Eight Years on BE and Still Going

This is my original copy of BE purchased in 2006. 

It's been 8 years since I began studying BE.  Knowing how ADD I am and my history of flitting from one hobby to the next, I think it's amazing that I'm still playing horn.  For me, 8 years is a record for continuous engagement in one single, just-for-fun, creative endeavor.

Earlier this summer, I enjoyed playing pit orchestra for a local production of "The Sound of Music." And I'm definitely looking forward to another season with the Tacoma Community College orchestra and symphonic band.  And I'm hoping to play in the orchestra for local church productions of "The Messiah", "Lamb of God" and any other ad hoc music activities that come my way.  And I'm looking forward to many more years of horn playing.  I know, without any doubt, if it weren't for BE, I would have quit (again!) years ago.

My husband commented recently, "You'd be miserable without your music." He's right. I'm grateful for Jeff Smiley's huge contribution to my happiness.  "The Balanced Embouchure" has helped make horn playing a joyful and satisfying experience.

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Cameron Kopf gave this feedback to this post on FaceBook:   

CONGRATS, Valerie Wells! Your sharing of this technique is valuable to the horn community, and it is gratifying to hear that it has helped you keep playing for 8 years!

BE has truly been one of the best things to happen in my playing over the past 2 years, both on trumpet and horn! I continue to evolve with it daily.

I am discovering over time that BE is a very fluid technique, enabling me to play both horn and trumpet with much more ease, and I incorporate various aspects of it in different playing situations.

After learning the basics and following the instructions as closely as possible for the first year, later on it is up to the individual to decide how to apply the techniques; it's not cookie cutter. The concepts of rolling-in and rolling-out forms the basis for all brass playing, really. It's all a matter of pacing and combining RI & RO techniques to fit the musical situation at hand.

As time goes on, it seems to be becoming more "fluid" for me, being able to shift between these techniques. And so, as a professional horn player, I have made good progress on the trumpet over the past 2 years.

I am firmly convinced that I would have NOT been able to achieve this progress without BE. Thanks again Valerie. 

August 31 at 11:49pm 

Air vs Embouchure and Other Things

Recently, John, a trombone player with some BE experience, told me that he has observed brass players obsessing too much over embouchure when they should be spending more time on air.  This was my reply:  

"I played French horn in college, but stopped for 33 years.  I came back to horn about 8 years ago and have observed just the opposite -- at least in the French horn world.  Embouchure talk seemed totally taboo in 2006, yet some French horn players seemed to obsess over air as if lips weren't even necessary for horn playing.  I listened intently and tried so hard to make it happen with air the way so many said it was supposed to work.  I was huffing & puffing blowing huge volumes of air through my horn to the point of hyperventilation but still couldn't come near the upper register.  And low notes were equally frustrating.  I couldn't hold a low register note for more than a few seconds before running out of air.  I thought I'd never be successful on horn because I assumed I just didn't have the lung capacity for it and my college experience had nearly convinced me that I didn't have the embouchure either.  When I finally found BE and was taught to manipulate my lips this way or that way, I suddenly could play notes in the upper range for the first time ever and could sustain low notes for much, much longer.

"When I informally introduced BE to the French horn community, huge efforts were made to correct the error of my ways.  I was ridiculed for using a trumpet method, especially one that blatantly taught the idea of rolling the lips in and out.  Shameful! Someone even scolded me for discussing the intimate subject of the embouchure in public, as if I were talking about bladder control! HA!  

"So.... My observation has been that only lately has it become "okay" to talk about chops again in the French horn world.

"I think the advancement of BE into the horn world has added a healthy weight and emphasis towards balancing air w/ embouchure.  Hundreds of horn players are now using BE and it's also being taught in private studios, high schools, middle schools and universities around the world.  Maybe the demands of the horn embouchure are more stringent than that of trombone, I don't know, but I see BE making a very positive improvement in horn pedagogy."   

I'm not certain my observations are accurate for the entire horn world.  What I observed may have simply been the dominant theme in the on-line discussion groups of the time (Memphis list and Yahoo Horn). But I believe it is most productive to emphasize both air and embouchure working in tandem as The Balanced Embouchure system does.

John responded,  

"Wow! That’s different from my experience but I surely believe you.  My take on BE is that, after a while, you’re not really rolling in and out so much anymore. Things stabilize and strengthen but the rolling in and out is natural while you’re building up.

