Transcript Summary
Claude Gorte, Claude's probably the most incredible, phenomenal teacher active today.
He has helped more of us who had more problems on playing trumpet than the man in the moon probably.
I know he helped this one at least figure out how to play a little bit.
Incredible teacher. Seems like every year he comes out with a number of other books to help us play.
Systematic Approach, Daily Routines, coming out on bass clef now also, right? Daily Routines?
They are on bass clef.
Okay, both bass clef.
Tonal Electro-Sizes, Velocity Studies, a fantastic elementary book.
He's a phenomenal, phenomenal player.
I can remember times and lessons when I would bug him about playing things for me and probably putting my horn away usually.
Is that a hand I should stop?
But I'm Reduce Claude, and I can tell you if you haven't been here before, you're in for unquestionably one of the most fantastic weeks you've ever had in your whole playing career.
I've been at every one of these, and I still go home just higher than a kite wanting to practice the trumpet 24 hours a day.
Mr. Claude Gorte, how are you?
Thank you, Dave.
You know, it really makes me feel good when I see every year the number of repeats of the students that come every year.
And that shows a tremendous desire to be a great player.
And some come from a long ways every year.
Let me just mention some that are here from a very long distance.
Of course, our Japanese friends, they're here every year from Japan.
All the Japanese people stand here.
And that shows a tremendous desire to become successful.
Mashashi is going to be the number one in Japan, I'm sure.
And right now, I just got a letter from the Japanese Brass Magazine.
And in there they have page after page about Mashashi.
And I also have a letter from the editor of that magazine telling me how much that he is respected in Japan and how people are noticing his method of practicing.
So we're very proud of those from Japan.
Also, we have Jean Pierre and his wife Monique that have come all the way from France.
Jean, would you stand up?
Where are you?
And we have two this time from Canada.
Vince and Dave, would you stand up?
So every year these people come back and they bring somebody with them, which is marvelous to see.
One of the reasons that we're so fortunate is because of our marvelous staff.
It's a very unique camp.
And all our teachers teach in harmony, no hodgepodge of ideas.
It's all the same.
Oh, in other words, I forgot another one here from a long ways is Bob Horish.
Do you remember him from last year?
He was here all the way from Florida.
Stand up.
Since Bob left here, he's done all the high parts and the first trumpet work at Disneyland in Florida.
He's working all the time.
He's worked up to position.
He's the only one that can play the part, so he's pretty well assured of that job as long as he wants it.
So we're real proud of you, Bob.
You remember Bob last year was the one that had the nerve to come up in the studio session and sat there and played Larry Seuss' part.
Those that were here remember that.
And he did a darn good job and nailed the G on the end of it, too.
It was great.
And our staff, I think you've met, but I'm going to ask them to.
One of the ones, the first idea that I should have at Blast Camp was Carl Leach.
He's been there.
Carl, stand up.
And another good trumpet player right with him is his wife, Karen.
We finally talked Carl into getting out of San Francisco and going out where he could keep getting ahead.
He went into Las Vegas.
He wasn't there, but what, two weeks, Carl?
He went in the first trumpet.
Huh?
Yeah, but you went in what?
You went in and went right on to the job.
And he didn't even have his time out when the union okayed him to go in.
And he played how long at the Dunes?
Eight months.
Eight months.
And that was the roughest blowing job in town.
Since then, he's been first trumpet without split lead.
He's doing it all at the Flamingo.
Now how long have you been there now, Bob?
Dave Evans is the next one who's been with us from the very start.
Phenomenal player and especially he does all the smaller instruments too.
And you remember from last year, but all you new ones are going to really enjoy his lectures on literature and symphonic work.
That isn't all he does.
He does everything else too.
One of the foremost players around the Los Angeles area, Dave.
Dave Bendekite who just actually, let's see, Carl's been nine years.
I forget now how many years Dave's been, quite a few.
And Dave Bendekite, how long did you study before you went out?
I would have to say six years.
Yeah.
And he just got back off the road with the Miller Band.
And he decided to leave the band and stay in town.
And I guess he's working as much as he can handle here now.
So that's Carl Bendekite and Evans.
Who have I left out on the teachers?
That's the teachers.
Now our counselors are all students.
So this is a marvelous situation.
Very fine player.
Was out with the Miller Band a couple of years ago and he came back to stay in town.
Kent Macasa.
Tom Broseen isn't back yet.
He'll be in late tonight.
He's just flying back from Europe where he's been playing over there.
