after the other with absolutely no mpc pressure while doing RO#4. I knew from my previous experiments on the horn that I was more of a RO type of player, but up till now it was another kind of RO feeling... Yesterday I felt for the first time the foreward - inward motion of RO up to high C and the
repetition made me feel what happens on low C that I need to drag up so I can climb up there easily.

"Muscles moving toward the mpc while ascending." I surely knew and understood what it was about and I already had a kind of feeling before. But now it's a whole new feeling associated with it. There a huge difference between understanding the principals of embouchure development and feeling them.
You can understand the concepts, but it will be nothing until you feel them in practice, and the path is quite well hidden.
...the one solution: "practice", and the first rule: "BE patient!"

Take care.
Gill

If any of you have a trumpet or another brass instrument, it can be beneficial to experiment on it. Experimenting on an unfamiliar brass instrument removes the elements that are unique to the instrument and gives you the opportunity to isolate and explore the universal principals that BE is based upon. After I'd studied BE on horn for a year or more, I began to experiment with BE on trumpet. I discovered a whole new, extreme technique for double pedals with the lower lip fully outside the mouthpiece. I had read the book, knew & understood the logic behind it, but, like Gill, I hadn't felt it yet. Experiencing the new technique on trumpet introduced me to a whole new feeling that wasn't available to me on horn alone. I was able to transfer the techniques to horn and expand on my range of motion that is so beneficial to development.

Valerie Wells

Good News From Across the Pond

2010-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

I always love hearing good news of BE from across the pond! This is from a horn playing friend in Europe.

Dear Valerie,

I have not written you for a long time .... I had a big breakthrough finally connecting my lower register to my upper one. The mpc change helped a lot, giving my lips the needed space to MOVE! Now lip slurs on 3 octaves are just a fun game for me! My embouchure is more flexible than ever and shows a real continuity. There again, my mpc allows my lip to move freely and get the most efficient shape to hit the highest pitches. It's weird, but holy potato it works! I still have to refine my endurance... but with BE I know it's just possible... patience will be the secret for that one!
I can make my low register rattle like on a bass trombone (you should see the looks on my directors face when I do it), and when I slur up to a full high C, other horn players look puzzled (how come a guy who's been on the horn for only four years can do this...) even professional players. I discovered that very few can play on more than three and a half octave with a full sound! But the real thing is now I can take time to practice other stuff than BE (scales, lip trill, and repertoire)

Hugs,
G.M.

A Music Therapist comments on BE

2010-03-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

Check out Lyle Sanford's comments on his first year of BE study.

http://registeredmusictherapist.blogspot.com/2010/02/year-of-balanced-embouchure.html#comment-form

Playing Horn is Like Golf

2010-02-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

From a come back player:

Valerie,

We were watching a movie about golf tonight during dinner. The theme of it was that everyone has their own swing, unlike anyone else’s which they have to find in order to play well. That led me to think about how I had been experimenting with thinking about Mozart One, 1st movement. How was I going to play each note: pitch, how to tongue it, what fingering to use, where was I coming from, where was I going? The piece represents a milestone for me for reasons I'll explain some other time.

It was an exhausting experiment. It took me forty minutes to get through the piece. Then I played it through with out stop, and found that I had decreased the number of errors, chipped notes, etc by at least half, and those errors were because I hadn't sufficiently internalized the decisions I had made during the earlier practice.

I am starting to think that the really great players do the same thing, but do it so quickly, as to make it seem that they are "naturals." Someone once told me that there is less difference between the results that amateurs can achieve versus professionals, than how long it takes them to achieve the same result. I always liked that, because it gave me hope that with sufficient effort, I could achieve the results I desire. Needless to say the horn is providing a daunting challenge to that aspiration.

Well, some aspirations take longer than others. I tried a trill in einsetzen tonight, and the best I can report is that I think it is possible. Lest you laugh, that is a huge leap for me. I never thought before BE that I could play above the pedals in einsetzen. BE is showing me that the operative part of the word "assume" is the first three letters. That's what you make of yourself if you don't ever challenge what you think you know. I love the quote you have about the person who thought the concept was stupid, and then found out who was really stupid. Been there done that.

