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

Just Thinking....

I was thinking this morning that if it weren't for BE, 
there's no way I would have the confidence to calmly approach the high register.  What other method teaches you exactly, precisely how to set your chops to play the highest notes on the horn straight on, cold turkey, without slurring or "glissing" up to it? I could be wrong, but there are none that I'm aware of.    Jeff Smiley is very clever.

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

Erik: Two Months on BE

I received this in an email from a trumpeter who began studying BE two months ago. Although it can vary greatly, it is typical for the BE student to experience notable improvements in embouchure function at the 2 month mark.  

Hi Val,
This is Erik.  Just an update.  My endurance and playing have improved dramatically.  I actually have been doing BE combined with another method.   I started with the other method a while back before I got the BE book you sent me and I just kept going with both.  The other method is a collection of exercises with no emphasis on embouchure formation, so I think it works well with BE.

I was able to play my first triple high C last week (not very loud, but still was able to hit it).  Thinking it was a fluke, I tried it again after a short break and was able to do it again.  High C which used to be an "iffy" note for me is a pretty easy note, now.  In performance, I am hitting high notes with confidence and power and the band and audience are definitely impressed.

I am determined to turn my previous weaknesses into my strengths.  Before I was known as the guy who could play but was inconsistent.  My goal is to be known for my consistency.
You mentioned to me before that I might be "thankful" that I am self-taught, and I see what you mean now!

Anyways, hope you are doing well.  I will send you another update when I get further along.

Another thing, I am able to play almost any type of mouthpiece now.  Before, I could only play big mouthpieces and would bottom out on small pieces.  Now, I am playing very well on a 10 3/4 CW.

Thanks,
Erik 

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

Admirable Brevity

"BE is just a set of exercises helping the overall mechanics of any embouchure." 
~Bruno Fernandes

Keeping Up With The Kid

I love receiving feedback from a "fast responder."  It's interesting to see how quickly Bryan grasped the overall concepts. His insights about BE compared to other methods are interesting.  The BE exercises are not easy, so it's impressive that he could execute so many in his first "session."  I had to chuckle when he described figuring out how to "keep up with the kid."   Here's what Bryan emailed me today:  

Actually, just finished my first session. Really good. I get the whole philosophy. The other methods try to explain the different positions but really, there is so much going on, it's impossible to describe for one person, let alone every person. That's why some methods work for some people and not others. BE is not really an "embouchure" but a framework to allow people to find out how to make their chops work optimally. I've seen this concept in sports, but this is the first time I've seen this for brass playing or even music. 

I stopped after an hour because I don't want to get too zealous and hurt myself, but I made a lot of progress. I feel like could go all night, but I know my lips probably need a rest more than I can tell.

I believe the key to this system is to stick with it until my muscles figure it out and the mechanics get stored in muscle memory. When I got stuck, the tips in the book really helped out. I was able to get RO1, 2 and 3 down pretty good today with a strong pedal sound. RO4 is still shaky, but I will get it soon. I was able to get the RI's too, just need to work at it so I have better accuracy and sound. Some attempts were very good, so I know I am on the right track.

I had a hard time at first with the RI tone--also, I was running out of breath within seconds, so I knew I was doing something wrong since the kid on the CD was going on forever.  So I checked the tips. I was keeping my lips too far apart, due to having the mp too low (previous embouchure). Adjusted, brought my lips closer together and it worked like a charm. Since it was a smaller aperture, i didn't need as much air, so I was able to keep up with the kid. 

Also, the tonguing on the lips was very natural for me and I can see how it is a good gauge of lips position. In fact, with my new setup, tonguing on the lips is the only way I can tongue, which was unthinkable before.

Anyways, things are going well, so far. Looking forward to more. Will keep you posted.