So he'll be in tonight.
So every one of these boys have been successful.
Now what was that?
Who was that?
That sounded like he was Carl or Dave.
Now then, besides that, we have the counselors, Mike and Fred Eckert.
Who are you, Mike?
You hear this?
Beautiful guys, good players.
And Billy Catalato will be along later.
He's working this afternoon.
He'll be in later this evening.
And also there's one more counselor.
Who was that?
Who?
Is that all of them?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Here he is right here.
Tim Larkin.
Tim Larkin was here last year as counselor.
So we have a marvelous staff to work with.
Oh, yes.
Over here on the side.
Reese Henson.
I forgot about him.
Sorry.
Reese was hiding behind Tracy.
Tracy, we're glad to see you too.
Okay.
Now I want to introduce someone, as you all know, that I'm with the Selmer Corporation now,
which is Selmer Bach.
And the Selmer representative is here tonight.
This is an old friend of mine.
We worked together for another company for many years.
We had lots of fun.
He flies, also.
And he also has a natural lip.
He plays trombone.
Now come on up so they can all see you.
And his wife is with him.
Jerry Kinney from the Selmer Corporation.
He'll be here all week.
So I think I have everybody, right?
Yeah.
Now I'm very happy also to see so many new ones this year.
In fact, we have more new ones this year than in any one year, except, of course, the first year of that thing.
And this certainly spells out a plus for the camp.
What?
I'm missing.
You got to speak up.
Oh, well, my gosh.
He's sitting right in front of me.
This we are very fortunate to have, Larry.
Here's one of the leading coronary surgeons in the world.
And with my problem recently, he's followed it every day, even though he wasn't in town.
He had the surgeons in tow.
And you're going to learn a lot from Larry this year.
Dr. Larry Miller.
Larry, stand up.
And Richard Avery is an excellent trumpet player.
And anybody that comes around and says, well, I can't do this and I can't find time to practice, that goes on a deaf ear with me.
You know what time a surgeon is up in the morning in the operating room?
What time, Larry?
Seven.
Seven o'clock in the operating room.
And you know how his hours go all day.
He's the one that cuts you down the middle, takes your heart out, works on it, sews it back up.
That's the kind of a day he spends.
Then he has two or three board meetings on the finance companies, all the doctors do.
Then he has to do his own research.
When he gets home, you know what he does?
He doesn't sit there and spread out in a chair and drink beer.
He's downstairs practicing for several hours every day.
When I first saw Larry, I was like, three camps back, wasn't I?
He had the worst embouchure you ever want to see.
Clear over here and down here.
I told him we're going to have to change it.
He changed it.
And you know that this year he did a performance with one of the orchestras.
And he did the Bunny Bear Hymns, I Can't Get Started.
And I think that's pretty good in three years on the launch of change.
So that shows you what you can do.
So that gets down in, folks, to the purpose of this camp.
The purpose of this camp is to remove the mystery that hangs around brass plate.
Always this great mystique that you might find the way to play.
And that only a few can do that.
And that you have to have a certain gifted talent.
We want to clear that up while you're here this week.
Let you know that you can play if you want to.
When I say trumpet, I'm speaking to the trombones, to the French horns,
to the tubas, or whatever brass, because all brass is the same.
Even though they're going to tell you that some brass,
like lower brass, should have their mouthpiece in a position,
French horns should have it high, and many will tell you that trumpets should be low,
they're all cup mouthpiece instruments.
They play exactly with the same basic rules.
All this embouchure business is, to put it very bluntly, garbage.
It's all the same, no matter what you're playing in a brass instrument.
So our purpose is to help each and every one of you become a better player.
It's not for our purpose.
Like what was the guy said? He said this is a non-profit organization.
It wasn't meant to be, but it is.
And that's it. We're not out here to further ourselves.
We're out to help every one of you become a better player,
to make your work easier, and to make it a pleasure.
And believe me, when you play a brass instrument like it should be played, it's a pleasure.
In fact, it's no harder than deep breathing.
And I'm going to stress that all week.
And I think Bob Horace can testify to a lot of that.
The first year of Bob's study, he came out for a crash course.
The second year, he called me and said, can I start all over again?
He said, I haven't really been doing what you told me to.
He started all over again, and it really came off well for him.
I'm very proud of him.
Our purpose isn't to run down anyone.
Some people seem to think that.
That's not our purpose.
Good players don't ever run anyone down.