I also learned today that I haven't spent nearly enough time earnestly working on lip slurs. Is it too late for New Year's resoulutions?

Doug

The Notion of Unifying the Embouchure

2010-02-23T11:29:00.000-08:00

The BE development system has exercises in two main categories: (1) the extreme roll-out which favors low notes, (2) the extreme roll-in which favors high notes. The exercises challenge the player to push the envelop of embouchure function by extending the range with in the categories. The roll-out embouchure exercises start on double pedals and ascend as far as possible upwards with the roll-out set up. The roll-in exercises mirror image this by extending use of the roll-in embouchure into the lowest possible range.

The goal of BE is to use these and other exercises, plus specific tonguing and breathing techniques to give the brass player the technical skill to use a continuous flexing of the lips to navigate the full range of the instrument minimizing and ultimately eliminating awkward embouchure changes.

In the quote below, David G. aptly described this goal as "unifying the embouchure" in his memory of a past insight that embodies a key principle of the BE development system:

For some unknown reason . . . I remembered that years ago someone wrote to the horn list about having a break in embouchure somewhere in the midst of our tessitura - a point where he/she had to change embouchures. I wrote in to recommend practicing playing a simple scale from the bottom to see where the break occurred, then playing a scale from the top down to see where the break occurred, and assuming that there was overlap - there had to be - that it was worthwhile to extend those breakpoints as much as possible until it might happen that there would no longer be any break point. There was a bit of other advice, but the one that stood out in my mind was the one that pooh-poohed the notion of unifying the embouchure. Well, that's a chortle. I guess the idea was a very primitive first pass at BE.
David
Thanks for sharing, David.

Feedback from a 3rd year Horn Student of BE

2010-02-13T13:05:00.000-08:00

Kyra is the second horn player I shared BE with over three years ago. When we met, she had been playing horn for about 7 years. At the time, Kyra and I had several things in common: limited range, limited endurance, rotten tone and a strong desire to improve! We used to kid around about being the gals in the band who "pretended to be horn players!" Kyra is a busy mom and music educator who is limited in the amount of time she can devote to practicing, but she has disciplined herself to include BE exercises into her daily routine. I've enjoyed watching tiny Kyra, maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, grow into an strong horn player with a nice big sound and formidable range. Below is a message I received from Kyra in response to a "BE for French Horn" email I recently distributed.

Valerie,

Thanks for the info! I am still practicing BE, and I still love it! My low register is 1000 times better!! I can hit a double pedal C any day, any time. Still working on my upper register, still can't hit a High D all the time, but High C is always there.

Kyra

Sheesh, Kyra! Too bad about that unreliable High D, but I think you're doing just fine. I also think you're a real horn player now! Thanks for sharing your success with other horn players!

Valerie

Horn Players, Beware!

2010-02-03T21:35:00.000-08:00

Doug, a trombone player, decided to take up French horn 4+ years ago. New to BE, he's coming on strong, so horn players beware! With Doug's permission, I'm sharing an email I received from him yesterday.

Valerie,

What I'm noticing is that everything feels better. This is how it used to feel when I was playing all the time, chops in great shape, and fearless about going for notes. Kamakazi horn if you will. I've been inspired by Bruno (what a great name for a horn player) and got out the Mozart Horn quintet. The last time I attempted it, it was pure struggle, today it was approachable. The thing that just made me set my horn down in awe, was that eight bars from the end there is a high C eighth note approached from a C an octave lower and followed by eighth note D a seventh lower. That sucker popped out like I'd been doing it all my life. It was so much fun I did it five more times.

I used to belong to a new age church that taught us to visualize and believe in what we wanted to do, before it manifested itself. So sometimes I'm a dreamer. My dream is to sit amongst four strings, in my tux, forty pounds lighter, and blow everyone away with my definitive rendition of the Mozart Horn quintet. What do you think? Well, OK. Like I said, I'm a dreamer.