Thanks, Bryan

Andrew Joy & Mouthpiece Independence

"One of the great beauties of BE for me is that I am now relatively mouthpiece independent. Meaning for the horn that I can instantly play on a variety of horn mouth pieces and feel fairly comfortable immediately as well as very easily switching to trumpet and or trombone. Apart from that, I now own the G above high C and everything in between. The sound in this upper register keeps filling out and improving in quality. And it just keeps on getting easier. The end is nowhere in sight. At this stage of my life and career, I find it rather fascinating and exciting."  
~Andrew Joy

BE for All High Brass

Oft times, high brass players quickly find improvements in endurance before they've even learned all the BE exercises in spite of the difference between the instruments. Alan Greene's experience quoted below is very similar to Tzippi's experience (shttp://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2014/10/tzippi-something-is-definitely-changing.html).  Responses like this are typical for BE'ers on all high brass. 

Hi  Valerie – I just wanted to relay a brief progress report.  I can get 5 of the 7 double pedals in RO#1 pretty consistently.  I occasionally get the 6^th with good tone, but not every time.  The interesting thing about this one (the 6^th, a G on cornet):  if I get it at all, it’s with a good, focused tone.  If I don’t have that, I can’t get it with poor tone.  I also try RO#2 and #3, going down as far as I can at this point (usually 5 of the 7). I am having some success with RI#1, and am sometimes starting the day with this one.  I have not yet attempted anything further on the Roll-in side. I do the “hold until empty” exercises, and am up to Advanced Lip Slurs #1 and #2 with reasonable results. The great thing (for me) at this point, is that in regular playing I notice much improved tone quality, range, and endurance.  The last (endurance) was always my downfall.  In the past I would sometimes get great compliments from accomplished musicians, such as “You played beautifully”.  I would graciously thank them while thinking, “Just don’t ask me to do it again, at least not right now”. Anyway, thanks for your encouragement. 

Regards, Alan Greene 

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An update from Alan Greene:

 Hi Valerie – I haven’t emailed in a while, and just wanted to touch base.  Hope you and yours are well. BE continues to deliver.  Interestingly enough, what has proven to be most beneficial to me is the roll-out side of the equation, and so I concentrate most of my time with the RO’s.  Also doing lip slurs and TOL, with noticeable benefit. In summary, the development is no longer by great leaps and bounds (which was the case in the early stages of my “comeback”), but rather slow and steady.And most enjoyable! Regards,Alan

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 

"Try BE first... it might be the cheaper solution to your problem."

Last week, I received a delightful email from Marina in Germany.  

Dear Valerie,

First of all my husband and I want to say "thank you".  The BE book and the French horn booklet I had ordered on march 31st arrived quite quickly. Your e-mail with some additional information for French horn players was very helpful to me, too.

BTW:

This e-mail is quite long and I´m going to refer to different topics.

It might be helpful for you to know what I´m going to write about. Otherwise you might find it somehow unstructured.
So:

1. " 3 weeks of "To BE and not to BE": what happened?"
2. "Surprise, surprise: Uwe Zaiser´s performance of the LCS on Youtube!"
3. "What I (long time ago!) learned from three different teachers:
     (Short summary: lots, nothing, nothing.)"
4. "How you (with BE) can save or (without BE) can waste a big amount of 
      money ;-)"

There we go!  

1. " 3 weeks of "To BE and not to BE": what happened?"

After 10 days:  Now both of us (my husband (trumpet) and I (French horn)) are practicing BE for about 10 days and we can sometimes give feedback to each other; that´s great.  And yes, there are already funny things happening during our every day practicing sessions and during the rehearsals.For example:  I recognized that that very little bit of "finding the double pedals" , "RO#1" and "figuring out the lip clamp squeak" is affecting my flexibility in normal playing in a positive way.  Even the sound is getting richer. I should tell you that I quite soon could hear that myself, but I refused to believe my ears.  I thought: "It´s somehow psychological... you WANT that big sound and now you started practicing BE and that´s why you´re thinking you can hear it yet. It´s like going to see the doctor and while you´re speaking to him you already feel a little bit cured." But, hey! Others can hear it, too! (So I don´t have to go and see a shrink ...)

The most funny thing is that since the sound is becoming richer, there are incredibly large amounts of water in the slides, while I´m practicing in the same room and at the same roomtemperature as before. I could almost fill my dog´s drinking bowl with it!  (By the way: my dog is a ShiTzu, not a Saint Bernard, in case you start wondering about the size of the bowl...)

