Covid or not, I'm still selling BE books!

 YES!  I'm still selling BE books.....and lots of them!  Brass players around the globe are taking advantage of this down time to improve their chops.  So....don't be afraid to contact me for a book order.  

Just email me:  ValerieW78 "at" Gmail "dot" com

Just Thinking....

I was thinking this morning that if it weren't for BE, 
there's no way I would have the confidence to calmly approach the high register.  What other method teaches you exactly, precisely how to set your chops to play the highest notes on the horn straight on, cold turkey, without slurring or "glissing" up to it? I could be wrong, but there are none that I'm aware of.    Jeff Smiley is very clever.

The Balanced Embouchure Book with CD is $45.00.
The BE for French Horn booklet and/or PDF of horn adaptations is $3.00 (with book purchase).
Shipping & handling is $5.50 to $25.00 depending on location. (The quoted prices are in US dollars.)

Those who purchase The Balanced Embouchure with a Comfy Horn Strap, receive a $5.00 discount (as well as break on shipping).

To Order:

Step 1. Email me: ValerieW78 “at” Gmail “dot” com. Please tell me what instrument you play and the country you live in.

Step 2. I send you an invoice with payment options (credit card, PayPal, check or money order).

Step 3. You pay the invoice.

Step 4. I ship your BE book.

Happy horn playing!

Valerie Wells

Erik: Two Months on BE

I received this in an email from a trumpeter who began studying BE two months ago. Although it can vary greatly, it is typical for the BE student to experience notable improvements in embouchure function at the 2 month mark.  

Hi Val,
This is Erik.  Just an update.  My endurance and playing have improved dramatically.  I actually have been doing BE combined with another method.   I started with the other method a while back before I got the BE book you sent me and I just kept going with both.  The other method is a collection of exercises with no emphasis on embouchure formation, so I think it works well with BE.

I was able to play my first triple high C last week (not very loud, but still was able to hit it).  Thinking it was a fluke, I tried it again after a short break and was able to do it again.  High C which used to be an "iffy" note for me is a pretty easy note, now.  In performance, I am hitting high notes with confidence and power and the band and audience are definitely impressed.

I am determined to turn my previous weaknesses into my strengths.  Before I was known as the guy who could play but was inconsistent.  My goal is to be known for my consistency.
You mentioned to me before that I might be "thankful" that I am self-taught, and I see what you mean now!

Anyways, hope you are doing well.  I will send you another update when I get further along.

Another thing, I am able to play almost any type of mouthpiece now.  Before, I could only play big mouthpieces and would bottom out on small pieces.  Now, I am playing very well on a 10 3/4 CW.

Thanks,
Erik 

The Balanced Embouchure Book with CD is $45.00.
The BE for French Horn booklet and/or PDF of horn adaptations is $3.00 (with book purchase).
Shipping & handling is $5.50 to $25.00 depending on location. (The quoted prices are in US dollars.)

Those who purchase The Balanced Embouchure with a Comfy Horn Strap, receive a $5.00 discount (as well as break on shipping).

To Order:

Step 1. Email me: ValerieW78 “at” Gmail “dot” com. Please tell me what instrument you play and the country you live in.

Step 2. I send you an invoice with payment options (credit card, PayPal, check or money order).

Step 3. You pay the invoice.

Step 4. I ship your BE book.

Happy horn playing!

Valerie Wells

Andrew Joy & Mouthpiece Independence

"One of the great beauties of BE for me is that I am now relatively mouthpiece independent. Meaning for the horn that I can instantly play on a variety of horn mouth pieces and feel fairly comfortable immediately as well as very easily switching to trumpet and or trombone. Apart from that, I now own the G above high C and everything in between. The sound in this upper register keeps filling out and improving in quality. And it just keeps on getting easier. The end is nowhere in sight. At this stage of my life and career, I find it rather fascinating and exciting."  
~Andrew Joy

Questions from a BEginner

Q: Should I wait to move on to Roll out 2 until I can play every note in Roll out 1??? If I EVER hit the low C it will be something I have NEVER been able to do....

A: No. I always say do what you CAN do, keep trying to do what you CAN'T, and MOVE ON. Over time you will be able to do every note of every exercise. In the mean time, there's no need to hold yourself back unless you're trashing your chops overdoing things. But, you'll have to be the judge of how much is too much.