OH. GOOD HEAVENS! You are going to laugh at me. I just realized that this piece is for Horn in Eb. I've been playing it in F! I'm going to have to turn in my IHS membership card as they paint a yellow stripe down my back and drum me out of the corps and confiscate my 8D! Later. I have to go try this again.

Doug

The Embouchure and Cherry Picking

2010-01-26T19:20:00.000-08:00

I liken the embouchure to a cherry orchard. You’ve got 300 trees, but only some make sweet cherries. Your job as a cherry picker is to find and pick only the sweetest cherries. It will take quite some time to sample the fruit of all 300 trees, so you need an easy-to-use system to enable you to quickly locate and remember the best cherry producing trees before the season is over. If you approach the orchard randomly you are sure to miss some trees, check others redundantly, and forget where the best fruit is found.

The embouchure is like a cherry orchard because there are hundreds of lip shapes (trees) possible, but not all will produce the desired notes (sweetest cherries). The Balanced Embouchure (BE) is a system that enables you to explore all possible lip shapes in a short period of time, with enough built-in repetition to store the memory of the most desirable note-producing shapes into both the mind and the muscle. It sounds complex, but BE is so simple, children master it.

The Balanced Embouchure systematically challenges the embouchure (or scans the orchard) in these important ways: (1) to play from as low as possible to as high as possible on an a “low note” embouchure, (2) to play from as high as possible to as low as possible on a “high note” embouchure, (3) tonguing with a rolled-out embouchure and (4) tonguing with the rolled-in embouchure, (5) an articulation/breathing challenge for accuracy and stability of attacks (snaps), (6) a breathing/articulation challenge to encourage tone support of individual notes, and (7) a breathing challenges to encourage support of the tone through phrases (specific crescendos). The basic Roll-Out and Roll-In exercises provide all this (and more) in a tidy, user friendly package that only takes about 12 to 20 minutes to execute.

The BE system is an organized plan for scanning all the possible shapes an embouchure can produce. The Roll-Out and Roll-In exercises are for locating and identifying the lip shapes that produce desirable notes. The Advanced Lip Slurs develop speed and efficiency to smoothly move from one desirable shape to the next.

To further abuse the cherry orchard analogy: BE is the plan that provides an organized method for checking every tree in the orchard. Roll-Out and Roll-In exercises are the part of the plan that provides a ladder to climb each tree to sample its fruit. The Advanced Lip Slurs are like providing a motorized cherry lift that makes quick work of gathering the sweetest cherries.

I hope this helps horn players better understand the purpose and value of each BE exercise as well as the entire BE development system. Understanding this should help the BE student appreciate that BE is greater than the sum of its parts. Practicing any one single exercise will provide benefits to the embouchure, but working the whole system is the surest way to achieve the maximum results of The Balanced Embouchure is designed to deliver.

Valerie Wells

Fear and the Embouchure

2010-01-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

"Fear is a great multiplier of embouchure problems," wrote Jeff Smiley on the Trumpet Herald Balanced Embouchure Forum.
.
Below is a private email I received from CM, one of our fellow BE students that plays horn. CM's experience perfectly demonstrates how fear can interfere with embouchure function and what can be done to alleviate it. I believe CM's insights and coping strategies can be a valuble example for us all, so with her permission I share them below. I'm grateful that CM is allowing us this treasured glimpse into the intimate side of her horn playing life. [Location details removed.]