"When I saw Claude Gordon and was rolling in and out for range changes he said go ahead, let the lips do whatever they want to do….and do the routine everyday! Sure enough, the lip motion started to become less and less. More efficient I would say.  I think it’s completely natural to do this. Who starts outs from day one with a strong, balanced embouchure?

"I'm really glad to hear that BE has been well received and is being used to success by so many players.  I think it has changed people’s lives for the better. So stressful to want to play well and not be able to get a handle on it. And some people make it look so easy!

"I’m sure horn is a lot tougher than trombone, chop wise. But every instrument has it’s own devil."   

I love John's observations.  BE uses exaggerated lip motions ("roll in" and "roll out") and breathing techniques ("snaps" and "zips") to awaken the student to movement and breathing possibilities they may not be aware of.  This awakening gives the student options for more productive, satisfying development. Here's an experience shared recently in an email:

"Hi Valerie,
"Well I've been pretty busy over Christmas with the band and two orchestras.  Like you I've followed the Farkas method religiously for 30 years. This will be my difficulty. To get out of pulling down the bottom lip. The Farkas method has failed me to an extent as I have a fairly fleshy top lip. As I said. The roll outs are no problem whatsoever. I can get the pedal E in Shostakovich 5 last movement no problem. Some of my students in band have said my lip was all over the place when I show them how to blow pedals. I said so be it if it aids in getting the extreme low notes. I can now reinforce my method to them when I show them Jeff's book. So I was right all along sort of thing. The roll ins will be more difficult after 30 years of puckering my lips. I have however started roll in exercises. I have to continually remind myself to roll in especially in the high register but it will be worth it. A small victory. We took out 633 Squadron at band the other night. Notable for it's many long unison top A's. It used to be about 7 out of 10 on the worry scale for pitching and endurance. I made myself use the roll in position and as the piece went on the worry scale became 2 out of 10. You and Jeff deserve top praise for helping all us trumpet and horn players throughout the globe.

          "Many thanks, Vincent McArdle."

I love what I do!

So why the picture of Steve Park playing a pedal tone?  Steve is the one who helped me see what BE really is when boiled down to it's simplest terms:
                                       Balancing air with embouchure.

For more about Steve Park, see these links:
http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-steve-park-came-to-be.html http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/05/be-in-san-francisco.html
http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/10/feedback-from-horn-teacher.html
 http://www.steveparkhornmusic.net/#Home%20Page

Julia Rose "Retires" her Blog

Julia Rose has had a very popular blog, Julia's Horn Page, for a number of years.  She recently retired her blog, but graciously allowed me to publish what she's written about her BE experience.  For more about Julia see this:  http://www.columbussymphony.com/about-cso/musicians/horns/julia-rose
Thanks, Julia, for all you've done to advance horn playing.
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The Balanced Embouchure
Published on Jan. 6, 2009 by Julia Rose

 I’ve been reading a lot about something called “Balanced Embouchure” lately. It is a book by a trumpet teacher named Jeff Smiley,who states the following on his web site:

… "The Balanced Embouchure" is the core text of a projected series of books dealing with unique dynamic range of motion exercises. These exercises tend to enhance every player's embouchure development - often dramatically. After years of teaching thousands of trumpet lessons in the "real world," ranging from beginners to students who had struggled for years, I confidently make this statement on the first page of the book: ("The Balanced Embouchure" is...)

   ...A Dynamic Development System That's Easy To Learn And Works For Every Trumpet Player...

> Regardless of your age or number of years played
> Regardless of how weak your current embouchure
> Regardless of your lip architecture
> Regardless of how confused you are
> Regardless of what you've been told…

Sounds intriguing, eh?

I first read about it on the horn forum a while back, where an amateur hornist was glowing about the fabulous results she was getting on the horn by reading this book and doing the exercises. She was immediately shot down by another hornist who felt what she was doing was incorrect, and then she was later defended by a well-regarded teacher (Wendell Rider) in the horn world. It was a typical internet forum flame-fest, but the whole discussion rather intrigued me. Mr. Rider was intrigued enough to take a look at rolling in/rolling out of the lips while playing, experiment with it with himself and his students, and it inspired him enough to write an addendum to his fine book.

Mr. Rider’s addendum can be found here: http://www.wendellworld.com/html/FlexibilityLipControl2.pdf. What Mr. Rider says in the addendum I absolutely agree with. Basically, “Balanced Embouchure” involves exercises designed to get the player to roll their lips inward as they ascend in range, and outward as they descend. I am in agreement with Mr. Rider, as I also think there maybe something to it.