Q: Can I do the Roll ins and LCS with less air pocket? I find I can get more clamp and squeak by keeping the air pockets to a minimum...

A: Yes, you can. That's how I did them for two years and I progressed very nicely. But . . . I encourage you to continually strive to play RI's with one or more air pockets (in upper lip and/or lower lip and/or cheeks). If you never learn how to do the air pockets, you'll still play well and progress quite nicely, but you'll miss some additional benefits that can only come from playing RI with air pockets. The benefit of playing RI with air pockets brings a whole new shape & feel to your lips that are so "inside the mouthpiece" I can't even explain them. It's kinda like religion, it's one of those things that simply must be experienced to understand. HAH! Do it as often as you like. You will have to be the judge to determine how much is too much. I had an interesting experience with LCS when I first came back to horn. I had been playing for only a few months when I joined a community band. There was a younger man, Andy, sitting beside me who came back to horn about the same time I had. I was practicing 3 hours a day; Andy only practiced 30 to 45 minutes a day. I was killing myself to play a fourth line D; Andy was playing above the staff with ease. It was baffling to me. I chalked it up to his youth and strength. A few months later I found BE and read about LCS. I went to band rehearsal and demonstrated LCS to him. When he saw it he said, "Oh yeah, I do that all the time!" "Why?" I asked. He explained that he does LCS, not as an embouchure exercise, but for fun when he plays silly games with his 2 year old son. He also explained that he had been doing LCS since his childhood because that 's how little boys make "naughty noises" to embarrass their mothers, teachers and the girls! I carefully watched Andy play his horn, and observed that he bunched his chin upwards as he pushed his lips together to play. When it came to embouchure & the high range, Andy was just a "natural." Well, guess what? My practice habits and BE paid me big dividens. A few months later, I had all the range I needed and then some.. as if I were a "natural." This was one of several experiences in my early days of studying BE that served to convince me that Jeff Smiley knew what he was talking about. Jonathan, I can tell by your questions that you are going to progress very nicely with BE! You're grasping the concepts very well. I may want to use these questions either on my blog or a "BE for French Horn" email. Would that be okay with you?  Valerie

