Feedback from a Low Brass Player

I've never worked BE with low brass and have always been curious to see how it works.  I received the following email yesterday:  

Valerie,
I bought Jeff Smiley’s BE book 8 years ago when I was playing Tuba to help with the upper register. I even bought a Trumpet to work on the BE exercises. They did help to develop my Trumpet and Tuba range. A couple of years ago, I switched to Horn, my instrument in high school. I play with a community band that needs Horns.
I’d like to purchase your BE for French Horn PDF, if available. How might I obtain it?
Thanks for your help,
Don Talbott

Timm Leukel, Fast Responder

I always encourage horn students who study BE to take their time, learning to work every exercise, to do "the whole thing."  But I get surprising emails like this from time to time that leave me scratching my head asking myself, how could so little BE make a difference?  But apparently it can and does or I wouldn't hear this same story over and over.  Here's a spontaneous little message I received from European horn player, Timm Leukel, who graciously consented to my posting this testimonial of his early experience with BE.  I will add here that it seems like those horn players who have the heaviest playing schedules seem to get the greatest boost from just a "little" BE work.

Hey it’s me again :D

I have some good news to share: This weekend my heavy rehearsal and concert schedule started (20 hours of playing in the 3^rd and 1^st seat).  And just for doing those exercises—and I’m only talking about roll out 1, roll in 1, and lip clamps+squeaks—it seems that my rationally strong chops seem to be unlocked in the upper register. This doesn’t mean that I’m able to play higher than before.  But it doesn’t seem to be impossible anymore to play in the higher range without loosing my chops quite fast because of my corners cramping up.  So I guess it seems to be quite the success to me.   Luckily I only have about 2 hours of playing left since my chops seem to be finally breaking down, but what a weekend.  

I can’t put into words how thankful I am for discovering the book Jeff wrote and for the help and support I’m gaining from all of you.  I’m looking forward to see what changes occur in my playing when I continue to practice these exercises.  

 Updates coming soon :-) Timm

Julia Rose writes about The Balanced Embouchure

Here's an article Julia Rose recently published on her blog. I'll classify this as a positive BE testimonial!

I'm impressed with Julia, not only for the quality of the article's content, but also for her integrity. I appreciate that she took the time to give BE an honest, thorough investigation and trial period rather than dismissing it as some have without reading the book or trying the exercises.

Many thanks to you, Julia Rose.