I am not a natural player by any means. When I made my embouchure change in college, what made the new embouchure finally click for me was getting a rolling in/out motion of the lips correct. Doug Hill put it into words for me as a “chicken beak.” Seems like strange imagery, and yes,chickens do not have lips :), but hey, it worked for me. To me, this motion seems a lot like the “Whistling” embouchure that Farkas talks about inhis books.

In thinking about the rolling in/rolling out, I believe the principles that Farkas discusses in his books are, for the most part, an excellent starting point for the proper horn embouchure. But from what I’ve seen over the years by watching others play the horn, the Farkas method may only completely work for players with small lips and a slight overbite. Others (like me, for example, with my fuller lips and a large overbite) probably have to modify this to get things to work for them, perhaps with some of the methods that Mr. Smiley describes. Balanced Embouchure may be another tool for someone to solve their embouchure troubles.

It’s a shame that the trumpet world can talk about embouchure experimentation openly, while in the horn world it gets shot down as blasphemy. (How dare you say that the great Farkas was wrong?!) I see the whole BE rolling in/out discussion as very healthy, if it helps more brass players realize their dreams. The only danger I see in the whole BE discussion is too much attention to the physical while performing, and not enough attention to making music. But then, the physical does have to be worked out before one is free enough to be a great musician.

For more Balanced Embouchure discussion, click here: http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=29
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Lower lip discipline (or lack thereof)
Published on Aug. 29, 2010 by Julia Rose

Throughout my playing career, my lower lip has caused me trouble.  Ever since I got braces way back when I was 12, my natural tendency (even today) seems to be to not to use enough lower lip in the mouthpiece.  I know this is exactly the opposite problem of many horn players, but it's the case with me.   I had to correct this in college, but I'm finding out that I'm still having to tweak it even now.

You may recall that a while back I mentioned that I had a breakthrough in my practice, but I didn't go into much detail.  Well, I'm now sure that what I've been working on has put me on the right path, so I'm ready to write about what I've been doing.

For the past few years, I have struggled with my middle range.  My high range was very comfortable, my low range was pretty good, but my middle register was troublesome.  Perhaps it was a "high horn syndrome," as this is very common among 1st and 3rd horn players.  Specifically, I lacked clarity when I articulated in the mid range, and during legato passages I had a real lack of flexibility.  I had been working on this extremely hard,especially in the past year.

The weird thing is that the situation used to be reversed- way back when, my middle andlow ranges used to be my strengths, and my high range used to be my weakness.  What exactly was I doing before to make my middle and low ranges strong, and how did I improve my high range?  And is there a way to combine the 2 methods so that every range is strong?

Well, I think I figured it out for myself.  Through arduous practice of flexibility exercises this summer, I've realized that (once again) the culprit was my lower lip.  It was not providing a proper anchor in the middle register, which I believe was the source of my problem. I believe I have now fixed it and I'm beginning to see the fruits of my efforts.  The general feeling in the middle register now is that I'm using slightly more lower lip, and I am doing much less pivoting in the middle register than I had been doing.  In every other range I'm doing the same things as before.   My middle range is much easier now, with no loss of the ease of my high and low ranges.  I have seen some exciting improvements so far, and it's going to be a great next couple of months!

There's been a lot of talk (and disagreement) this past week on various brass blogs about embouchure, and the importance (or unimportance) of the 2/3 to 1/3ratio between the upper and lower lips of the horn embouchure.  Yes, most horn players (including myself) use more upper lip to lower lip, but I believe that's merely coincidence caused by similarities of facial structure(such as overbites) that most of us have.  Horn players with underbites and other unorthodox facial features may need to useother setups, and other methods (like the Balanced Embouchure, for instance) to find their best individual embouchure.

Personally,I believe that what matters most is what the lower lip is doing, not how it looks.  I'm beginning to think that every single technical problem I've ever had is related to my lower lip.  It's weird how this same problem rears its ugly head from time to time with me!
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More on the Balanced Embouchure
Published on Aug. 28, 2011 by Julia Rose

Last week James Boldin posted his opinion of the BalancedEmbouchure method by JeffSmiley.  James wrote that he did not own the book, but was open to any possible new ideas that might be presented there that may help himself and his students become more efficient.  I thought it might be useful to follow up to his post with one of my own, as I have experimented with the Balanced Embouchure this summer.