So I started thinking about that. Result: there can only be two reasons for it:

Reason 1: It´s not water, it´s spit. Well, I could tell you funny stories about huge amounts of spit in the third valve Bb-horn-slide, related to being the principal during Tchaikowsky 5th... but in this case, it´s NOT spit.

Reason 2: The way my lips are moving in the mouthpiece is changing. Because of this I´m blowing more air into the horn than before. The richness of the sound and the water are due to (still small) development of the embouchure. I suppose, that´s more likely. Honestly: I can´t get through an Gallay-Etude anymore because I have to stop and empty the slides. If the producer of the slide grease I use has shares on offer, I´m going to buy all of them! (Just kidding...)

After 3 weeks: After those 10 days of practicing BE I unfortunately got a serious cold that affected my breathing in a way that I could neither speak nor play horn. (But I did the Lip Clamp once a day!)  I had to stop playing for more than a week and started again 3 days ago.  The first 2 days the BE-effect seemed to be gone, but I didn´t worry about that.

Yesterday (third day of playing after the cold) I started practicing at 6 p.m. That´s normally the time of the day we have dinner. So I told my husband he would have to wait for one more hour.  At 8 p.m. he said: "I´m really hungry..." Oooops! 2 (!) hours of playing? And I had already been playing for 1 hour that morning. 3 (!!!) hours of practicing a little bit of BE, some scales and arpeggios and 4 different Gallay-Etudes? Three days after I hadn´t played for about 9 days?  And: the sound was almost as good again as after that 10 days of BE before I got ill.  And again there´s a lot of water in the slides...

 2. "Surprise, surprise: Uwe Zaiser´s performance of the LCS on Youtube!"

There´s ´something else I wanted to tell you about:  When I tried to figure out the LCS for the first time, I didn´t really understand what Jeff meant by using the word "squeak". I was asking myself if it was something like buzzing a very high pitch. So I asked my friend "Youtube" and found a guy called "Spasstrompeter" demonstrating the LCS. With his heavy German accent he says: "No-no buzzing!" This helped me a lot! Without that little video I would have done the wrong thing without being conscious of it. (Later that week I read about the fact that some years ago he had uploaded almost all BE-exercises, but Jeff convinced him not to share all of them on YouTube, because people would imitate his embouchure. And BE is not about imitating somebody, but about figuring out what your own individual balanced embouchure is like. I think Jeff is right, but I´m also very happy that the LCS can still be found on Youtube. It´s helpful because of the  "mosquito-sound". And yes, the player´s corners are quite tightened, but it´s his individual way to do the LCS...)  

When "Spasstrompeter" appeared in front of his camera I immediatly recognized him as Uwe Zaiser.  I know him for more than 20 years, even he does not know me at all. Uwe Zaiser is not only first chair in a very good German orchestra, he has also been (and still is)  a member of the excellent German brass quintett "Rennquintett". The Rennquintett was founded in 1987 and I started taking French horn lessons in 1993, when I was thirteen. The first 2 years my teacher (and band leader) was Ralf Rudolph, tuba player of the Rennquintett.  (In my first e-mail I told you that my first teacher was a tuba player, which might be the reason that I have kind of a trumpet embouchure and that I´ve never been told anything about such strange things like "einsetzen"...He also played the trombone quite well, but couldn´t get a proper sound out of a French horn (*LOL*).)  Of course I heard Uwe perform with the Rennquintett and I still have some 20 year-old Rennquintett CD´s... (Time to get the newest ones!)  

And I think it´s funny when I as a German order the BE-method (which is quite unknown here) from someone in the United States and then find my old teachers colleague on Jeff´s official BE-teachers list and as the one who solved my LCS-problem via Youtube.

 3. "What I (long time ago!) learned from three different teachers:
     (Short summary: lots, nothing, nothing.)"

 Due to the fact that I almost didn´t play between my 20th and 30th birthday, it took me quite a long time to recognize that  I have had a good teacher (-> Uwe´s colleague). I didn´t recognize until the time when I was a "come-back"  in the Dutch orchestra I´m playing now with. More than once one of the other horn players said: "You must have had a  good teacher!" Yes, I´ve had a great teacher who was not able to play French horn at all, and I´m very, very grateful for that (*LOL*)!  After two years of teaching me he decided that I  needed someone who could teach me more specific things concerning the French horn. The next 18 months I tried two professional horn players as teachers and what I learned was: nothing.