But we are going to expose every fallacy that you've been taught.
Now, there's going to be some that when they leave the camp,
they'll go just exactly the way they always did, and it's not going to do them any good.
But there's going to be others, like Shashi, Bob Horace, and many of the others,
I won't try and name everyone, that did exactly like they were told, and it's worked.
So that's the idea of the whole camp, is to help you.
To help the teachers understand the basic elements.
Because many teachers are sincere, but what are you going to teach?
What you've been taught.
So it's not our purpose to interfere.
I don't care what a teacher wants to teach.
Now, incidentally, we have some excellent teachers here.
And I'd like to introduce them while we're here.
Bob, where are you?
Stand up, Bob.
Bob is one of the better teachers around, and this is his second camp.
And then we have Marvin over here.
Marvin Nelson, that's it.
Marvin, stand up.
Marvin is one of the most respected teachers in the whole entire San Francisco area.
And a great place.
Marvin, really happy to see you here.
Now, it's going to be these teachers that really set the pace for everybody to get to the camp.
And that's why it's so important for teachers to understand what we're teaching,
rather than you hear what somebody's saying.
And this is very prominent sometimes.
Now, while I'm on that subject, I want to tell you that everyone,
everyone that plays great does it exactly the same way,
without exception, whether they know it or not,
because there is only one way to make a brass instrument work.
There's not a half a dozen like others would like to have you believe.
There's one way.
And when you do that and learn the one way, you will find out if you stay with it,
like a lot of students, they come in, they expect you to tell them something,
and tomorrow they'll play better.
It doesn't work that way.
You learn how to play correctly, and then you go practice until it works.
Anything you do in your life, you have to work on it until you can do it.
It does not come automatically.
Now, you've heard a lot about playing correctly, haven't you?
Let me see your hands.
How many have been told somewhere during their life that they must learn to play correct?
How many of you?
I'll bet everyone without exception.
Now, how many of you have been told what it means to play correctly?
Not my students.
I don't see a hand, and that's the problem.
You know, brass players have got to learn one thing, and that's to reason.
There's a statement in the Bible that is so well to remember for brass players.
It says, use the reasoning of a sound mind, not emotion.
Brass players live a lot by emotion.
They hear a theory, that sounds good, I've got to try that.
And if you really analyze it, it's nothing.
It's empty.
Now, there's a lot of reasons for this.
When you think you have learned everything there is, now you're going to stop learning.
I'm 66 years old, and I learned from everything that happens in my life.
Everything.
I learned a lot about trumpet playing when I learned to fly an airplane.
And now I'm up to 2,000 hours upon a time, and I'm still learning a lot about trumpet playing from that airplane,
because it entails the forces, the natural forces that makes things work.
Recently, which is old hat now, everybody knows about it, I had a heart problem and had heart surgery.
You know, I learned an awful lot about trumpet playing from that heart surgery.
And I've been playing all my life.
Let's stop for a minute and just think of the human system and what a machine it is.
We have a heart.
Do you know that that heart actually is two pumps?
And Larry, if I say anything wrong medically, you'll regret it.
The heart is not one pump alone, it's two pumps.
Do you know how many miles of blood it pumps every day?
About 75,000 miles.
That little thing about as big as your fist, one of the strongest, if not the strongest muscle in the body.
75,000 miles.
That's three times around the Earth.
To me, I can't even conceive that pumping that much.
And yet you never even know it.
It works by what?
The laws that it was designed to work for.
Now then, along with that, that's called the cardiovascular system, right?
Now then you have the pulmonary system.
Another marvelous system of breathing.
It's not put there to put food in, it's put there to put air in.
That has to work 100% perfect with the cardiovascular system or something will go wrong with the machine.
Besides that, you have a digestive system.
That also brings things into the body that make it work.
That has to work in conjunction with the cardiovascular system and with the pulmonary system.
And if anything goes wrong, the machine doesn't work.
Along with that, you have one of the most marvelous of all, is the nerve system.
Which I believe entails, what, something like a million miles of wire nerves?
Not wire, but the nerves.
Just think of that.
A million miles in your body.
Now that has to work absolute perfection with the cardiovascular system and with the lung system.
If anything goes wrong, things are out of cover.
Now besides that, you have a brain.
Besides that, you have a mind.
Now all of these things fit.
Now why do they fit?
Because they were designed to work that way.
They fit like this, and when they're like that, that machine works perfectly.
You're never sick, you feel good, you have lots of strength.
