Posted by Anthony on May 08, 2001 at 16:58:36:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Contra-Octave in band playing posted by Greg Crider on May 06, 2001 at 19:42:04:
Having first learned how to do it without the "embouchure shift", I still prefer the sound WITH the embouchure shift... though I do agree that there is a high potential for it to be sloppy(ie high school kids blatting out pedal tones)... I am VERY picky about embouchure and sound, with both myself and my students, and this is one of the issues I've spent hours upon hours listening to recordings of myself doing it different ways... speaking for myself, the embouchure shift is the definite way to go, but only if you understand why, and KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Gene Pokorny knows what he's doing, and can have complete control of his sound... Johnny All-State might not. All but one of my teachers used the "shift"... I tell my students not to use the shift until they've mastered it without the shift(shortcuts are bad!).
fwiw