At that time I also got some health problems and so I quit.  I gave up the idea of becoming a professional player, but I went on playing in the orchestra as long as I still went to school. When I became an university student I had to move to another town and I couldn´t find an orchestra which I could have joined.  I (almost didn´t) play anymore until I was 31 years old.

 4. "How you (with BE) can save or (without BE) can waste a big amount of money ;-)"

By the way: In the second year of my come-back-period I struggled enormously with my horn, especially with the sound. (It´s one of the very early Engelbert Schmid horns, manufactured after his plans, but not by himself. My first teacher (-> the one who played tuba) found it for me in 1995. One of his colleagues wanted to sell it.) So I took it to a professional horn player near Amsterdam (The Netherlands) for a general overhaul (...the first one after 15 years...shame on me!...) This man is also a French horn manufacturer and I told him that I was thinking about buying a new horn. When he seemed very interested in buying my instrument, I became suspicious.  So I looked up Engelbert Schmid´s price list on the internet in order to find out what my kind of horn would cost right now when it would be new. I almost lost consciousness...And I decided that I´m a lucky devil.

I also decided that it must be me who creates the bad sound, not the horn. At the same time a Dutch horn player whom I had told about my plans to buy a new instrument gave me a magazine from the Dutch horn society (Nederlands Hoornisten Genootschap).  In that magazine I found an interesting article. The title was: "There exist no bad horns, just bad ...(horn players)".  The next day I opened the website of my favourite search engine and entered (in English): "French horn embouchure".  And I found a website with a picture of a very nice looking lady and her horn ... Guess who... I started practicing more seriously, which helped a lot (*LOL*), but after 4 months I wrote you an e-mail...

So if somebody says: "I need a new horn, because mine sounds badly somehow!", you can answer: "Try BE first, because it might be the cheaper solution to your problem..."

(And OF COURSE there are bad instruments and buying a good one is not a waste of money, but it doesn´t make sense to buy an Engelbert Schmid Triple or an Alexander 103 when you cannot play properly...)  It´s unnecessary to say that not all of my dreams concerning my horn sound and flexibility have come true yet.

Kind regards from Germany, Marina

BE- It's Not Just for High Notes!

Val,

On Tues my BE arrived and I immediately began Roll Out 1. Did LCS, some Roll In, got acquainted, so to speak.

Late Thurs I got an emergency call from a a local Maestro that the 2nd horn had torn a retina, could I sit in on 2nd for the Fri and Sat shows? No rehearsal, no music, sight read the concerts. I am a high horn guy, I play a Bb/Eb horn, I can count on my thumbs the times I have ever played 2nd, I have no idea what a ledger below the staff is. So, naturally. I said "Sure".

In the Faure Pavane the 2nd blasts out A,G F whole notes, (below middle C), ff with accents, my worst notes and range. Long story short. The notes roared out. (I reminded myself to pull my corners in and roll out). Then the same A, breath attacked at piano with a steady cres to forte in the Bruch violin concerto. Same result.

The encore piece was Gliere Russian Sailor's Dance, which I played 1st on to spell the Principal. Decided to take the F# after the non-stop D's the end. Roared.

Nobody is more amazed than me.

Michael Langiewicz

Questions from a BEginner

Q: Should I wait to move on to Roll out 2 until I can play every note in Roll out 1??? If I EVER hit the low C it will be something I have NEVER been able to do....

A: No. I always say do what you CAN do, keep trying to do what you CAN'T, and MOVE ON. Over time you will be able to do every note of every exercise. In the mean time, there's no need to hold yourself back unless you're trashing your chops overdoing things. But, you'll have to be the judge of how much is too much.

Q: Can I do the Roll ins and LCS with less air pocket? I find I can get more clamp and squeak by keeping the air pockets to a minimum...