Trumpet and Horn: Cameron Kopf Feedback and Discussion

This post is a little more technical than most I post in my blog. It contains some information that will only be understood by BE students.  I decided to post it because it's another testimonial from someone who has benefited from BE on both trumpet and horn. [I will post my responses in brackets.] Dear Valerie, I have a lot to say about my experience with BE  (on both trumpet and horn)... I started using the Balanced Embouchure method (BE) last year, initially  on trumpet. I experienced instant positive results on both RO and RI exercises  from the very first day. My range and endurance on the trumpet improved  immediately, and it gave me hope that I could actually manage to play both  horn and trumpet interchangeably without problems. A few months later, I began applying BE in my horn practice. I was hesitant  at first, as I had been a professional horn player for 37 years, and didn't want  to "mess up" what had worked reasonably well for me for so many years.    I wanted to wait until I built a more solid foundation with BE on trumpet before  playing the exercises on the horn.  Two months ago, I started practicing  RO and RI exercises after my regular warm up, and am seeing progress  now on the horn as well as I did on trumpet. The main challenge for me with BE and horn is getting a rich, full tone while  using RI. It is getting better all the time, the more I do the exercises. I am finding  now that I am able to roll the lips in AND enlarge the aperture in the center   of the embouchure at the same time, which produces a better sound. [I'm so glad to hear you're working it out for your benefit.  If we rush the RI into our  regular playing to get high notes, "directly" as Jeff puts, that's what can happen.   In the book he writes that we can learn to play with a full and beautiful tone on ANY  embouchure setting.  I totally believe that.  It's just a matter of judicial application  of BE principles, practice, careful listening and, of course, patience.]   Another challenge is to coordinate my tonguing, which is in a different  place while using RI. My particular issue is just above the staff, F, F#, G  where the tongue becomes a bit "ploddy". I have to remind myself to keep  the tongue very close to the top lip, further towards the roof of my mouth,  in order to gain clarity on those notes. [Very interesting.  Notice that on page 88, referring to the exercise on the bottom  of page 89 (Tonguing With Lips Rolled In), Jeff Smiley writes: "When tonguing  becomes easy, this embouchure can be used in everyday playing."  The key word in  that information packed sentence is EASY.  I noticed that when TOL finally became  easy, both my tonguing and my tone settled in the upper register and everything  became clearer.  Jeff has seen this so many times in his 30+ years of teaching 1000s  of trumpet lessons, he knows when the transition can be most beneficial.]   I am developing my own set of exercises to supplement the BE materials for  horn that you have already so generously provided to the Horn Community.  Generally I am extending the RI notes downward. [I think this is especially important for horn players because of our low range  requirements.  In my video, I demonstrate "dragging down" the RI setting all the way  down to pedal tones.  This practice has been very helpful for me so I can play  "rangey" phrases without awkward resetting.] I have yet to be able to tongue scales from the octave below middle C all  the way up to high C smoothly, because it is difficult to shift from RO  to RI fluidly encompassing those three octaves. Starting on middle C  upward is much easier at this point. So I will start a few notes below middle C  and see if I can extend my range upward, using the RI setting. The RO  exercises starting on the pedal notes working upward are of great benefit,  and perhaps if I continue working on them, these 3-octave scales will be easier  using the RO setting. [I would suggest practicing your a few 3 octave scales in both RO and RI every day.   From doing this, you may find clues that will help you decide just how much RO and  RI you need to combine to achieve a smoothest flow across your break.] I have a question for you: Are the slurring exercises following the RO and  RI sections supposed to be played on either setting, or both? [The rule with the advanced lip slurs is "If it works, it's correct!"  This is when you  will consciously apply the principles you've learned in the RO and RI exercises to  your developing embouchure. But, when you get back to "regular" playing, you  must try & forget about BE!  Easier said than done!] There is a lot more to say, but this is enough to digest for one email. I look  forward to hearing back from you, whenever you get a chance! Best regards, Cameron Kopf

Interview with Sam Minnich

Sam Minnich playing Bach Cantata 79 "Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild" mvt 1
Go, Sam!

Valerie:  Tell us a little about your music background, Sam.

Sam:  I grew up in a very musical house. My father is a huge fan of classical music, and has an enormous self-recorded collection of radio broadcast live performances. I grew up listening to the sounds of the great symphony orchestras, primarily the Boston Symphony Orchestra. My mother is a fan of folk and blues music, and taught me to play guitar at the age of 6. At age 10 I started playing the horn, after a brief unsuccessful attempt at piano lessons. A couple of years later I started playing trumpet in the school jazz band. I picked up the harmonica somewhere in my teenage years as well, starting with blues, and recently branching out into jazz. After high school I went on to study horn at the Boston conservatory, and later at New England Conservatory with Gus Sebring, associate principle horn of the Boston Symphony. I played with a lot of the second tier orchestras in the New England area before moving to Germany, where I currently live. I've built a new career consisting of a good balance of performance and teaching over the past years. The fact that I've always had diversity in my musical life has been of great benefit to me.

Valerie:  What prompted you to investigate The Balanced Embouchure?

Sam:  In October of 2012 I played one of the most physically taxing pieces of my career, Bach Cantata no. 79. The piece has over 20 high D's in it, and the 3rd movement is 62 bars of stratospheric Bach madness! Having barely scraped by in the red zone in the concert had already made me start thinking about ways to make my playing more efficient. A couple weeks later I met Andrew Joy, due to some questions I had about the Joy Key (which by the way is a brilliant invention!). We hit it off instantly, and spent the next several hours exchanging ideas and experimenting with different concepts. That day he showed me several books for horn I had never seen. One of those books was The Balanced Embouchure.  I ordered it the next day.

Valerie:  Andrew is one of BE's greatest ambassadors! What were your initial impressions after reading the book?