Now how does that work with trumpet playing?
Because to play correctly, which we were talking about,
you have to play with the laws that were designed to make things work.
Whether you're flying an airplane, whether it's your body, whatever it is,
it works according to the design that was made.
When you get away from that design, you're going to have problems.
And that's why so many brass players have problems.
They're not using the forces that we call natural forces to make that machine work.
And think about that.
Use the reasoning of a sound mind.
And when you do, you come up with a lot of things.
All the scientists make remarks like an incredible design machine.
Well, if it's incredibly designed, then it had to have a designer.
And you'll find that design in all of nature, every bit of it.
No matter what it is, those same laws apply.
And that's why I can say without any hesitation, all great players do it the same way.
Because the laws of nature apply, and there's only one way.
There's not two or three.
So that's another thing that we're here for.
Is to get these laws that make the horn work cleared up for you.
To remove the mystery, the mystique that has been handed down, handed down, and is so confusing.
That's why there is so much mass confusion today about playing a brass instrument.
Like an article read that trumpet playing, this was in a national magazine.
It said trumpet seems to be an instrument designed for sheer torture.
Well, when you watch a great artist like, well, let's take, there's very few virtuosos.
But take like Maurice André, or Dachschützer, or Sevensson.
Does it look like they're in torture when they play?
It looks like it's effortless.
All right, now why is it effortless for them, and some of the myriads of other players,
thousands that own instruments, they get to a high C and their eyeballs are out here.
Now why is it they struggle, struggle, struggle, and these virtuosos, it looks effortless.
There's got to be a reason.
You've got exactly the same thing to work with that they have.
You've got a pair of lungs, you've got lips, you've got teeth, you've got a tongue, you've got arms.
What's so different?
What they can do, you can do.
Now it's very true, some of them, I won't mention names, don't know why they play so well.
And if it came to teaching it, they might have quite a try.
But nevertheless, what they're doing is exactly the same.
So there are actually, as far as brass playing, seven of those items that have to be developed
according to the natural laws.
And then that machine is going to work in harmony and just be so easy and scary.
The trouble is that most young players will not stay with it until these things develop, like they buy a book.
They play out of the book.
I'm not saying practicing, but they play out of it for maybe a week.
Now I'll put that down and try something else.
That's not going to develop.
If you run an activity to play, or any activity to develop, does any of it ever develop in a week?
Of course not.
So why is it any different with brass playing?
You have to stay with it, each one of those items, until they work correctly by habit.
Now when you talk about what correct is, it's amazing.
Because in Ernest Williams' great book, he calls it Ernest Williams' Modern Method,
Ernest Williams was one of the fine players back.
He was a Clark student, which everyone was that played well at that time.
He turned out a list of players that long.
Among them, like Don Jacoby, who we've heard of, Louie Davidson, who was at Indianapolis University,
they were all Ernest Williams students, and then some of them took from Clark, too.
In his book, In One Place, which you can check on, he said,
most players feel that it's harder to play high notes than it is lower notes.
He said, this is not exactly true.
If you are tuned in with the natural forces of nature, one note is virtually no harder than another.
Now many players have told you all this, but again, trumpet players don't reason, and they don't take a book.
Now when I say trumpet, I'm applying to all of it, because trumpet exercises apply to all the brass instruments.
I use them for everybody.
But they don't get the sense of it.
And that's what I'm going to try and point out this week, that you get the sense of what you're trying to do.
Herbert Clark, who has technical studies with them?
Have you got it with you now? Does anybody?
We'll check it out tomorrow.
In Clark's technical studies, lesson nine, study number nine,
does anyone here, my students too, can they tell me what it says there?
Oh boy, some of my students are going to think.
No, I don't blame them. But you know what it says?
It says, it has chromatic scales, starting low F sharp to F sharp, it goes up by half steps until it gets to G.
On G, it goes four octaves to high G and back down again, and it says to be done four times in one breath.
Then he says, no strain is necessary if played properly.
What did he mean? Someone tell me. What did he mean?
Not one of my students. Don't be afraid of being wrong, you're going to be wrong anyway.
So tell me what he said, or what he meant, when he said, no strain is necessary if played properly.
Anyone, take a chance. What do you think he would mean by that?
Take a chance.
Right. So, yeah, you couldn't, no you wouldn't, it's there, but no one would know how can that be?
And you'd be amazed to theories you're hearing. Someone would say, wait, you get those lips tight and you play real soft in a whisper?
