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

Jill K. Brown Pleased with BE

The following is a recent email exchange between Jill K. Brown and me.  

Hi Valerie,

Thought I would check in to let you know how BE is going for me. I've been at it since January and had a 5-day recording session at the beginning of July. Normally, on an extended recording session like that, I am constantly conserving my lip, hoping and praying that my endurance will hold out. The stress of pacing myself while needing to be able to really PLAY when needed has always been exhausting (both physically and mentally). Well after 5 months of BE, I was able to get to day 5 without sweating it. Don't get me wrong, there were still some moments of gauging how many more takes vs. how long my chops will last, but on Day 5, they pulled out some overdubs with high B's in them. I was a nervous wreck (old habits die hard), but was shocked that the Bs were there, over and over. At least 6 takes on a lick that normally would have had me using your Comfy Horn Strap as a sweat towel : ) I can only say that it had to be the BE that gave me the endurance (and confidence)! My section mate was using a descant and even remarked at how well I was holding up with my double.

My next question is how to turn what I call 'circus tricks' into everyday playing. I can squeal up to the F above High C now and can crawl down to the A below Double Pedal C. Unbelievable to me, honestly. But if I practice high stuff in etudes, I find that I must reset to the Rolled-In set up or else revert to my old ways of using pressure. How do I get to a place where I can roll in smoothly as I ascend? My lower lip is pretty fleshy, so it's quite a distance I must roll in for, say, RI #3 (my preferred RI exercise).

Thanks for any suggestions.
Jill

-------------------

Jill, this is wonderful news, indeed! Congrats! This is what we all hope for when we start BE.

About your questions, all it takes is time to develop. I think I needed about 18 months to get to the point that playing high for a good long time felt so natural that I no longer obsessed over my chops. Of course, I was a much less experienced horn player than you at the time, so you will likely get to that point sooner than I did. Jeff Smiley says we're not supposed to think about BE when we perform, but that's kinda like telling people not to think about little brown monkeys. It's almost impossible for someone new to BE.

About resetting vs not resetting: as long as you're getting the job done with nice tone, good phrasing, etc., what does it matter how you did it? Hah! Getting it done is what counts. But, I think I had studied BE for three years before I made a serious attempt to learn to traverse all the ranges with a unified embouchure setting. I wanted my "continue flex", rolling in and out, to be more subtle & "inside the mouthpiece" so to speak.   I took my cues from Steve Park who plays all the ranges with a quite rolled-in setting. I wanted to see if that would work for me.  I learned it over a six week period using 3 octave arpeggios that started on fundamental F with both lips inside the mouthpiece, ascended to staff top F then went back down to the lowest F using a rolled-inish embouchure throughout. (Each "lap" started one half step higher until high D was the highest pitch.) But I have never needed to use this skill in actual playing. Doing it, however, did bring improvements in my overall flexibility and confidence.  This rolled-inish embouchure setting doesn't work for everyone.  Some people (like Lou Denaro) prefer using a more rolled out setting though out the registers.  Everyone is different, but BE will give you the tools you need to discover what will work best for you.  

Does that help?

--------------------

Thanks for your reply, and yes! that does help. I tend to lean towards being an overachiever in life, so knowing a generic time frame of "keep doing what you're doing" is helpful. My goal is to eventually be able to gradually roll in as I ascend (rolling out while descending is so much easier!) until I can smoothly get my fat lower lip neatly tucked in without resetting. Whenever I scrutinize professional players' embouchures, most look like a smooth line while playing, which I can achieve with a completely rolled in lower lip. And for me, that RI setting produces powerful and clear notes above Bb, so I am definitely motivated.

Jill K. Brown   

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

Trumpet and Horn: More from Cameron

I posted a discussion from Cameron Kopf a few days ago (scroll down).  Now Cameron is sharing a picture and more information about his application of BE principals to his regular embouchure and his mouthpiece choice.  [I commented at the bottom in brackets.]  

"I'm playing on a modified Yamaha 667: Dennis Houghton mouth pipe and Lawson ambronze bell, in case you're interested. I am very happy with this horn.

"At the moment I am using a Schilke #29 stock mouthpiece (unlike the Osmun London cup in the pic). I find that the slightly wider inner cup diameter of the Schilke works much better now that I'm doing BE. It's easier to roll in.

"By the way, I am now concentrating on using RI for all registers, just over the past couple of days, and am seeing good results. My particular challenge now is to get the second line G on the staff to open up, both in sound and for tonguing. So I am now working on opening that note up with sustained tones and faster tonguing. 

"Like you, I feel more comfortable with RI for most of my playing needs, but RO exercises are very important to do regularly to keep the RI muscles properly balanced."

"Best regards,

Cameron"

[Thanks, Cameron!  I don't really understand how & why RO works, but I know it does.  One trumpet player who's been studying BE for many years tells me that RO makes RI possible.  He says he does RO so he can do RI.  And, many, many horn & trumpet players report HUGE improvements from playing RO.  One pro trumpet player Jeff taught, struggled with several years of stagnation.  He took off like a shot with RO alone so never bothered with RI.  Go figure.  Some horn players think they don't need RO because they already have a low range.  I always tell them RO is not for the low range; it's for the whole embouchure.  Whatever develops the whole embouchure, develops range in both directions.] 

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

Luke Zyla, No Longer a Skeptic

The following is a composite of remarks Luke Zyla shared with members on the Memphis horn forum with in the last week. Thanks so much for sharing your testimonial with the horn community, Luke.

Dear Horn Listers,

I am not what you call a "stellar" horn player, but I do make a decent second income from performing with the West Virginia Symphony and freelancing in the area. I have been practicing the BE method this summer and have found positive results already. I definitely have not mastered the exercises yet, but working on them has improved my high register and endurance. One of the things I find most valuable is that it is not a method that tears down and rebuilds a new embouchure, but one that gradually improves ones playing.