A: Yes, you can. That's how I did them for two years and I progressed very nicely. But . . . I encourage you to continually strive to play RI's with one or more air pockets (in upper lip and/or lower lip and/or cheeks). If you never learn how to do the air pockets, you'll still play well and progress quite nicely, but you'll miss some additional benefits that can only come from playing RI with air pockets. The benefit of playing RI with air pockets brings a whole new shape & feel to your lips that are so "inside the mouthpiece" I can't even explain them. It's kinda like religion, it's one of those things that simply must be experienced to understand. HAH! Do it as often as you like. You will have to be the judge to determine how much is too much. I had an interesting experience with LCS when I first came back to horn. I had been playing for only a few months when I joined a community band. There was a younger man, Andy, sitting beside me who came back to horn about the same time I had. I was practicing 3 hours a day; Andy only practiced 30 to 45 minutes a day. I was killing myself to play a fourth line D; Andy was playing above the staff with ease. It was baffling to me. I chalked it up to his youth and strength. A few months later I found BE and read about LCS. I went to band rehearsal and demonstrated LCS to him. When he saw it he said, "Oh yeah, I do that all the time!" "Why?" I asked. He explained that he does LCS, not as an embouchure exercise, but for fun when he plays silly games with his 2 year old son. He also explained that he had been doing LCS since his childhood because that 's how little boys make "naughty noises" to embarrass their mothers, teachers and the girls! I carefully watched Andy play his horn, and observed that he bunched his chin upwards as he pushed his lips together to play. When it came to embouchure & the high range, Andy was just a "natural." Well, guess what? My practice habits and BE paid me big dividens. A few months later, I had all the range I needed and then some.. as if I were a "natural." This was one of several experiences in my early days of studying BE that served to convince me that Jeff Smiley knew what he was talking about. Jonathan, I can tell by your questions that you are going to progress very nicely with BE! You're grasping the concepts very well. I may want to use these questions either on my blog or a "BE for French Horn" email. Would that be okay with you?  Valerie

Pole Vaulting

An unsolicited email from a happy BE'er.

Hi Valerie,
I have meant to let you know for a while how much I am enjoying the BE for French horn.  I originally thought of it mostly for extending my upper range but I have been surprised at how much it has extended my lower range and made it more rich and stable.

I first started using BE when the last summer Olympics was on.  As I was watching pole vaulting, it occurred to me that the way I had been attempting to play higher notes was a lot like someone like me trying to clear 17’ by blindly running at the bar with no idea of the mechanics involved.  Years ago, when I had the privilege of taking lessons from Kathleen Farner she would tell me to just relax when I was having trouble reaching a high note.  At the time it seemed impossible.  Now I am realizing that it actually works because BE gives me the ability to actually think about how to make my embouchure work for the note I am trying to make.  This also works psychologically because, as Kathleen also pointed out, half the battle was not panicking when the dreaded notes were approaching.

Now that my embouchure is improving its time to fix the growing problem with my left hand.  To that end I would like to order one of your comfy straps before my left pinky falls off.   -- Stephen Klassen

Julia Rose: Still Benefitting from BE

Julia Rose began writing about The Balanced Embouchure in 2009 and wrote extensively about "BE" before retiring her blog in 2012.  I hadn't hear from Julia for some time so I asked how she's doing in an email.  This is her reply:  

Hi Valerie,
Very well, thank you- thanks for asking!  I've been enjoying my internet anonymity- I am so short on time that I don't have time for all that anymore.  I'm still doing BE (specifically RI and RO 1-4) as part of my daily routine.  I feel that I'm playing better than I ever have right now.  I do take time off from the horn from time to time, and when I do feel the slightest out of shape, BE whips me right back into shape very quickly.

That's one of the benefits professional horn players seem to report and enjoy the most, the ability to take time off without losing much in terms of conditioning.  BE just keeps on giving year after year.  

Thanks for allowing me to share this, Julia.  :)

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

Interview with Sam Minnich

Sam Minnich playing Bach Cantata 79 "Gott der Herr ist Sonn und Schild" mvt 1
Go, Sam!

Valerie:  Tell us a little about your music background, Sam.