"Hello Valerie, ... I just came back from [the city] shows last night. We had 4 shows, I did very well for two, not so great for two. I don't think it was due to my embouchure. My embouchure worked very well. I think for the last show I did not do well, it was due to my mental tension. Our top manager came our show last night. I was nervous for some reason, therefore, I felt my fingers and lips were a little "out of control" for a few moments. When I focused on the music only, I was back normal.
.
"During those days in [the city] (even on the day we had two shows) I kept practicing BE. I want to feel confident that my embouchure was strong enough. I got up very early in the morning to practice BE. And when everyone was practicing during the day, I meditated Falun Gong to rest myself. It worked very well. I see your point about RI#3 and #4 and RO#4. I also applied my horn teacher's method--singing the notes. I tried to sing the notes and forget about embouchure or lip change--let the lips to do the RI and RO by itself. It worked well when I was very focused on the music.
.
"Overall, I am happy with my tone and volume for the shows during the tour. I still need to work hard on RI/RO coordination and range. The other day I found Wagner's Long Call was a good exercise for "melting" RI/RO. I will keep working on it. Thanks again. Take care,CM"

Hooray for the come-back player!

2010-01-02T21:01:00.000-08:00

This came from Theodore Greaves:

"Thanks. I'm a comeback player of 3 years. With the help of BE I have gained lower range I never had at my best in the early 70's , and I have been playing well above high C like I did 35 years ago. Never thought it would happen. Ted"

Thanks, Ted. This makes me smile!

Valerie Wells

Horn Player with Unusual Embouchure

2009-12-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/liberace/peanut-vendor--208593581
The interesting video linked above, was posted on the Yahoo horn list by Susan McKeever. (If the link doesn't work, you can find it by searching Yahoo Music for "Peanut Vendor by Liberace.") The horn player is Susan's uncle, John Graas. Notice his very unusual embouchure: rolled in with air pockets, relaxed lip corners and gently bunched chin. Wow! He looks like the kids on the cover of the BE book! I've seen a few trumpeters play like that, but never a horn player. To learn more about this remarkable musician, John Graas, follow this link: http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=GRAAS%2C_John
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When I first started BE, I couldn't do RI exercises with air pockets. I was naive enough to believe it couldn't be done on horn. I've since learned I was wrong because two years into BE, I finally learned to do RI's with air pockets. This video not only proves it can be done, but it also proves that a horn player can develop an efficient, flexible embouchure with a rolled in set up, relaxed lip corners, and a bunched chin. Who knew?
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Please don't misunderstand, I'm not promoting John Graas's embouchure as the "ideal" or "correct" BE embouchure. There's no such thing as the "correct" BE embouchure. I'm only trying to open eyes to possibilities. This video shows that the hard & fast embouchure rules of the past -- tight lip corners, no air pockets, flat chin, etc. -- aren't necessarily the best thing for everyone. Can you imagine the results if John Graas had had a horn instructor who insisted he follow the rules and change his embouchure?
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Valerie Wells

BE and Extreme High Wire Playing

2009-12-14T10:43:00.000-08:00

This came to me in a private email from Dave Stoller who along with Andrew Joy have graciously given me permission to post it here.

"Hey Buddy, I can attest to the benefit of the RI when you have two solid hours of high A's, B's, C's, and D's. I am doing the trumpet parts along with the high G horn transposition in the big final set of choruses. It just keeps going over and over the tune and the horn part is unrelenting. Most people would do this on a descant, but the Holton works as well, if not better. Holton horns "have a high range" and it is so well in tune. Also the sound is full all over that register.
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"Without the knowledge of BE and using a very well defined RI, I would not be able to do this sort of cantata/oratorio playing anymore. They have me doing some of the trumpet parts on the choruses and this makes it really tough. Again, the BE is essential to this sort of high wire act. I tongue on my lower lip for the super soft high entrances. This concept I picked up from Andrew Joy on an email discussion with him. Also tonguing between the teeth works so effectively in this high register work. Now I could never go back to some of the old ways I was doing things.
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"Today was a great triumph for me because I have not done this much continual high playing in many years. Not even Beethoven's 7th is this strenuous. The Brandenburg and the Concerstuck are more strenuous and I would need Herculean chops for these tunes. But I can build up when needed. The program is not any big production here like other horn players are doing. But I would bet none of them are having to work this hard on their Frosty the Snow Man or the Messiah! Andy ... has given me some very precise pointers on extreme soft high entrances. He is the champ on all this stuff. Dave"
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For those who don't know, Dave Stoller is a semi retired principal horn player who had decided over a year ago that he could no longer play horn due to multiple health problems. Dave credits BE for enabling him to develop the efficiency to continue playing even with his physical limitations.
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Andrew Joy is the principal of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra. http://andrewjoy.com/
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Both Dave and Andrew have testimonials on Jeff Smiley's website. http://www.trumpetteacher.net/index.html
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For the sake of clarity: Tonguing on the lips, "between the teeth" as Dave refers to it, is a technique taught in BE for improving efficiency. In the usual context of BE, RI refers to a specific set of BE exercises played with a rolled in set up. BE does not prescribe playing with a rolled in setting or any other particular setting. When Dave refers to RI in the context of his comments above, he is referring to a personal embouchure setting he has developed through practicing BE.

