Roll-Out Helps Everything!

After a 22 month lay off due to the pandemic restrictions, ensembles are opening up again.  Before rehearsal a couple weeks ago, I was playing a few BE Roll-Out exercises to loosen up my chops.  One of the horn players, a former BE student, in the band commented, "Hearing you practice your BE exercises makes me want to do them again."  I responded with "You should be practicing your BE exercises regularly ... even it if it's only once a week."  

The following week at rehearsal, he exclaimed with a big smile on his face, "I've been practicing Roll-Out all week.  Like you've always said, Roll-Out isn't just to develop the low register.  Roll-Out helps everything.  Everything is better!"   

See this:  http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/07/some-things-are-not-obvious.html 

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To Order The Balanced Embouchure book:

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  

Time to work on your chops.

 

Ensembles will be reopening soon!  Be prepared!  

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

One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

If one picture is worth a thousand words, one video is worth one-hundred thousand words. Steve Park made a video recording of me demonstrating a few of the basic BE techniques. I distribute a link to this private youtube video to all who buy the BE book.  I'm always and tickled when I receive feedback like this!  I'm grateful for Steve's support and, of course, for Jeff Smiley's BE method.  After studying it for 8 years, I'm still mesmerized by what it helps horn players achieve!     

Dear Valerie,
I started BE tonight and wanted to let you know that your youtube video was a great help! I tried for 30 minutes to get a pedal F out. No luck. I can see where young players have the advantage here. Finally I found it, and was actually able to hold it out for some time.

I can't wait to move on to the other exercises. It is great to actually see you play these and hear them too, of course!
Thank you,
Susan 

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.  

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

How Steve Park Came to BE

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.

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