Could you get in an orchestra and play that phrase and play it in a whisper? Four times in one breath?
What he means is, if you are playing properly and using the forces that nature has provided, it will be effortless.
The only trouble is it doesn't tell you how that is in the book. So that's what we're going to try to correct.
Now, a lot of this depends on where your desires are, how much you want to work.
None of these great players got there by just picking up the horn of words. They worked at it every day.
I went 30 years and never missed a day's practice. My wife will attest to that.
She's paid her dues, but anyway.
So, but actually, if you would love to play like you profess to do, then that practice will be enjoyable.
Dave, do you ever miss a day's practice? Carl, do you ever miss a day's practice?
Do you know that Severance's practice is what, six hours a day? Right now.
And he said he's afraid not to, and I know exactly how he feels. That's what it takes to be a great player.
Now, it depends on if you want to be a great player. That's the key to it. And then it gets to be fun.
Now, I'm going into a lot of other things during the week, but right now, I want to get into some of these myriads of theories that we want to clear up.
For example, there's a theory to hold your horn a certain way.
We have, I know I'll get sidetracked just a minute because I know you're all waiting to see the new drumming.
And that's out there. Jerry will have some at the camp. They'll be here tomorrow. We'll go over to try them out.
I just want to show you what they look like.
It's a very slick, professional-looking horn. There's no garbage, nothing on it to destroy the beautiful lines of a professional player's trumpet.
It's lighter than the old CG, and that's what he likes.
It's got a sound. We're going to have it demonstrated for him any time. Larry, I'll let you hold it.
Where's my track shoes?
But now, many of you are going to be able to hear it. I'll get it back to you.
Many of you have heard the story, hold your horn this way, hold it this way, or some other way.
You may go upstream or go downstream. You've heard all these things.
Then you've heard the idea that only the player with the natural lip can play it.
Believe me, none of those are true.
Anyone, tell me, have you ever seen an unnatural lip?
I never have. I don't know what in the world an unnatural lip would look like.
We've all got natural lips.
Everyone that's here, every one of the instructors can tell you stories about those things.
Then you have the stories about, oh, you don't dare change that embouchure because you do, that's death.
That's not true. Larry will testify to that and many others.
I change about four or five embouchures a year with great success.
Later on during the week, I'll tell you more stories of how that lip thing got started.
Then you've heard those that they say, well, your aperture is too wide or your aperture is too close.
How in the world could you measure it and know it?
Always again, theory.
Now theory is good, but it's not proven.
It's somebody's idea.
Somebody will say the book says so.
Remember, the book is one man's idea.
So when you say the book and take it for truth, you had better understand who wrote it, what he was writing about,
how much he knew, and what he really meant. That's important.
Now one of the best ones you'll ever hear is they'll say, oh, he's got thick lips, he can't play.
You'll never play high notes.
Then they'll say, he's got real thin lips, you'll be a good high note player.
The size of the lips has nothing to do with playing the trumpet or any brass instrument.
Absolutely nothing.
Now then you have those that say the teeth.
There's a teacher in the Midwest that has all of his students go to a doctor.
I just ran into this when I was back at the Selmer faculty this year.
And one of the guys says, yeah, he's getting good results.
Well, what's he doing?
He's going to all the students go to a dentist and have their front teeth separated a little bit.
That has nothing to do with playing the brass instrument.
But trumpet players, again, they're not using the reasoning of a sound mind.
This sounds, oh, boy, that's a way I can do it tomorrow.
So they go spend a couple thousand dollars and they won't help, believe me.
They'll say, oh, yeah, I'm playing better because they want it to work, but they'll never play.
But the lip gets the credit and the lip gets the playing for everything.
If a player plays really good, what do they generally say?
He's got a good lip.
If he's playing really poorly, what do they say?
He's got a bad lip.
What if he plays great and he's got a natural lip?
All these things are talk.
Now then, as a result, we've got many, many systems.
This is confusing, too, because there's only one way in the play, regardless of what you say.
Only one way.
That's the correct way, which actually we're not just going to say it.
We're going to tell you what's correct this week.
Make notes.
Use your tape machines.
I don't care.
I'm not afraid of someone else learning.
That's what we're here for.
I've gone to clinics where you leave your tape machine and you can't use it.
Again, that big mystique.
I've seen teachers who said they swear their students to secrecy.
That's terrible.
Once you learn it, that's yours, isn't it?
Now then, we've got buzz systems.
I'm going to tell you right now.