Valerie Wells

Practicing BE

2009-12-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

I just received an enthusiastic response and a great question from Ron Chao who started BE the last week of October. With his permission I'll share it below:

"hey valerie! just wanted to update you on my progress. The BE book is amazing and I am already seeing great improvements in my playing. Just a quick question about practicing. Even though Jeff has specific lesson plans outlined at the end of his book, is there any harm in playing through all the exercises in the book in one day or would I risk hurting my lips? thanks again for everything and have a merry christmas and happy new year too! ron"

RON! Thank you very much for the positive feedback. I'm very happy to hear you're doing well. If you feel ready to play through all the Roll-out/Roll-In exercises in a row, go for it. You'll soon figure out if it's too much for you! ;o) Plan to try this at a time when you don't have critical rehearsals or performances soon after.
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When you have the skill to play all the Roll-Out and Roll-In exercises, you may lack the endurance and efficiency to tolerate them all every day. If this is the case, you can rotate or abbreviate them to accommodate your needs. For example: you might try 2 repetitions (valve combinations) of each one every day. Or you may do Roll-Out's one day, and Roll-In's the next. The Advanced Lip Slurs can be approached in the same manner; just a few every day or as many as you can, all in a row once or twice a week.

One BE student, a busy mom with young children, is very limited in the time she has to practice. She has progressed very nicely focusing specifically on one Roll-Out and one Roll-In exercise a day. As your efficiency improves, you'll be able to develop a BE routine that best suits your needs. Personally, I do the basic eight BE exercises every day plus several selected Advanced Lip Slurs. When time permits, I like to do the Roll-Out/Roll-In plus the Advanced Lip Slurs all in a row. It's a handy and effective assessment tool to evaluate my progress.
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Below are a couple questions about practicing BE I've addressed in the past that may be helpful:
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Q: How much time should I be spending on BE each day?
A: For the very beginner one Lip Clamp and a few Lip Clamp Squeaks a day is plenty. After that, as one becomes more comfortable, 2 or 3 minutes on Roll-Out and 2 or 3 minutes on Roll-In may be best. Plan to gradually build up, but don't over do. Michael Camilleiri, a long time BE trumpeter, frequently reminds BE students that "BE is not boot camp!" Take it easy, build & grow gradually, and "BE patient."
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Q: How long does BE take to improve my embouchure?
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A: Unseen "internal" improvements will begin the moment you start working on your first Lip Clamp. But most BE students report obvious "external" improvements in their regular playing after 8 to 12 weeks, for others it may take longer.
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Valerie Wells
The BE book and BE exercises adapted for French horn are available directly from me. Email me for information: Wells123456 at Juno.com (If you live outside North and South America, I can connect you with a BE representative in your corner of the globe. My adapted exercises for horn are available free of charge to all horn players studying BE regardless of location.)

To Be Perfectly Honest . . .

2009-12-05T17:31:00.000-08:00

BE is not for beginners. I often get inquiries from enthusiastic horn players who are newly coming back to horn. In the past I've sold the book to a few horn players who had only been playing for a few weeks. It's worked splendidly well for most, but not everyone.