Sam:  After reading through the book, I thought there were a lot of things in it that were very unconventional. A lot of things made sense, and I agreed with Jeff Smiley on his assessment of many aspects of playing. I tend to be very open for new ideas anyway, so it was a nice breath of fresh air for my approach to horn. One of the main things that stuck out to me was his insistence that the Balanced Embouchure method is not an embouchure change, but a system designed to develop efficiency with your already existing embouchure. I was lucky that one of my teachers early on helped me to find an embouchure that worked for me, and I haven't had to go through the horror of a major embouchure change like so many of my colleagues. Embouchure is also something that is always developing, and to be honest, I have no idea how my embouchure will look in 10 years. BE seems to be guiding me in my lifelong quest for the ultimate in efficiency, absolutely effortless playing which enables me to directly transfer my exact musical intent. It's an   unacheivable ideal, but that's what we're all striving for, isn't it?

Valerie:  What improvements have you noticed as a result of studying BE for the past year?

Sam:  Definitely more ease and endurance when playing. I had a few heavy multiple rehearsal days a couple of months into studying BE, and was really surprised how little lasting fatigue I experienced. At the end of the day, I felt almost as fresh as at the beginning. I feel like my playing is also gaining consistency due to BE. I don't have quite as much variation from day to day as before, and I know how it's going to feel and sound when I pick up the horn. It's like flipping a switch, and it's there. Warming up is becoming less and less necessary. My high register is stretching itself out as well. E above high C is a really solid note now. F is getting there. I can feel the potential to take it much higher. I can actually get squeaks up into the double C range. They're not yet so controllable, and the strength of sound isn't yet there, but it's something that was unthinkable for me before BE. Another thing I've noticed is how quickly I recover my conditioning when taking extended time away from the horn. I recently took 16 days off from playing while on vacation, only using the Warburton P.E.T.E. training device once daily and doing the occasional lip clamp squeak during that time. I came back feeling stronger than when I left! It only took me about a day or 2 to find my accuracy, but I was really shocked by how quickly everything was there again. BE just makes it all focus.

Valerie:  Wonderful, Sam! How do you feel about introducing BE to your students and other horn players?

Sam: I've been using bits and pieces with a lot of my students, getting them to practice the RO pedals, and RI high notes. I've introduced a couple of my more advanced students to the whole system, and it's had a big influence on their playing. I've also found that introducing young beginner students to RI as a means of playing high notes makes it a lot easier for many of them to play high. Some of my 8 year old students can already hit a top staff F. I think that learning these concepts at an early age will help them greatly in the future. It gets me excited to think about a new generation of students who know from the start how to get their embouchures balanced. I'm not sure how many other BE teachers use elements of it on beginner students.

I'm a little bit careful when mentioning BE to my colleagues. It's important to read the signals someone is sending to see if they are receptive to such unconventional ideas. I have a few fellow horn players that have responded with interest, and I've been very open with them about my progress due to BE. It's definitely a long term goal of mine to spread the word about BE in my circles. A lot of my colleagues also do a lot of teaching, and I think BE could be a great help for them, seeing as how they don't have large amounts of time to devote to daily practice. The efficiency of practice time that BE offers is really one of it's greatest values.

Valerie:  Thank you, Sam, for your splendid example.

Colin Ng, Still Discovering with BE

First, a little disclaimer!  What you see demonstrated in this video is NOT a requirement of the BE method.  This is Colin having fun extending a specific BE exercise beyond the norm. 

• Colin Ng has taken Lip Clamp Squeak to a whole new level!  Colin recently shared this on FaceBook:  
• 
  
   Colin Ng
  
  
  Dear fellows,just to share a little "discovery". I have been experimenting for a long time (4-5 years) various chop building devices like Warburton PETE, BERP, pencil trick, "chop sticks" concept, the new brio device, narrow straws and short of some bizarre versions of lip/facial flex spring loaded toys.
  I decided to conclude this wild goose chase finally. The best way to develop the Orbicularis Oris muscle (circular band around the top and bottom lips especially at the corners.) is device free, and happens to be the unsuspecting and innocent BE initiation before the RI exercises called the Lip Clamp Squeak or LCS....
  
  In short, Once you manage to get air through the clamp setup, followed by some seemingly embarrassing and pathetic squeaks, and eventually a few workable notes in high buzz, you can observe in the mirror how much more flexed and pronounced the OO muscles have become. For the chops to maintain the clamp against the out going air, they really have to work to narrow in. and for the air to even make it through the clamp, our abdominals have to really work to get the wind support up against the resistance. chop strength and air support/speed for great sound/high notes all addressed in one exercise.
  