There has been much controversy about the Balanced Embouchure (or BE) all over the internet from both trumpet and horn players.  When I first heard about BE, I was intrigued because of Jeff Smiley's claim that it worked for every trumpet player, and I posted briefly about what I thought here.   But since that post I have heard even more positive things about it from members of the horn-playing community, including more and more professional horn players coming out of the woodwork endorsing it, plus a presentation at the last International Horn Societyworkshop, and I really wanted to find out more.  Before I forman official opinion about something, I like to find out as much as I can aboutit, so I bit the bullet and paid $50 for the book plus the horn exercise addendum from ValerieWells.

I don't feel like I'm in desperate shape chopwise, but like James Boldin, I was curious about what it may offer that I didn't already know, so that I could help myself and possibly my students improve.  I have my chops together, but I have had students who have struggled with range.  So over the past month or so, I've read the book thoroughly and done the exercises.

I am taking my time going through the book, as that is what Mr. Smiley recommends.  It is meant to be a self-help method (with CD included) that allows the student to discover his/her own best individualized approach to brass embouchure, and it has made for a perfect summer project.  The student only needs to spend 5-15 minutes daily on the exercises, so it is not disruptive whatsoever to a normal practice routine.  In a month or so of about 10 minutes of BE practice perday, I have gotten to the point where I can play all the rolling-in (RI) androlling-out (RO) exercises pretty well, but have not yet started on the Advanced Lip Slur (ALS) exercises.  I did find that I was able to do most of the RO exercises immediately.  This is probably because my embouchure naturally leans toward einsetzen, and a big component of the RO exercises is pedal tones, which I have never had much difficulty with.  I have more difficulty with the RI exercises, not in playing the high notes with that embouchure but in using that rolled-in embouchure in the middle register.

Valerie Wells has stated in her blog that BE employs concepts that many fine players are using already, either consciously or unconsciously.  I agree with this, as I have noticed some positive improvements in my playing, but nothing earth-shattering.  I have seen improvement in large intervallic leaps in the middle register.  I think this is because I am actually practicing them while using the exercises (go figure!), and I am also practicing pedal tones systematically, which I have never done before.   I think that part of the success of this book is that it requires the student to practice extremes which they would normally not be practicing.  Not only extremes in range, but extremes in tonguing and embouchure movement that are not necessarily meant to be used in regular playing.

I have also noticed that my range above high C has become more secure.  Whereas some of the licks up to high E in the Schumann Konzertstuck and Strauss Domestic Symphony have been hit-and-miss for me in the past, I can hit them dependably now.  A dependable high E is a nice thing to have!

One of the most appealing things about this method to me is that 5-15 minutes of practice a day isn't enough to mess up your current setup.  As your lips learn to do new things, the things that work better are gradually and unconsciously incorporated into your current embouchure.  It is an individualized approach guided by the student's ear, and not guided by a teacher dogmatically telling the student what to do, or guided by what one thinks they see in a mirror.  The student uses his ear as a guide, and if it sounds right, it is right.  No one horn player's physical makeup is like anyone else's, and I believe that depending on one's ear when playing music (and not how it looks or how it feels) is the best way tooperate.  As that type of approach to brass playing and pedagogy appeals to me in general, I really like this book.

I plan to keep on practicing the BE exercises until I master them, and then I plan on keeping them in my personal practice arsenal.  I can see how this book could really help a struggling student find his/her own best embouchure. If this book had been around when I was in college, I think it would have saved me an enormous amount of practice time.  I think BE could be a terrific tool to help students, and I plan on using it with my own students as needed.  BE is currently quite controversial, but I see it becoming more and more popular as more people give it a chance, because it makes sense and it works!
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A few more random thoughts on BE
Published on Sept. 4, 2011 by Julia Rose

Wow.  As of today, last week’s post generated 11 comments, a new record for my blog.  I’m thinking that since a lot of readers enjoyed my last post, it would be anti climactic to talk about leadpipes and valve oil, so I thought I’d continue with a few more random thoughts about BE (Balanced Embouchure).

It's fun to have joined the BE club.  It may seem a little cult-like to outsiders, but on the whole it's a great group of people.   Consider me part of the cult! :) It's difficult to be cutting-edge about something like horn playing, which has been around for hundreds of years, but I think BE is as close to cutting-edge as you'll find inthe music world.  Valerie and Jeff are really on to something and I predict even more players will begin to recognize BE as legitimate.

