More Feedback From Alecia

Now this is BE-ing patient!  Alecia's well paced application of BE will certainly pay great dividends.    

Hi Valerie, thought I would check in again.  Thanks for your description. 

I am continuing to use BE, rather slowly because I enjoy what I do so much, I don't feel any great need to rush though the exercises!  I can now initiate lower notes (not the pedal notes) during pieces in rehearsal without thinking it is a big deal.  I could not do that last November.  I am also starting to attempt some of the higher sections, eg. Bb two above middle C, in public and no one has turned a fire hose onto me.  I take that to be a passive compliment.  I can't really play that area properly, but I am WORKING with it, which is a door that has only opened to me via BE.  I can see that I am earlier in the same development process I had around low notes, and I confidently expect to be able to play up to C reliably, within a year. 

I still find that trying the BE embouchure for high notes when playing causes chaos and shut down, so I don't!  But I can play the higher range available to me with less fuss, because I know that I am able to play even higher, so my brain doesn't think of it as such a big deal any more!
I practice "strategically" rather than long, and still pretty regularly use the embouchure strengthener, and the BE embouchure "squeeze" method.  I find I can't play sustained passages that center around D-G two above middle C, but aside from that I am amazed how good my endurance is, and I can feel that I have more lip muscle.  And a bar's rest is mostly enough to get me back in order.  I no longer subscribe to blindly putting in hours and hours of practice, albeit that I am not a professional.  I'd rather do BE, then solve problems I meet in pieces, eg the flutter tonguing that took me 4 weeks to get the hang of. 

So, all is going well! 

Hoping this finds you well,
Kind regards, Alecia

 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

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 

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

Alexander Shuhan's Early Impressions of BE

Alexander Shuhan purchased The Balanced Embouchure January 25th, 2012.  One month later I received this from him in an email:

Valerie, Greetings!  Starting to wade into BE and pushing my studio along on the cart ahead of me.  Thanks!  More sharing will follow soon... 
Alex

A few days later, Alex emailed again to order BE books for all his students:

I just had a freshman in for a lesson who had never played below a low F# on the F horn--she was just now getting pedal B's to speak a fifth lower!  Unbelievable!  :-)  . . . .


Looking forward to sharing my experiences w/ you as my students have a little more time to soak all of this in.  A couple of them have already shown significant changes in their playing.  My own playing improvements are blowing my mind.  I'm trying to keep track of everything I'm thinking about and how BE is informing change/growth, but it is seriously almost overwhelming in a positive way.  All I know is that just about everything I've ever heard said about how to play NOW makes sense...and at least for me, it's all nearly completely opposite of what I thought I understood.  I'd call that somewhat significant!!! :-)  More later...and thanks again!


Alex

BE for Horn, Dreams Realized

I started BE in the spring of 2006.   At that time, my dream was to acquire the ability to play the full range of the horn with ease.  I believed if I could do that, everything else would eventually fall into place with enough practice.  I remember writing to Jeff Smiley, "If this works for me, I'm going to tell my old  horn professor about it," because nothing he and I tried helped me improve my range and endurance.  After my sophomore year, I dropped out of university music school in 1973 feeling defeated.  Some 30+ years later, I decided to give horn playing another try.

Now, after nearly six years of studying BE, my dream of having command of the full range of the instrument has been realized.  I have the range to  play any note in the literature and any horn part for a very long time before tiring.  (That's not to say I can play any part, just the range needed for any note of any part!)  For example, after performing 1st horn on Beethoven's 7th, my chops still felt "fresh."  Having good range and endurance frees me to focus on the many other aspects of horn playing such as tone, phrasing, technique, etc.

Ten months after I began studying The Balanced Embouchure, seeing that BE really "worked" I had another dream, to share BE with the horn world.  I wanted all horn players with a desire to improve their embouchures to know that there's a simple method available that not only promises, but delivers results. (See Christain Hansen's testimonial here.)  I wanted to tell them that this method works without the drudgery of slaving away for hours a day on strength building exercises.  This method is technique driven and is mastered by practicing a few exercises that are so simple, kids can do them.  

I especially wanted to share this message with college students who may be struggling with embouchure issues like I did.  I am very happy to see my dream come true as college level horn students and instructors from all over the globe are now studying BE.  In addition, there are now high school and middle school band directors teaching BE as part of their brass instruction.

What I never dreamed of in my BEginnings was to see professional horn players embrace BE for their own use.  That was a complete surprise to me.  I naively assumed that all professional horn players had perfectly balanced chops so had no need for BE.  I was wrong and have enjoyed seeing a substantial number of pro's embrace BE for their own benefit.  I've even had the pleasure of seeing a couple who had thrown in the towel on professional performing due to embouchure issues, but return to it joyfully!  (Search my blog for testimonials of professional horn players who use BE:  Andrew Joy, Dave Stoller, Steve Park, Sandra Clarke, John Ericson, Julia Rose, Hans Christian, Alex Shuhan....)

This gives me a great feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment to have my dreams come true.

Valerie Wells

Feedback From a Horn Teacher

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.

BE for French horn Poster Child!

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

BE can Revolutionize Teaching

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