Megan Grady

Brass Facts

April 5

Breathing:

Breathing consists of two actions, inhalation and exhalation. The students when they are

young beginners do not need to know the complexities or the make-up of the muscles that they

use to breathe; it is better if they think of it as a natural act which it is, but we are changing the

pacing of it. We are taking in a lot of air quickly and releasing the same amount slowly kind of

like a sigh or a gasp, the only issue with saying gasp is that it could cause some students to

tense up and not use their lungs quite in the same way as they should, but a sigh being relaxing

is a good analogy to use. When starting older students it would be more appropriate to talk

about the muscles and how it is that we breathe but for beginning students we need them to get

the processes of breathing not the mechanisms it uses.

Embouchure:

The embouchure has to go hand in hand with the tongue and breathing because they all

work together to make a good tone and a good pitch. Embouchure should be taught by itself at

first but when you start moving air through the horn you need to talk about what happens to the

embouchure; a student could have a fine shape until the air pressure starts going through it and

they are just spitting into the horn without concern of how. The same could be said for teaching

breathing without incorporating some amount of resistance into the process; it simply wouldn’t

create the habits it needs to.

Articulations:

Many students will stick to one syllable to articulate which makes all of the accents,

staccatos and other variations all sound the same; another issue with the syllables is that they
could be using a modified syllable which would make it easier to get a sound but would not

produce a good sound out of the instrument. Some of the time the tongue muscle is too involved

and the students have developed a habit for so long that it’s more complicated to fix than just

saying use a softer tongue because they were never taught that. The students should be

learning a variety of syllables and consonants used to start a note even exercises and warm ups

should vary the usage of the tongue so that they can change it when necessary. Many times the

students are using articulations too soon on the instrument and need to first practice just on the

mouthpiece or they need to feel it without the instrument at all; they could practice just saying

the consonant and controlling their air to feel the difference in their mouths because that’s not

something we are always aware of when we are simply talking. Then adding the mouthpiece

followed by the instrument could be beneficial.

Tone Quality:

The students should be exposed to a variety of tone qualities but they should all be

deemed acceptable by the teacher so that the students are not receiving mixed messages at

what their goal is. The teacher should play recordings and model as well as give advice and

exercises on how the students should improve their tone quality, stressing that it does take time

and it will not happen overnight for anyone. Having students hear the difference between

brighter and darker tones is very important because they need to be able to distinguish and

eventually decide which type is best for which kind of piece and where the middle ground is that

they will be playing at the majority of the time. Once the teacher has provided enough examples

they need to have the students make the calls of what recordings are good tone and which are

bad tones because they need to think for themselves and know how to form the opinion of tone.

Balance and Musicianship:

 Students when they are first starting out do not have a good sense of what an ensemble

or playing in an ensemble is like; they do not know to bring out the melody line or to be quieter

when they have whole notes that support the lines above. In order to have good balance, the

teacher needs to insist on this kind of musicianship learning; when these concepts are

introduced then they are becoming better listeners to the ensemble and it could be as simple as

a two line piece in a method book that when they have the B line they need to be softer but

when they switch lines they can bring out their part. Playing examples of musical exercises

would also be helpful even if it means the teacher has to record ten exercises musically and not

musically and ask the students the difference; again, they need to be taught how to tell the

difference between musical and solely the notes on a page which can be gauged by the

question: which one was more interesting? Musicianship is a part of technical playing; even

when doing warm ups the teacher should incorporate some sort of musical element beyond the

notes or articulations into the exercise. A lot of times students will separate the two and will

never play an etude with musicality but if you start from a young age that etudes and exercises

do not have to be and shouldn’t be boring then the students will have an easier time transfering

the technique into musical repertoire as well as not struggle so much in combining the two

concepts.

Vocal Techniques:

Vocal exercises of breathing could be helpful for brass players but many of those do not

take into consideration the difference in resistance applied during exhalation. The singer has the

points of resistance inside the mouth and the throat but it does not have a outer piece of

resistance against their lips. The exercises vocalists use could be applied to brass playing but

do need to be modified to consider the additional resistance.

 The techniques of singing to improve musicality, phrasing, and intonation are just as

useful as they are to any other instrumentalists. It is just as helpful for a brass player to sing

through difficult passages and sing through whole tones so that they develop the endurance to

keep the pitch steady rather than wavering because of lack of breath support. It is more helpful

for brass players to sing and match pitch perhaps more than other instrumentalists because

they are affecting the pitch and the partials so much more with the embouchure than woodwind

players do and certainly string players.

Dynamics and vibrato:

When teaching dynamics to beginners as you would teach every other concept boil it

down to the basic creation of dynamics which comes down to air velocity. Students should

practice blowing faster and slower air on the same pitch to determine how to keep the pitch

steady and also how to create different volumes. When students have developed more on their

instruments, have stronger breath support, and can better control the velocity of their air they

can work on more subtle dynamic changes and gradually changing dynamics rather than subito

changes. Long tone exercises are very good for dynamic changes and should be done on

various notes in the students range so that they are not restricted by notes that are too high or

too low.

Developing control of vibrato is crucial for any musician because it is an expressive

feature of playing that should be regulated to serve the piece and the character. The

development should be watched and explained carefully by the teacher because it can produce

poor technique that we do not want to persist. Students should be aware of the various ways to

produce vibrato but in a mixed class the teacher should pick one universal way to produce it on

the instruments and then students who seem more interested and willing to work at it should be
given more instruction on specific horn, or trombone, or trumpet ways to produce vibrato like

slide vibrato or hand vibrato within the bell of the horn.

New Ideas:

The embouchure, articulation, and dynamics sections were the most new material I read

because many ways to develop musicianship, tone quality, and balance are very similar to

strings; each take time and need to be developed along with the students technical skills. The

articulations section was particularly interesting because it does come with much more

controlled motion than one may think. On woodwind instruments where the mouthpiece is

actually in the mouth it is easier to differ the syllables and still get a good tone and pitch in the

instrument; but with brass players it all has to translate to outside of the mouth but cannot affect

the pitch or tone. I have a hard time articulating short notes because I firstly don’t move my

tongue fast enough but I also use too much of my tongue rather than using short small motions.

I am more used to playing quarter notes or eighth notes at a slow tempo rather than eighths at

120 bpm.

Dynamics are something I cannot wrap my head around on brass instruments because

everything is affected by your air stream; how can you keep the pitch the same if you increase

the speed for dynamics but also to produce a higher pitch. Obviously the two are separate but I

have not practiced the skills enough to separate them