The Balanced Embouchure for Horn: February 2012

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Amazing Steve Park!

Steve Park is an amazing guy. How does he find the time to teach full time, record you tube videos, play a million gigs a week AND generously share his work with others on line? Maybe there are two of him. Anyway, here's a link to his latest. It's a website where you can download audio files of the recordings he has done. Thanks, Steve, for all you do. http://www.steveparkhornmusic.net/#Home%20Page

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Tough to Squeak & Feedback from Dan

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

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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

Welcome to The Balanced Embouchure For Horn

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I’m Valerie Wells, a horn player starting this blog to share my success using The Balanced Embouchure (BE) and to provide a place for other horn players to share their positive experiences with BE. The Balanced Embouchure is an embouchure development system originally written for trumpet by Jeff Smiley. BE is now helping an ever growing number of horn players improve their embouchures, too. To learn how I came to BE, see this. There is only one BE book. The same book is used for both horn and trumpet.

For additional information about BE in general, please see the following links:

Jeff Smiley’s website
http://www.trumpetteacher.net/
The Balanced Embouchure Forum http://www.trumpetherald.com/
Michael Camilleri’s website
http://users.actrix.co.nz/mcamilleri/BE/BEFAQ.htm
Bert Loch’s website
http://bertlochs.com/

Ko de Rooj's website (Netherlands)

www.balanced-embouchure.eu

Skype lessons available

Bruce Lee: teatro333 "at" gmail "dot"com

Valerie Wells: ValerieW78 "at" gmail "dot" com

Common Misconceptions about BE

For various reasons that seem inherent in our approach to the instrument, French horn players (self included) often develop misconceptions about The Balanced Embouchure that can potentially impede progress.

Misconception #1: BE is written for trumpet, therefore much of it will not apply to French horn.
Some exercises need transposition or adaptation for French horn, but the principles and techniques taught in this book are as applicable to French horn as they are to trumpet. (I learned this lesson the hard way.)

Misconception #2: BE is all about rolling the lips in and out.
Lip rolling is only part of BE. There are tonguing exercises, snaps, zips, breathing exercises, etc. All these elements combine to form a development system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Misconception #3: Roll-Out exercises are for developing the low register. Therefore a horn player with a secure low register, need not practice Roll-Out exercises.
Roll-Out exercises are designed to develop tone, flexibility, endurance and balance in all the registers, not just the low. A balanced embouchure has elements of roll-out in every note of every register.

Misconception #4: Roll-In exercises are for developing the upper register.
Roll-In exercises are designed to develop tone, flexibility, endurance and balance in all the registers, not just the high. A balanced embouchure has elements of roll-in in every note of every register.

Misconception #5: “Doing BE” means rolling out for low notes and rolling in for high notes.
“Doing BE” means practicing the BE exercises and following the program as designed. Directly applying lip rolling to your regular embouchure is not BE and will be of limited value.

Misconception #6: The correct BE embouchure has a bunched chin and puffed cheeks.
There is no, one correct “BE embouchure.” The balanced embouchure you develop following the BE system will be unique to you. There is no way to predict what your final embouchure will look like. Horn players need to avoid preconceived ideas of what their balanced embouchures will look like.

Bert Lochs has taken the above #6 misconceptions and elaborated upon them for trumpet players.