Being a second horn player, I always dreaded having to play pops concerts where one plays music arranged by people who do not understand the custom of having horns 1 and 3 on high and 2 and 4 on low. The music of John Williams always brought concern to my mind. I have found that these exercises have enabled me to have better endurance and a more relaxed high register. I am not at the point where I am ready to attack the screaming high baroque horn literature yet, but I expect that my horn playing will continue to become more effortless.

The BE method does not involve lots of time practicing the extreme embouchures. I find that it does develop my embouchure in a positive way. The immediate result is that my endurance is much better. I think the best feature of this method is that it is not a sudden change and restructuring ones embouchure, but a gradual exploration and development that can result in positive results. Personally, I do not bunch up my chin when I play. Just can't get my chops to be that relaxed. It is more relaxed than before, which is a good thing. One thing I have noticed about the really great players in the world is that they all seem to produce tone in every register effortlessly. The method does not result in a goofy looking embouchure. Check out Steve Park's videos on YouTube. I don't think anyone would fault his embouchure.

The method is very simple. I was very skeptical about the method for a long time, but have come to appreciate the benefits of the exercises.

I would encourage anyone to buy the book and give it a try. The cost of the book is small compared to the benefits one can achieve.

CORdially,
Luke Zyla, second horn
West Virginia Symphony Orchestra
www.wvsymphony.org

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.

Pressed for Time?

There's no need to find a huge block of time free of extra responsibilities, gigs and rehearsals to start BE. Of course, working the whole program is the most ideal situation, but as little as 3 to 5 minutes a day on one or two BE exercises can make a difference.

One horn player I know who had been playing horn for 7 years had very limited range & endurance when she started BE. She had a job, young children at home and was very limited in practice time. She could only dedicate 3 to 5 minutes of her daily practice to BE studies. After three years, she developed a formidable range and played first horn in a community band like the Energizer bunny beats his drum!

I recently introduced the first BE Roll-Out exercise to a high school horn student. He came to the next lesson apologizing for not practicing much during the week due to unexpected & disruptive events including an automobile accident. But, he was still pleased because he said his high notes were definitely becoming easier and more secure. All he had been able to do that week was take a minute or two before or after each daily band rehearsal to run through one Roll-Out exercise!

In my first two years of BE, I was a come back maniac. I played in 6 ensembles and numerous ad hoc groups. I stripped down BE to 7 minutes a day including what I considered at the time, the BE basics. I progressed very nicely with this schedule. Of course, when I cut back on some of the ensembles, leaving myself more time to concentrate on the finer details of BE, I made significant advancements in all aspects of my playing. But, my point is this: a little BE can go a long way.

How can just few minutes of an exercise or two make such a big difference in embouchure function? Every little bit of BE helps because each BE exercise is targeted to efficiently teach and develop a specific, universally beneficial embouchure skill. When one skill is developed in an exercise, part of it can then be incorporated into every day playing with or without the player's knowledge of how it's done.

So, if you're pressed for time, start with something small, BE patient, BE persistent and watch big things happen!

Valerie Wells

Back to home.

One Year on BE, a Cheery Update

I love getting emails like this:

Valerie!

Just wanted to give you a one year update on my progress. BE has truly changed my playing for the better and while I was also one of those "freaks" that saw immediate improvement, my playing continued to improve throughout the past year of doing the BE exercises. Even though I was able to perform at a relatively high level prior to BE, I always struggled with endurance issues and good and bad days and had to use separate embouchures for regular playing vs extreme upper register work. Now my playing is much more consistent and my balanced embouchure allows me to play low to high to extreme without changing my embouchure. My endurance is so much better that it almost feels like I'm cheating sometimes! haha.

I can just imagine if I had started BE earlier and think it's almost a crime that BE isn't taught to more beginners and students to maximize their potential faster. There would certainly be alot less brass players quitting out of frustration if they had only tried BE from the start!

Ron

In a few years, Ron will be even more pleased with his progress. The improvements will continue. BE is dynamic system that keeps on giving for years to come.

To Be Perfectly Honest . . .

BE is not for beginners. I often get inquiries from enthusiastic horn players who are newly coming back to horn. In the past I've sold the book to a few horn players who had only been playing for a few weeks. It's worked well for most, but not everyone.


In my opinion BE works best if the horn player already has a stable, not necessarily fabulous, but stable embouchure. I now tell any brand new come back players to hold off on starting BE until they've been playing long enough to first get well acquainted with what their natural embouchure is.


BE has to have a starting point, something to work with, something to build upon. If a player is unduly insecure in their regular set up, BE can cause confusion.


BE works by challenging the embouchure to function in two extreme set ups -- the rolled-in and the rolled-out. Over time, the bits and pieces of technique learned in the challenging exercises eventually influence the player's regular embouchure. If the player doesn't have an established regular embouchure to rely upon, they can easily become confused in their approach to every day, regular playing.


So to be perfectly honest, I'd get a little more spending money for Christmas if I sold the book to everyone who asks, but for best results, I want brand new, fresh come back players to wait a while.


How long? Well . . . if you've been playing for a year or more, I believe you're ready. If you've been playing for less than six months, are still fooling around with different embouchure settings, horns, mouthpieces, etc., you should probably wait a few more months before starting BE. First, get yourself acquainted with how you play your instrument, then order the BE book. (But don't wait forever or you'll miss out on the opportunity to nip bad habits in the bud!)


I was successful starting BE after about six months coming back because I had been practicing 2 to 3 hours a day for about five months. (Yes, I'm very compulsive!)  I had a very consistent, although range & endurance limiting embouchure before I started BE.  

Warm regards,
Valerie