Sam:  I grew up in a very musical house. My father is a huge fan of classical music, and has an enormous self-recorded collection of radio broadcast live performances. I grew up listening to the sounds of the great symphony orchestras, primarily the Boston Symphony Orchestra. My mother is a fan of folk and blues music, and taught me to play guitar at the age of 6. At age 10 I started playing the horn, after a brief unsuccessful attempt at piano lessons. A couple of years later I started playing trumpet in the school jazz band. I picked up the harmonica somewhere in my teenage years as well, starting with blues, and recently branching out into jazz. After high school I went on to study horn at the Boston conservatory, and later at New England Conservatory with Gus Sebring, associate principle horn of the Boston Symphony. I played with a lot of the second tier orchestras in the New England area before moving to Germany, where I currently live. I've built a new career consisting of a good balance of performance and teaching over the past years. The fact that I've always had diversity in my musical life has been of great benefit to me.

Valerie:  What prompted you to investigate The Balanced Embouchure?

Sam:  In October of 2012 I played one of the most physically taxing pieces of my career, Bach Cantata no. 79. The piece has over 20 high D's in it, and the 3rd movement is 62 bars of stratospheric Bach madness! Having barely scraped by in the red zone in the concert had already made me start thinking about ways to make my playing more efficient. A couple weeks later I met Andrew Joy, due to some questions I had about the Joy Key (which by the way is a brilliant invention!). We hit it off instantly, and spent the next several hours exchanging ideas and experimenting with different concepts. That day he showed me several books for horn I had never seen. One of those books was The Balanced Embouchure.  I ordered it the next day.

Valerie:  Andrew is one of BE's greatest ambassadors! What were your initial impressions after reading the book?

Sam:  After reading through the book, I thought there were a lot of things in it that were very unconventional. A lot of things made sense, and I agreed with Jeff Smiley on his assessment of many aspects of playing. I tend to be very open for new ideas anyway, so it was a nice breath of fresh air for my approach to horn. One of the main things that stuck out to me was his insistence that the Balanced Embouchure method is not an embouchure change, but a system designed to develop efficiency with your already existing embouchure. I was lucky that one of my teachers early on helped me to find an embouchure that worked for me, and I haven't had to go through the horror of a major embouchure change like so many of my colleagues. Embouchure is also something that is always developing, and to be honest, I have no idea how my embouchure will look in 10 years. BE seems to be guiding me in my lifelong quest for the ultimate in efficiency, absolutely effortless playing which enables me to directly transfer my exact musical intent. It's an   unacheivable ideal, but that's what we're all striving for, isn't it?

Valerie:  What improvements have you noticed as a result of studying BE for the past year?

Sam:  Definitely more ease and endurance when playing. I had a few heavy multiple rehearsal days a couple of months into studying BE, and was really surprised how little lasting fatigue I experienced. At the end of the day, I felt almost as fresh as at the beginning. I feel like my playing is also gaining consistency due to BE. I don't have quite as much variation from day to day as before, and I know how it's going to feel and sound when I pick up the horn. It's like flipping a switch, and it's there. Warming up is becoming less and less necessary. My high register is stretching itself out as well. E above high C is a really solid note now. F is getting there. I can feel the potential to take it much higher. I can actually get squeaks up into the double C range. They're not yet so controllable, and the strength of sound isn't yet there, but it's something that was unthinkable for me before BE. Another thing I've noticed is how quickly I recover my conditioning when taking extended time away from the horn. I recently took 16 days off from playing while on vacation, only using the Warburton P.E.T.E. training device once daily and doing the occasional lip clamp squeak during that time. I came back feeling stronger than when I left! It only took me about a day or 2 to find my accuracy, but I was really shocked by how quickly everything was there again. BE just makes it all focus.

Valerie:  Wonderful, Sam! How do you feel about introducing BE to your students and other horn players?

Sam: I've been using bits and pieces with a lot of my students, getting them to practice the RO pedals, and RI high notes. I've introduced a couple of my more advanced students to the whole system, and it's had a big influence on their playing. I've also found that introducing young beginner students to RI as a means of playing high notes makes it a lot easier for many of them to play high. Some of my 8 year old students can already hit a top staff F. I think that learning these concepts at an early age will help them greatly in the future. It gets me excited to think about a new generation of students who know from the start how to get their embouchures balanced. I'm not sure how many other BE teachers use elements of it on beginner students.

