Posted by Sean Chisham on October 19, 1999 at 06:23:47:
In Reply to: 6/4 sound on a 4/4 posted by John Hreha on October 18, 1999 at 16:45:00:
"cutting through*" has much more to do with sound quality than it does with air volume. you can blow your brains out and never sustain a sound which will sound more than a mf in a hall. two of the best example of this I heard was with a lesson I had with Michael Sanders of the St. Louis Symphony. I had my lesson during the day and he worked a great deal on breathing and even more on sound concepts. I had heard most of the concepts before, but he and the entire brass section of the St Louis Symphony brought it home with their performance than night of Alpine Symphony by Strauss.
The entire wind/brass section played with such ease and richness of sound and musical idea that any one of them could jump ahead of the overall texture at the appropriate times.
Play with an easy, reverberant, intune sound. With some practice, especially in front of a tape recorder, you will probably become more efficient with air to the point of actually projecting better and making longer phrases at the same time.
relax.
sean