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!

BE Update from Julia Rose

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.

Timm Leukel, Fast Responder

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 weekend my heavy rehearsal and concert schedule started (20 hours of playing in the 3^rd and 1^st seat).  And just for doing those exercises—and I’m only talking about roll out 1, roll in 1, and lip clamps+squeaks—it seems that my rationally strong chops seem to be unlocked in the upper register. This doesn’t mean that I’m able to play higher than before.  But it doesn’t seem to be impossible anymore to play in the higher range without loosing my chops quite fast 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 left since my chops seem to be finally breaking down, but what a weekend.  

I can’t put into words how thankful I am for discovering the book Jeff wrote and for the help and support I’m gaining from all of you.  I’m looking forward to see what changes occur in my playing when I continue to practice these exercises.  

 Updates coming soon :-) Timm

BEyond Description

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.