Buzzing your lips is meaningless.
Buzzing your mouthpiece is more meaningless.
You can buzz your mouthpiece all day long, and you're never going to be a better player.
Now, I'm not saying you can't go...
when you're walking in and have to play right away and don't have no time for anything.
That's not going to hurt you.
But buzzing that mouthpiece as a practice is a waste of time.
Now we've got gadgets out on buzzing the mouthpiece.
They've gone up here.
Now, here's one gadget.
We're going to leave names out of this.
But this was shown at the IDG in very prominently.
And guys are up there buying it like crazy because they're not thinking.
It sounded like, oh man, here's the guy.
Switch bags.
You know how to use that thing?
No, man.
I use it all the time.
This is supposed to make you a great player.
Now the amazing thing about it,
the guy that designed it never played a professional job in his life.
How does this work?
Seriously, how does this work?
It's already broken.
Did you break this?
Not me.
It won't fit on a pot.
Which one?
Trust me.
This one could have been.
All right, now.
I know a lot of guys that study with people that have never played a brass instrument.
Kink.
Now.
Oh, no, hang on.
I have a fellow.
Carl would attest to this, but I'm not going to mention names.
Carl brought him over to Vegas.
He's been a fine player for many years.
And he started slipping.
There's a good reason for it.
Very obvious.
I've seen this again and again.
There's always a cure.
He went to a teacher to try and get straightened out.
This teacher never played a trumpet in his life.
Now here is a fine trumpet player and he's having problems.
And he goes to a guy that never played a trumpet to help him out.
Now that doesn't make sense.
I'm just trying to tell you the pitfalls to think.
Use your head.
Huh?
Yeah, it's supposed to slide in now.
Yeah, okay.
You'll pull it out.
Now here's what you do.
So there's instructions there.
That should fit back in.
Now the instructions.
This cost you 30 bucks for this thing.
40.
It won't fit a Bach trumpet.
It's 40 now.
The idea is to buzz.
Now you buzz as loud as you can.
And while you're buzzing, turn this on.
Now while you're buzzing, bring it in until it hits the horn.
And keep buzzing as loud as you can.
Are you ready for this?
No.
This is not mine by the way.
I feel better now.
Pull it out now.
Do it again.
Pull it out.
Are you kidding me?
Go on.
Now you're supposed to do that for half an hour.
Now will someone tell me what that's going to do with your trumpet?
There's a line here, huh?
Sit down.
Now these are the things that have been taught.
Right now we have what they call a pivot system,
which has some basis of merit.
But you're not going to learn to play that way.
Because you're not going to tell that horn which way to move.
Your mouth might.
It is not.
Now this is where the teacher gives you a preset idea
of where that horn should move.
When he measures everything here.
And then he says, well now you could pull the pivot this way
or you should pivot that way.
That will get you so confused you will never know where you are.
All right.
Now then we have high note systems.
Low note systems.
One teacher advertises now not double high C anymore.
He calls it a triple high C armature clinic.
Because that's more impressive to the players than double high C.
Whether you can play a high C or a middle C or not
has no difference at all.
All these constraints are on is that triple high C.
Now there's a new method out called double high C in 10 minutes.
And I thought it was a gag, but this guy's for real.
$15 for the book.
And I'm not going to tell you what he's doing because I don't want you to try.
It's one of the most destructive things that can happen.
I tried it when I was a kid.
There's nothing I haven't tried when I was a kid.
Nothing.
But I tried every wrong way that was ever devised and my wife will tell you.
And I played pretty poorly during that time.
Very, very frustrated.
Not discouraged, but frustrated.
Now you hear a lot about open your throat and close your throat.
And Dr. Miller will bring up some good things on this this week.
But let's try something.
Everybody in here, open your throat.
You can't do it.
Try to close it.
You can't do that either.
Yet you go pay a teacher and he tells you that.
And you pay him the money before I learn something today.
Go try and do it.
And you hear, keep the corner straight.
Put your jaw out.
I'd like to see anybody play that way.
But they try it.
Everybody tries it.
And then they get so adamant that they won't change.
And someone tells them the right way to play and they'll argue about it.
Fine, let them argue.
If you know, don't give them advice because that just aids your competition later on.
They don't want to learn.
That's their business.
Now because of all this, you find students hanging their horns on the strings.
That's because they call it no pressure system.
There is no such thing as no pressure.
I would like to see the trumpet player play the virtuoso.