In my opinion BE works best if the horn player already has a stable, not necessarily fabulous, but stable embouchure. I now tell any brand new come back players to hold off on starting BE until they've been playing long enough to first get well acquainted with what their natural embouchure is.

BE has to have a starting point, something to work with, something to build upon. If a player is unduly insecure in their regular set up, BE can cause confusion.

BE works by challenging the embouchure to function in two extreme set ups -- the rolled-in and the rolled-out. Over time, the bits and pieces of technique learned in the challenging exercises eventually infiltrate the player's regular embouchure. If the player doesn't have an established regular embouchure to rely upon, they can easily become confused in their approach to every day, regular playing.

So to be perfectly honest, I'd get a little more spending money for Christmas if I sold the book to everyone who asks, but for best results, I want brand new, fresh come back players to wait a while.

How long? Well . . . if you've been playing for a year or more, I believe you're ready. If you've been playing for less than a year, are still fooling around with different embouchure set-ups, horns, mouthpieces, etc., you should probably wait a few more months before starting BE. First, get yourself acquainted with how you play your instrument, then order the BE book. (But don't wait forever or you'll miss out on the opportunity to nip bad habits in the bud!)

I was successful starting BE after about six months coming back because I had been practicing 2 to 3 hours a day for about five months. (Yes, I'm very compulsive!) I had a very consistent, although limiting, embouchure. I has a very consistent, well established embouchure setting before I started BE.

Warm regards,
Valerie

BE is Not Boot Camp!

2009-11-27T13:39:00.000-08:00

If you’ve ever done any conventional embouchure development exercises, you’re likely to associate embouchure development with painful, grueling exercises that are often like strength training at the local gym or a military boot camp. The Balanced Embouchure (BE for short) uses a different approach.

The major focus of BE is technique, not strength. When the lips learn the techniques or “how to” of moving the lips into various shapes, the player quickly learns which movements and shapes most efficiently produce the desired results. Embouchure technique, rather than strength, enables the musician to comfortably play the upper register without having to develop super human strength.

Jeff Smiley refers to efficient embouchure technique as “leverage” in this interesting article: http://www.trumpetteacher.net/resources.html I particularly enjoyed reading this article because it reminded me of my junior high school science teacher demonstrating how the smallest girl in class could lift the heaviest boy in class with one finger by using the right tools. It’s the same with the embouchure. Using the right embouchure tools can make lifting the range to the upper register a one finger task.

The few repetitions of well designed, properly executed BE exercises will more effectively develop the embouchure than hundreds of repetitions of poorly designed exercises. BE exercises are surprisingly short and simple. Once learned, the basic Roll-Out and Roll-In exercises can be executed in about 15 minutes a day and yield substantial results.

So . . . if you are slaving away on "killer" embouchure exercises and only getting minimal results, it may be time to stop working so hard on strength and start working to learn the effective techniques of BE.

Valerie Wells
The BE book and BE exercises adapted for French horn are available directly from me. E-mail me for information: Wells123456 at Juno.com

