Re: Re: Re: Re: Twitching, note accuracy


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Posted by Kenneth Sloan on May 21, 2003 at 11:01:10:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Twitching, note accuracy posted by Andy on May 16, 2003 at 12:35:15:

A few comments on "what to do".

"You don't conciously control the vibration of the lips..."

Well, that depends on your level of expertise. The more expertly you play, the *less* you should think about it - but less accomplished players need to think about *some* things in order to get close enough for trial and error to work. Directed drill is important for 3rd graders learning long division - and beginners with little sense of gross problems with their lips. Once you have done the drills and eliminated the gross problems, it is true that you need to stop analyzing and "just play". But not before!

"buzzing"

In my (totally unqualified) opinion, buzzing is a great way to fine tune a sense of pitch and a great way to fine tune lips that are already "close enough for jazz" - but not the right way to solve physical problems. It's also a good way to diagnose problems (student buzzes, instructor watches). I think it's a waste of time for a student to put in a long time buzzing without a strong idea of what he's trying to achieve (and constant feedback). When a student has a problem with note production, I think that's the time to *stop* buzzing - and don't start again until the problem is diagnosed and fixed!

"playing tunes"

Absolutely! The key here is separation of skills. When working on tone production and other low level skills, you don't need to be worried about pre-hearing the notes or figuring out the phrasing. Playing familiar tunes eliminates these concerns. It also makes evalution of the results easier (you can't to "trial and error" unless you can easily identify the errors!).

Another aspect of "playing tunes" is developing the ability to play "by ear" - playing what's in your head instead of what's written on the page. But, that's a different reason to play tunes.

"middle register"

Absolutely! Every player (that's *every* player) has to do something strange to play those notes just beyond their easy range (it's just that some players' "easy range" is 6 octaves, and other players' "easy range" is 4 notes). If the notes show up in performance, then you do what you have to do to make them speak - but the goal should always be to play every note with the same technique. Again, it's easier to do "trial and error" if you have a fighting chance of playing the note correctly - if all of your efforts come out forced and strained, you have no chance of training your lips to get it right.

The saying in education is "In order to learn something, the student must already (almost) know it."

In a normal practice day, you should probalby play TWICE AS MANY notes in the middle octave as you play in either the octave above that or the octave below that. Playing notes that are too high (or too low) for you is a lot like playing passages which are too fast for you - you end up practicing to fail. Everyone knows that the way to play FAST is to practice SLOW - the same it true of pitch: the way to play HIGH (LOW) is to practice in the middle range.

And when you practice in the middle range, be brutal in your assessment of how well you are doing. If you can't play the notes at the bottom of the staff *perfectly* (depending on your notion of "perfect"), then it does no good at all to squeak out scales in 3 octaves.

Use a mirror and find out what your range is *with no exterenally visible change* in your face. Play *lots* in that range - and work outwards sparingly in the extremes where you have to do something else. The key is to do a lot of work with excellent technique along with a bit of stretching to explore the dangerous territory.


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