The things he has to play with no pressure.
It can't be done.
The first thing that Herbert Clark told me when I started to study with him,
there's no such thing as no pressure.
Someone asked Severance a while back, well, what about no pressure?
He said, well, I don't really think about it.
He said if I drop dead when I was playing one of these endings,
they'd have to bury the mouthpiece with me because they wouldn't get it out of my mouth.
Now that doesn't mean that there's such a method as pressure either.
The amount of pressure will take care of itself if you develop, again, correctly.
Okay?
Now then, the next thing, they wear pills to sit them up.
They put weights on their mouthpiece.
Now they have what they call the pencil method.
But nobody plays a pencil.
They're playing a trumpet.
You know what the pencil method is?
You put it in here and squeeze it all day, you know.
And I saw a book from an army.
It's very sad.
These things go on and on.
Now the pressure, you've heard this, I'm sure, guys hang their horns on strings.
Now the guys have been here before and all about this, but the new guys don't.
They hang their horn on a string and then they try to play that way with their hands behind their back.
And what happens?
They go for the horn and it keeps pushing away.
Now look out, because if you want to stop, you let go, that horn's going to come back.
They could knock a tooth off.
Now they put it in their hands like this, try to play like this.
Did you ever see a player play a job that way?
So what are you practicing the way you're not going to play for?
One guy figured it out.
He said it's in the angle.
He tied a string on the belt buckle to the water key and then he adjusted it so the student could only play at the angle, he said.
Now I went into a school in LA and I think this is terrible.
An educational institution of higher learning.
And here were the trumpets, about six of them, standing along the wall with broom handles.
And they're pushing against the wall like this.
I asked the guy, one of the guys said, what are you doing?
He says, working on the diaphragm.
You know something else I want to tell you?
There is no such thing as diaphragmatic breathing.
If there ever was a fallacy, that's it.
I don't know where it started.
It's even taught in the medical service.
It's taught in the speech classes.
Everything is diaphragmatic breathing.
And I heard one excuse for it.
They said, watch a baby when it's born.
All right, they lay him on its back.
You see its stomach going up and down.
If I lie on my back and put my chest up, that stomach will go up and down too.
So the baby isn't breathing wrong.
He's breathing right, but they are defining it wrong.
There is no such thing as diaphragm breathing.
Now let's take a look at that.
And that's what I'm going to go into tonight just for a little bit.
And we'll continue tomorrow.
Now, in that system again of the way we were designed, what was designed for air?
Somebody tell me.
The lungs.
What was designed for food?
All right, then why would you breathe from the stomach when it's designed for food?
You don't put food in your lungs when you stop and say, again, reason.
Now, when you take a breath, let me show you what happens.
Just turn your hands out, relaxed, just as an example.
Now, when you take a breath, you can try it.
You can stand up.
Let's try it.
Now, remember, be absolutely relaxed with yourself and think when you do it and watch what's happening naturally.
Turn the palms forward.
Now, as you take your breath, fill up, not over full, comfortable.
As you fill up, pull your arms back like this.
Okay, let's try it.
Now, relax.
Now, take a breath.
Where did the air go?
Right there.
Not here.
That's the way you take a breath.
You fill the lungs, not the stomach.
Okay, understand?
Everybody understand?
Now, we're going into that heavenly all week.
Now, I had a guy come in from New York.
I want to take a few lessons this week.
Now, he walked into the studio like this.
I'm not exaggerating a bit.
This is the way he came into the studio.
And I said, okay, take a big breath.
Boy, this guy's got arms like this.
I wouldn't want him to get in any confrontation.
So I said, take a breath.
He goes, shh.
And I said, come on, take a breath.
Fill your lungs.
He said, I'm taking a breath.
Let's see you do it again.
I said, who taught you to breathe like that?
I've always been taught to breathe in the stomach.
Do you know that all week long, every day,
I worked and worked and I could not get him to breathe like this.
Did you ever see a football player run with a ball?
Is he running like this?
Is he thinking about pushing his stomach out?
He's breathing just like you should on a long distance runner.
How many of you run?
All right, when you run, do you push your stomach out
or do you breathe?
If you push your stomach out, you wouldn't run very far.
When you stop and think, it's so silly.
Take a breath.
I want to see that chest.
Gee, that feels good.
Since I had the operation, I feel better breathing.
I wasn't breathing that just very much.
But that's the way you do.
Your chest is up.
Now, we're going to get into that more.
Now, here's the first exercise.