Why BE Works

2009-11-07T12:46:00.000-08:00

Recently, a young horn player asked for help with his upper register on a public horn forum. He received several suggestions including: put more upper lip into the mouthpiece, roll your lip in a little towards the mouthpiece as you ascend into the high register, practice low notes to play high, use more air, etc.
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I was happy to see that rolling in is becoming a more accepted practice for developing the upper register. And while I agree with the general idea, this idea alone begs clarification and direction: How does one “put more upper lip” into the mouthpiece? What about the lower lip? How, when and where does one roll the lips in? How does one incorporate rolling-in into regular playing? How does one smoothly transition between the rolled-in setting for high notes and low notes?
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BE provides clear guidelines to address all these questions. But . . . while The Balanced Embouchure teaches the mechanics of rolling in and out, BE is much more than that. BE is often misunderstood as being a prescribed "rolled in" embouchure or a playing method that means rolling in and out. Neither are accurate descriptions of BE.
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BE is actually an embouchure development system based upon universal principles of embouchure mechanics, cognition and “muscle memory.” When practiced consistently, the BE exercises challenge the embouchure to function in every configuration possible enabling the player to find, consciously and unconsciously, exactly what works most efficiently for them as an individual. It sounds complex, but it's so easy to learn, even children master it. In fact, children often learn it more easily than adults because they have less pedagogical baggage to interfere with the process!
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When I started BE in 2006, I didn't understand what it actually is. I simply did the exercises and enjoyed the accelerated improvements. Since then, I've begun to understand why BE works through using it and helping other horn players do the same. Because BE is comprehensive for overall embouchure development, it often fills in the embouchure "gaps" that many horn players have. I’ve worked with beginners and even advanced horn players who have highly developed skills, yet still struggle with “gaps” such as: poor tone or instability on certain notes, weak or non-existent upper register, inability to play pianissimo in the upper register, weak low register, inability to smoothly transition between high and low range, poor endurance, etc. BE has helped them bridge the gaps and develop more consistent performance in all registers.
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Horn players who already have a well developed high range, often report that BE improves their stability and overall tone, "beefs up" their low register and helps them transition from high to low with greater fluidity. Players who are challenged in the upper register often report improvements in the upper register within weeks or months.
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Because BE helps the player find the most efficient way to use their embouchure, it also enhances endurance and breath control. Some have reported that BE enables them to make soft delicate entrances in the high register like never before. [All these descriptions are taken from responses I’ve personally received from my fellow BE horn students.]
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Some horn players have great teachers and practice hard for years to develop excellent embouchures that function well in all registers. They are the fortunate ones. On the other hand, some players have great teachers, practice hard for years, yet end up with poorly functioning embouchures with troubling "gaps." BE can be a godsend for those in the second category.

~~Valerie Wells
Wells123456 at Juno.com

"How I Came to BE"

2009-10-22T19:41:00.001-07:00

When I was in high school, I played pretty well for a kid, so I decided to study horn in college. During my audition for the university brass faculty, the trumpet professor commented, “Nice tone, but you look like you’ve been playing trumpet.” When studies in the music school began, the horn professor immediately set me to work transforming my embouchure into the Philip Farkas ideal. At the end of my sophomore year, I hadn’t added a single note to my upper range, had poor endurance, felt frustrated and dropped out of music school. Later I married, became a registered nurse, reared a family, etc. Although I didn’t own or play horn for over three decades, I never stopped thinking of myself as a horn player.

In 2005 I attended a Northwest Sinfonietta performance and heard Kathleen Vaught Farner perform. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “I should be doing that.” (She made it look so easy. HAH!) Some months later I bought a horn, hired a private instructor and gradually worked up to practicing three hours a day. Thinking that I must have done something wrong in my college days, I redoubled my efforts to emulate Philip Farkas. After about 6 months, I was very pleased that I’d regained much of my previous playing abilities, yet disappointed that I had also regained my limited range and endurance. After one particularly frustrating horn lesson, I realized that if I didn’t soon find a remedy for my embouchure problem, I would not progress as desired.

I went home from that lesson feeling very discouraged and wondering if I would again give up on the horn. I might have, had it not been for a certain thought seizing my mind: “Since trumpet players know how to play high, a trumpet teacher could show me how.” I went to the internet and Googled “trumpet + embouchure.” As I’d found in my searches for horn embouchure development, most of the discussion about trumpet embouchure development seemed a rehash of the conventional methods that had already failed to help me. I continued to search, not knowing exactly what I was searching for.

Then, I opened a website that contained something different, specific, that boldly promised results. That something was Jeff Smiley’s discussion of The Balanced Embouchure. Jeff’s empathy for those who struggle with embouchure issues drew me in immediately. When I read his “mechanics” chapter where he wrote candidly of how rolling in or out helps the high or low notes speak, I was intrigued. This was a specific I had never heard before. Could this be what I was looking for? I immediately went to my practice room, picked up my horn, rolled in my lips and blew. To my surprise, I was suddenly playing and sustaining higher notes than I ever had with surprisingly little pressure and effort. The high notes I played that day were not beautiful, but I knew from this experiment that Jeff Smiley was onto something powerful and effective, and I wanted to know more, so I ordered the book.