Personally, I think that BE is a great tool for horn players, but not for beginners. I think it’s more important to get a beautiful, characteristic horn tone in themiddle register before working on extreme range.  After all, the horn is known for its sound, and we don’t want to turn all our horn players into trumpet wannabees.  Every beginner must develop an appreciation forgood horn tone, if it isn’t there in the very beginning.  If I were working on the basics of horn playing, I think I'd also have the beginner work on the LCS (lip clamp squeak) alittle bit away from the horn, and perhaps on a few pedal tones.  Then after a year or 2 of playing, once a great horn sound is established, it might be a good time to start on BE.

One fun new thing I’ve done this week is occasionally play the BE exercises on the descant horn.  All the exercises are supposed to be done on the Bb side of the horn, so since I’ve been wanting to learn my descant horn a little better, I’ve just been doing the BE exercises on the Bb side of the descant (not the high F side).   After playing the RI/RO exercises on the descant horn, I play through some descant horn excerpts (like Haydn 31) using normal mechanics and normal usage of the high F horn.  Haydn 31 is so easy compared to the BE exercises!

Playing through the RO #4 exercise, I’m realizing that those great orchestral horn players who can scream up in the high range like lead trumpeters (I’m thinkingPhil Myers, Dale Clevenger, Bill Caballero, and others) MUST do some extreme high range exercises much like the BE ones, or perhaps Caruso.  BE is great training for that kind of playing, no doubt about it!

It's good that my son has started school again for the year, because now I can raise all sorts of BE racket in my practice room during the day without disturbing anyone.  The only one who is bothered by it is my dog, but I know it's nothing personal- he howls along to whatever I play.  (I've got to put a videotape of his howling up here sometime.  It's hilarious!)  I think I'd be a little self-conscious of how weird I sound if family members were around.  By myself, I don't give a rip. :)

If I spin things just right in my mind, I see that I am extremely blessed to have a normal family life with lots of time with my family, lots of time to practice, and lots of time to try new things (like BE) and otherwise"sharpen my saw," perhaps for something better in my musical future.  A busier musician would not have the time to practice that I do.  Many musicians look at my personal situation (only being employed by the Columbus Symphony for 26 weeks per year due to severe cuts afew years ago) extremely negatively.  Yes, it sure sucks that my orchestra's only working for 26 weeks rather than 46 weeks just a few short years ago.  But all that free time does allow one to practice A LOT if they so choose, work on other musical projects and have a "normal" family life.  Sure, I'd much rather be playing in an orchestra right now, but when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade.
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BE update
Published on Dec. 4, 2011 by Julia Rose

Last week I returned from a vacation over Thanksgiving to visit relatives in Florida.  My accomodations were pretty spartan, basically a tiny trailer with no air conditioning, but my family and I had agood time.  I had orchestra services immediately upon my return to Ohio,so I needed to hit the ground running and stay in shape.  I did bring my horn, and I ended up practicing about 40 minutes daily every evening in a practice mute, staying in shape by making tiny sounds in a tiny tool shed in a tiny trailer.  When I returned home after the trip, after some long tones to get my air working normally again, I was surprised to find that I was playing better than when I left.  How did this happen?  I attribute it to the fact that I have revamped my maintenance routine, adding exercises from Jeff Smiley's Balanced Embouchure after a brief warm up.

As I mentioned here and here, I've been working on the book for a few months.  I originally was doing the exercises at the end of the day because I was worried the exercises would interfere negatively with my normal playing (they ARE intense).  That seemed to be going well, so during some of my off weeks I decided to try to putt hem at the beginning of the day to see what would happen.  It turned out that everything improved.

The RI/RO exercises make perfect range and attack studies, and the TOL (tongue on lips) exercises allow one to experiment with articulations and air speed, making for a complete maintenance routine.  When added to a brief warm up and a few scales, it's a perfect 40 minute routine for me.  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. After playing through my new routine, I feel like I can play anything, anytime and anywhere.  I play my warm up, the BE exercises, and then forget about it all and just play music.

Being able to play in any range using either a rolled-in ora rolled-out embouchure has given me the flexibility and confidence to know I can play anything under any conditions, no matter how my chops feel.  The TOL  exercises have been especially ground breaking 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.

When I'm having difficulty with an excerpt or passage, I find myself relating the passage to a specific BE exercise.  For example, I was having trouble with the mid-range intervallic leaps in the beginning of Bruckner's 4th symphony.  But a mid-range interval of an octave or a tenth is by no means as large as a 3 octave leap in and out of the pedal register!  So, by reminding myself of what I have to do to play the interval leaps in RO #3 and RI #4, Bruckner 4 has become much easier.