I'm a little bit careful when mentioning BE to my colleagues. It's important to read the signals someone is sending to see if they are receptive to such unconventional ideas. I have a few fellow horn players that have responded with interest, and I've been very open with them about my progress due to BE. It's definitely a long term goal of mine to spread the word about BE in my circles. A lot of my colleagues also do a lot of teaching, and I think BE could be a great help for them, seeing as how they don't have large amounts of time to devote to daily practice. The efficiency of practice time that BE offers is really one of it's greatest values.

Valerie:  Thank you, Sam, for your splendid example.

BE Help for Full Lips

The following is a fun little email exchange I had with a "cute chemistry teacher."

Hi Valerie,  It's Ron Drucker in Berkeley--I'm doing basic BE several times a week and really finding results in tone, endurance, so I can't thank you enough.
We're going to Turkey for 3 weeks, and I'm thinking of packing a mouthpiece to keep on buzzing. Do BE exercises work without the rest of the horn?
Thanks, Ronald Drucker

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

RON! I'm so happy to hear from you. YES! I know quite a few horn players who report good results from buzzing BE exercises on their mouthpieces.  One horn player, Lou Denaro, in New York buzzes BE exercises on his mouthpiece while he's walking to his office.  

  
I'd love to put your spontaneous little testimony above on my blog.  May I? Also, if you have a picture of yourself to share, that would be great, too.
Thanks for contacting me.
Valerie

---------------
Sure, happy to share. I haven't got a picture handy, sadly, nor means to get one without great fumbling. But you can assure them I'm really cute for a chemistry teacher.
(part of my cuteness may have to do with the full-style lip shape that Jeff id's in his trumpet students as making it hard to sustain tension; at any rate, it's been hard to extend my range upward, but BE really seems to be helping)
Thanks for your support!
Ron

-----------------
When I asked Lou Denaro if he still buzzes on his way to work, he shared a few details:  

• Absolutely and I still scare people when doing so. At work they google my name, find your blog and ask "what's BE?" and I tell them "remember those noises I made behind you in the corridor out of Grand Central and you hastened away to avoid further harassment until you found the guts to turn around and face off your tormentor only to find out it was me? That's "BE." 

I'm Back and Feeling Grateful!

Six years studying The Balanced Embouchure.  It just keeps giving me more & more.  The progress never stops unless I stop.  I'm not the greatest horn player in the world, of course.   I'm just a little old lady, come back horn playing grandma with a chronic neurological disease, who plays in community ensembles and gets the occasional paid gig.  But, there are so many things I can do now that I wouldn't have been able to had it not been for BE.  I'm thankful.

Once again, BE has come to the rescue.  I injured my upper lip in an accident December 2nd, driving my front tooth clear through the center of the under side of my upper lip.  Five days later a little blob of dead flesh sloughed off leaving a small hole, then a scar right where the aperture forms.  (It reminded me of the injury Adrew Joy described that prompted him to find help, and eventually BE.) http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/08/joy-continues-on-balanced-embouchure_07.html  After taking few weeks off, I found myself with severely limited range and endurance, not to mention horrid tone.  It was definitely a déjà vu experience.  My embouchure function was eerily similar to what it had been 7 years ago before I started studying BE! 


I thought it would be a quick fix, but progress was slow because my lips would swell at the slightest provocation severely limiting practice time.  It took a full four months before I had recovered the range & endurance I had before the accident.  Thanks to BE, I'm back & enjoying playing again.  

Three cheers for Jeff Smiley!     

Alex Shuhan: One Year on BE

Alex Shuhan recently posted this on FaceBook:  

Continuing now for slightly longer than one year, to encounter more and more significant change and greater understanding of how to play this instrument…and I can unequivocally say that it is ONLY because of having discovered and experimented with Balanced Embouchure concepts. If you want to learn and are willing to invest some thoughtful energy, you CAN and WILL make similar inroads. 