  We get to have one lean mean machine there; no toys no expenses. High notes and great stamina can happen even before achieving the RI-#1 properly.
  
  I "forced" myself to clock in 10-15 minutes of nursery rhymes (5 notes melody) on LCS. Like a body builder torturing himself because he can't wait to flex his muscles in front of a gym mirror. It looks firm and 'chiseled' in the mirror and when I play normal repertoire it really feels easy and great.  
  
  

Alex Shuhan: One Year on BE

Alex Shuhan recently posted this on FaceBook:  

Continuing now for slightly longer than one year, to encounter more and more significant change and greater understanding of how to play this instrument…and I can unequivocally say that it is ONLY because of having discovered and experimented with Balanced Embouchure concepts. If you want to learn and are willing to invest some thoughtful energy, you CAN and WILL make similar inroads. 

At no point along the way have I "lost" anything I could do before, experienced any "setbacks," nor been negatively impacted in any way. On the contrary, I have been challenged to address and answer new questions, with a COMPLETELY different perspective that has dramatically improved my playing, at least in my humble opinion. I have flexibility that I couldn't fathom before, range that I've never experienced... before, and, in particular, a smoothness in my playing that I didn't even know was previously lacking. And even though there are concepts in this book that appear to some to be in contradiction with other, more "mainstream" ideas about playing, I maintain that the information in Smiley's book COMBINED with the experience of actually living through the learning process that he prescribes, actually does more to help one UNDERSTAND those "mainstream" concepts than to contradict them. My ideas about endurance, strength, range (high and low), volume and articulation have been completely stood on end—and the future looks and sounds MUCH better from this new vantage point! 

Thank you to my former student, Dana Arbaugh, for introducing the BE book to me, to ValerieWells for all that you've done to further my enlightenment, and to AndrewJoy for his encouragement and support along the way. Onward! 

I've made some enormous stride forward this weekend—been doing more playing lately and then had a great combination of rehearsals and gigs this weekend that have just completely changed everything. Much less tension, outrageously more vibration and ease of production with my upper lip, complementary support from the lower lip making flexibility MUCH better, and the best part has been endurance based clearly on relaxation rather than "firmness" or any other terms that I've previously associated with strength. Amazing!

Bert Lochs commented:  

• Bert Lochs Apart from the things that changed in my playing, the understanding of why all the things I tried before didn't work was very enlightening to say the least. I said it on the Trumpet Herald a few times, and I repeat it here. BE made me experiment proof. And it is important to be able to experiment to find your way. You can try all kinds of things, and even go very wrong, but BE is so simple and clear that it is very easy to track back where you left off. Since BE I never got into big trouble again and my playing is so much easier and more consistent than before. And yes, of course, there is still so much to work on, I am happy to say :-).
  
  
  

  • Alex added:  I have no documented proof of this claim, but I believe that many players, who accidentally stumble into the correct set-up and begin playing without the issues that many of the rest of us face, are already experiencing mechanics similar to those suggested by Smiley, but they may not use vocabulary similarly to describe it. For those successful players, all the power to them! But for struggling, aspiring players, in my humble opinion, Smiley's approach offers a real, simple option for opening the door to informed awareness, and by that I mean an awareness based on experiences that work cumulatively, progressively, patiently, over time. In the last week, something has changed dramatically in the way my Embouchure is able to receive and support the air I supply to it...and it happened as if out of nowhere! BUT, I KNOW and can feel that it has just now finally learned a new way of vibrating after a YEAR of gentle coaxing and coercion. And the BEST part is that I UNDERSTAND what is happening, what has changed and how/why it is working effectively. I'm hoping to be able to use language to describe it, BUT, even if I can't, I do know that I have BE to thank for opening that door to possibility. I'm also reminded that Arnold Jacobs admonished that if you introduce a change to your mechanics, it could take 12-18 months before you could expect to experience the fruits of that effort. In the case of BE, I feel like it's a continuous process, so I'm not surprised to have had some revelation now, but it also feels like it won't be unreasonable to assume that the learning will continue. I remember Andrew Joy told me that after his intro to BE, he has felt like his playing has been on a continuous positive, improving trajectory...and this from someone who's had a principal horn career in a major orchestra for 30+ years! That, in fact, was the thing that convinced me it was worth experimenting with BE. Incredibly glad I did! Cheers!

