Posted by Roger Lewis on July 17, 2002 at 07:02:00:
In Reply to: Throat pain? posted by Heather McDown on July 16, 2002 at 19:34:24:
I've seen this syndrome a lot in my students when they first come to me after being started by a non-brass playing band director. What happens in their cases is that they are not using the tongue to start the notes (though the tongue is going through the motions) but they are actually starting the air toward the lip by opening and closing their throats. In essence they are "coughing" to start the air. What you need to do is an in depth analysis of what the throat is doing when you begin a note.
Begin by playing one note using only a breath attack, that is, by exhaling and stopping the exhalation. Keep the tongue out of the way and keep the throat open. It will sound ugly at first but you will get better at it and it is a valuable tool that you can use later on as well. Now go back to doing it the way you were before and see if you can feel what the throat is doing. If the air is not being stored directly behind the tongue (and you should be able to feel the slight pressure of the air against the tongue) repeat the air attack exercise. Once you have isolated the feeling that you need as far as freedom of air from the lungs to the lips, begin to use a very soft legato tongue to maintain that feeling of the air coming to the lips unobstructed. Work on this with great concentration for about 10 minutes a day for a month. You will find from time-to-time that you are doing it more and more unconsciously as the month goes on.
This takes a lot of self-awareness and focus. Often when I am working on some problem I will spend some time in a dark room where you have no distractions and then you can begin to visualize what is going on inside your throat and mouth to see where the obstructions are occurring. Once you identify a problem area it is much easier to focus specific exercises for overcoming it.
If you need more info, please feel free to drop me a line.
Hang in there.
Roger