I've decided that in my own development, the ALS (advanced lip slur) exercises weren't really doing anything for me.  I found that I was able to play through all of them right away, so it wasn't advantageous to keep playing them.  I find that I get plenty of advanced lip slur practice in my normal playing, so I've decided to just keep working on the other exercises.  I may decide to work on the ALS exercises later,but extending them into the trumpet ranges.

Overall, I've been thrilled at the results I'm getting from BE, which I was not expecting atall.  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.  I look forward to even more improvements in the months/years to come.

Feed back From Alex Shuhan's Studio

Valerie,

Continuing to experience more and more revelations thanks to BE. Students are all responding very well, in fact, I've had more students offering to me their own self-awareness observations than I've ever experienced. Typical lesson is for students to come and wait for me to tell them something, and if I ask questions, they're usually uncomfortable and baffled! Now, it is not uncommon for the students to be offering up their own questions and observations of things they are suddenly noticing about their playing. This is huge and completely a result of BE.

Other thoughts, one-liners, etc.:

Compression ALLOWS for vibration. (I NEVER really understood what compression meant. For me now, it seems to be the MOST important thing to understand/experience and it has been revealed to me entirely thanks to BE).

If you've mastered range, tone, flexibility, intonation, articulation, dynamics and a general ease of production, BE is not for you. All others should consider opening the BE door to possibility.

BE allows for real understanding.

Anything that has changed in my playing as a result of BE has happened in a gentle, easy manner. The adjustments, improvements have all occurred in a way that makes the whole playing process better informed.

If you've been stuck, unable to affect change and/or improvement…BE!

Alex Shuhan, Assoc. Prof. of Horn
Ithaca College School of Music

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.

The Rule Breakers

Alexander Kienle recently shared a couple items that I find very interesting: 

Baborak bunches his chin up as he ascends for the last note of Don Juan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc-S02MX4mU
Interesting to watch!  And what a grand moment in classical music to savor.  Does it get any better than this?

Some of you may have already come across Froydis' article about "nevers": http://www.hornsociety.org/en/publications/horn-call/online-articles/194-never-say-never-again  As Alex pointed out, this is particularly relevant when discussing BE!

With examples like these, it's hard to see how some believe bunching the chin or puffing the cheeks is "bad" or even "damaging" to the embouchure.

Embouchure Experience and Discovery

For some, The Balanced Embouchure system brings an overall, general improvement to the established embouchure by enhancing the various elements of playing such as range, endurance, tone, flexibility, security, accuracy, etc. But, for others, the BE system enables students to make major embouchure transformations as they discover fundamental flaws in and subsequent solutions to their embouchure settings. Such was the case for and Jonathan and me.

In my very first week on BE, I discovered a fundamental flaw in my set up. The flaw was not discernable to visual inspection, appeared ideal by Farkas standards, but did not deliver Farkas results. In spite of several years of qualified instruction, I only discovered the flaw when I began to practice the roll-in exercises in The Balanced Embouchure.

For Jonathan, it wasn't as quick. Jonathan struggled for months almost quitting at one point. After taking a little time off his horn, he came back fresh and began BE anew. That's when he discovered a critical element he needed while working with the roll-out exercises. Here are Jonathan's latest comments to add to his testimonial:

I'm still working with BE off and on (more off than on, lately) ... but it led me to an embouchure setting that gives me a much better tone, more flex, and more volume.... still working on the upper range. It is a much more relaxed setting and fits with my theory that it's more about discovering and practicing a setting that allow better playing with less work, rather than try to "muscle up" the notes with a poorly chosen embouchure. It also seems to explain why accomplished players "make it look so easy" .... because for them, it IS easy! And I don't believe it's just because of years of physical toning of the supporting muscles; I believe they have developed a setting that they can easily leverage to do whatever they want with tone, volume, range, pitch, etc.... Just my rambling thought here....

This reminds me of something I once heard in church: "There are some things that can not be taught ... these things can only be learned." I don't believe anyone could have directly taught, "shown" or described to Jonathan or me what a well functioning embouchure looked or felt like for us individually. But Jeff Smiley's simple exercises guided us to discover what we needed through a wide range of embouchure experiences provided in his method.

Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing your insights.
See original article, "Huge Breakthrough" with Roll-Out Exercises here.

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