I began working BE in June of 2006. Two weeks later at my next horn lesson, my tone, range and confidence already showed signs of improvement. My private instructor was favorably impressed and ordered the book for herself.

For the next 9 months I worked 15 to 30 minutes a day on the BE basics. My playing improved steadily. I felt happy and confident that I’d found something that could benefit other amateur horn players. So in March of 2007, I decided to share my joyful success by introducing BE to “Horn,” an on-line discussion list for horn players. I entered my first posting entitled, “Stuck in RANGE LIMBO???” I wrote about my past embouchure failures and enthusiastically shared how I had recovered using a method developed by a trumpet teacher. I ended the post asking a rhetorical question: “What the heck’s wrong with horn pedagogy? Am I missing something out there or is horn instruction stuck somewhere the dark ages?!?”

Well ... that was the wrong approach for this group as I apparently offended several instructors on the list. I was shocked as a barrage of criticisms were hurled at Jeff Smiley, his method and me. I couldn’t understand how they could so quickly judge and dismiss a method they had never tried, especially a method I had found so helpful. While I remained secure in my personal convictions, defending my position seemed a losing battle as I debated with these more advanced players. But there was one prominent member of the list who kept an open mind, a cool head and encouraged the others to do the same. This was Wendell Rider, author of the excellent book, Real World Horn Playing. Instead of dismissing Smiley’s ideas, Wendell began to experiment with one of the techniques used in BE. After several months, Wendell reported to "Horn" that he found this single technique “valid and important” for horn players as it improved both range and tone in his students’ horn playing. Wendell then published an addendum to his book on his website dedicated to using this technique acknowledging Jeff Smiley and me for “inspiration.” I was very grateful for Wendell’s support. I felt as though I’d been exonerated to have a respected horn player/instructor embrace new ideas I had introduced to the horn community. That was a thrill for me, an obscure come-back amateur horn playing grandma!

Soon, a daring few other horn players from around the globe began confiding in me that they, too, began experiencing success using The Balanced Embouchure. By August of 2008, I knew about 15 horn players studying BE. For fear of criticism, most were studying BE secretly. Some were asking how to adapt the BE exercises for horn. With Jeff Smiley’s permission, I wrote up my BE routine and began distributing it to horn players.

Also around this time, two professional horn players, Paul Sharp and Andrew Joy, shared that they also were very pleased with BE and gave me permission to mention their success on line. After posting about Paul Sharp and Andrew Joy on both horn lists, more horn players started ordering books from Jeff Smiley.

Jeff Smiley soon honored me with a request to sell his method with my horn adaptations. I began selling The Balanced Embouchure in October 2008. It’s been a joy ride to share BE with others and help them work through the program. Especially gratifying is getting feedback from horn players as BE removes stumbling blocks that had once kept them from achieving their goals. As of this writing in October 2009, I have a list of over 75 horn players working with BE. (Update in January 2012: 230 horn players who have begun the program.)

BE has enabled me to confidently play the full range of the horn with a pretty darn decent tone. I am no longer afraid of high notes or running out of steam half way through a concert. I enjoy being able to play all horn parts within, of course, the limits of my technique and experience. I enjoy developing technique and acquiring experience unencumbered by my previous obstacles of poor range and endurance. Of course, I still have a long way to go to become the horn player of my dreams, but I believe hard work and BE will get me there.

Lest anyone get the wrong impression, I wish to reiterate the purpose of this blog is to share my enthusiasm for The Balanced Embouchure, not to brag about my horn playing. In most ways I'm like any other developing horn player; I have my weaknesses and challenges. I'm not a stellar horn player, but I am definitely a happy horn player thanks to BE!

Valerie Wells, BE for Horn