At no point along the way have I "lost" anything I could do before, experienced any "setbacks," nor been negatively impacted in any way. On the contrary, I have been challenged to address and answer new questions, with a COMPLETELY different perspective that has dramatically improved my playing, at least in my humble opinion. I have flexibility that I couldn't fathom before, range that I've never experienced... before, and, in particular, a smoothness in my playing that I didn't even know was previously lacking. And even though there are concepts in this book that appear to some to be in contradiction with other, more "mainstream" ideas about playing, I maintain that the information in Smiley's book COMBINED with the experience of actually living through the learning process that he prescribes, actually does more to help one UNDERSTAND those "mainstream" concepts than to contradict them. My ideas about endurance, strength, range (high and low), volume and articulation have been completely stood on end—and the future looks and sounds MUCH better from this new vantage point! 

Thank you to my former student, Dana Arbaugh, for introducing the BE book to me, to ValerieWells for all that you've done to further my enlightenment, and to AndrewJoy for his encouragement and support along the way. Onward! 

I've made some enormous stride forward this weekend—been doing more playing lately and then had a great combination of rehearsals and gigs this weekend that have just completely changed everything. Much less tension, outrageously more vibration and ease of production with my upper lip, complementary support from the lower lip making flexibility MUCH better, and the best part has been endurance based clearly on relaxation rather than "firmness" or any other terms that I've previously associated with strength. Amazing!

Bert Lochs commented:  

• Bert Lochs Apart from the things that changed in my playing, the understanding of why all the things I tried before didn't work was very enlightening to say the least. I said it on the Trumpet Herald a few times, and I repeat it here. BE made me experiment proof. And it is important to be able to experiment to find your way. You can try all kinds of things, and even go very wrong, but BE is so simple and clear that it is very easy to track back where you left off. Since BE I never got into big trouble again and my playing is so much easier and more consistent than before. And yes, of course, there is still so much to work on, I am happy to say :-).
  
  
  

  • Alex added:  I have no documented proof of this claim, but I believe that many players, who accidentally stumble into the correct set-up and begin playing without the issues that many of the rest of us face, are already experiencing mechanics similar to those suggested by Smiley, but they may not use vocabulary similarly to describe it. For those successful players, all the power to them! But for struggling, aspiring players, in my humble opinion, Smiley's approach offers a real, simple option for opening the door to informed awareness, and by that I mean an awareness based on experiences that work cumulatively, progressively, patiently, over time. In the last week, something has changed dramatically in the way my Embouchure is able to receive and support the air I supply to it...and it happened as if out of nowhere! BUT, I KNOW and can feel that it has just now finally learned a new way of vibrating after a YEAR of gentle coaxing and coercion. And the BEST part is that I UNDERSTAND what is happening, what has changed and how/why it is working effectively. I'm hoping to be able to use language to describe it, BUT, even if I can't, I do know that I have BE to thank for opening that door to possibility. I'm also reminded that Arnold Jacobs admonished that if you introduce a change to your mechanics, it could take 12-18 months before you could expect to experience the fruits of that effort. In the case of BE, I feel like it's a continuous process, so I'm not surprised to have had some revelation now, but it also feels like it won't be unreasonable to assume that the learning will continue. I remember Andrew Joy told me that after his intro to BE, he has felt like his playing has been on a continuous positive, improving trajectory...and this from someone who's had a principal horn career in a major orchestra for 30+ years! That, in fact, was the thing that convinced me it was worth experimenting with BE. Incredibly glad I did! Cheers!

Four Months into BE

A lot of people ask how long before they see improvements from BE.  Here's an good example from someone who began studying The Balanced Embouchure in September 2012.  I received this in an email today:  

Valerie, I'm extremely pleased with the strap and the BE method. I have a larger upper lip and has taken some time developing the new technique particularly the roll in but my range and endurance is so much better and appears to do nothing but improve every time I practice.Thanks!

Dannie Smith,PT,ECS

I'm grateful for the feedback, Dannie!

The strap Dannie is referring to above is the Comfy Horn strap.  See this link: http://comfyhornstrap.blogspot.com/