Colin Ng, 14 Month Update

Dear Valerie,

In another 10 days it will be my 14^th month anniversary of BE practice. I was then disabled due to a “guided” embouchure change and later in the year, broke my front tooth due to a hard grain. Before then, consistency of sound production was something I had to work very hard on, yet with very temperamental results.

After a year of dedicated BE practice, consistency of good sound production is now no longer a concern; and after the due efforts to make technique transparent, I am able to direct my thought to music aesthetics freely during rehearsals and performances.

I even came out with some original exercises based on BE concepts with crazy good results. Stamina is astonishing and range is still extending and climbing!

Playing the first movement of the Otto Nicolai duet no. 1 on both 1^st and 2^nd horn parts as an extended warm up is something that was unthought of; now it's a possibility.

Here are some thoughts on BE after a year:

1. BE is not music but BE enables Music.
2. Ease of play and good sound happens only after BE not during BE. Be need not sound good in practice, and is not to be used as a performance technique. BE is a conditioner.
3. Even for my one day phenomenon a year ago, it is normal to have a slow start off that kicks off into exponential results over time.
4. Hitting a plateau means hanging on to your BE even more religiously. Before you know it, you look back and realized that plateau is far behend you.
5. Haters gonna hate. Some people will ask about how its done and yet reject BE even more due to their pre-conceptions. Let pre-conceptions bring them to hit their own brick wall. BE only work for people who need it; not simply want it.

Cheers to everybody and have a great day!

Yours sincerely,

Colin Ng

Singapore

This note added 10/8/14:  Colin Ng is still enjoying BE and had been developing  his own exercises based upon BE principles.  See this.  

BE and Verdi

This is from an email I received from Doug Wagner.  Doug had a career as a trombone player and music arranger.  After he retired from arranging & trombone performance, he decided to pursue one of his dreams, to become a horn player.  He's written several times about how BE has helped him.  Here's his latest in a spontaneous email I received from him just this week.

Val,
I just got the music (3rd horn) for Verdi's Otello which we are performing in August. So far I've found horn in: Bb, C, D, Eb, E, A and A Basso, and your favorite, horn in B. He either loved or hated horns. Lot's of nice solos in the 3rd part. Dave threatened to take 3rd away from me and make me play 1st.   

I don't think that anyone who has never experienced something like this could even remotely begin to understand.  The old joke is that playing in a symphony orchestra is like flying: endless boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror.  We've all been there and done that. But the thrill of getting it right is what keeps us coming back.... And actually, it wasn't until I started BE that I ever had any confidence that I ever would perform.     

The Otello horn parts have stuff that is right out of BE exercises. I would never have thought I could play some of these passages before BE. Now it's - "Oh yeah, I know how to do that." I'm not bragging, it's just that I've done those exercises so much, that it's very natural to incorporate the BE techniques into real world playing. I approach every playing situation from a BE perspective, practice, rehearsal or performance, because first I have to be able to produce the notes. After that I can work on the musical aspects. If I can't play the notes, there isn't anywhere to go. BE has helped me make sure I can play the notes.

Doug

My BE Anniversary

This June marks my 6th year BE anniversary.  I'm still mesmerized by it.  I'm still learning from it.

I've spent a lot of money on horns, mouthpieces, music books, symposiums, workshops and lessons, but the best money I ever spent to advance my horn playing was for one little book, "The Balanced Embouchure."  And, the most valuable time I've given to this end was to learn & practice the exercises... rarely more than 15 minutes a day, 4 or 5 days a week.  Wow.

Thanks, Jeff Smiley, for creating this amazing method.  I couldn't be more pleased.

The only thing I can add is more superlatives, so I'll stop my gushing!

Sincerely, Valerie Wells

More BE Analysis from Lou Denaro

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!

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!

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. 

Julia Rose writes about The Balanced Embouchure

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.

Colin's BE Testimony: A Zero to Hero Experience

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.  To see more of Colin's writings see this or visit his blog:  http://simplysymphonic.wordpress.com/

Joy Continues on The Balanced Embouchure

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.

"Circus Trick" or Developmental Tool?

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

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.