This is what you're going to do tomorrow.
You take a breath.
You don't have to put your arms back when you're practicing.
That's just to get that feel.
Like that.
Fold.
Comfortably fold.
Not over fold.
Then you'd be like this.
You couldn't play if you had to.
Comfortably fold.
Expansion will take care of itself with practice.
All right?
Boy, that feels good, especially when it's up there.
Now, this is your supply.
This is your gas tank.
This is where your fuel is stored.
This is also your support.
If that's down, you're going nowhere.
For example, suppose you're playing something at site on a big broadcast.
Coast to coast.
Live.
No tape.
Live.
And you're playing along and you're sitting like this with your chest out, your legs crossed,
like some guys do, especially.
I see this a lot in high school bands.
Right, Mark?
Sit back there with your legs crossed.
You're down.
And you're playing on a big broadcast.
It's important.
You turn that page and there's a high F staring in the face.
You're not going to make it.
That chest should always be up.
That's part of this natural way of playing.
The whole diaphragm thing has become so out of proportion and it's so wrong.
This is the air.
This is your support.
This is where you store your fuel.
Now, when your car runs out of gas, does the gas tank fold up and collapse?
Of course not.
This is your gas tank.
So when you've used up the fuel, it doesn't collapse.
Now watch.
You're full.
Comfortable.
You let the air out.
Still there.
Take a breath.
Out.
Still there.
Forget about what any of this looks like.
If you keep your chest up, you cannot breathe wrong.
That's the way you're built.
Why?
All right.
Now, if you were going to push air with the diaphragm, in order to push air, that diaphragm would have to move, wouldn't it?
In other words, to make air move, there's got to be a pressure source.
The diaphragm, if you want to blow with it, it would have to move up, right?
How's it going to get past the heart, which is right here?
Another thing, let me see anyone stand up and move your diaphragm.
It's impossible.
We tried it.
Larry's going to discuss that very thoroughly this week.
The diaphragm is called in most institutions an involuntary muscle.
You know what that means?
It means you can't control it.
If you can't control it, then how could you develop it to blow with?
Secondly, how are you going to get it up past the heart, where it would have to go if you were going to squeeze that much?
Now, do you know how it actually works?
Your lungs are a set of bellows.
Do you know what a bellows are?
You ever see an accordion player?
It squeezes the bellows.
That pushes the air through the reeds.
A blacksmith, they used to make their fires go with the bellows and take their head handles on it.
They go, shh, shh, shh, and it would force air.
Your lungs are a set of bellows.
They work exactly the same way.
Your chest is up and you blow.
Now they go, shh, like this.
They squeeze.
You breathe, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, like that.
That means these muscles all around here and these muscles get very strong.
And you see a good breeder, if he took his shirt off, boy, you'd see these muscles just ripple when he pushes.
That's the only way you can push air.
Now, if you're sitting like this,
it's not gonna work very good.
But it's still the only way you can push.
So you're not getting any air.
Most players minimize this.
They don't put it in its proper place.
That is number one, it importance.
The force of air that makes the machine work.
That is why a great virtuoso.
Looks like he's playing easy.
The air is doing the work.
Always remember that phrase, let the air do the work.
Now, your first exercise,
which they're gonna work with you tomorrow outside,
is to take 10 breaths.
You get that position like that, like this.
Shoulders back like in the army years ago,
and then get those shoulders back.
That's good posture.
And that opens the whole lung cavity.
Now, when that's that way,
now, you keep that chest up and let the air out.
Now, if you do that, those muscles are pushing like this.
You don't have to think about it.
In fact, you couldn't make yourself push like that.
Impossible.
But if your chest is up, it'll work.
If your chest is up, you cannot breathe wrong.
So now, you take 10 breaths without that chest dropping.
Now, that's six times, that chest hasn't moved yet.
That's all you think about, keep the chest up.
Now, you do that every day at least five times a day.
10 breaths each time.
Now, if you do it 100 times a day, that's all the better.
As long as you don't hurt yourself.
Then we're gonna get out and walk,
and we'll talk about that later.
Now, as you develop this in about 10 months,
you're gonna start walking like this all the time.
It feels good.
Really feels excellent.
And you can't, you won't drop your chest
because it feels better to keep your chest up.
You'll do it automatically.
But if you do it once a week, it's not gonna work.
And it's gonna take about 10 months before it
to really start, well, you'll notice something in two weeks.
In about 10 months or so, you're gonna feel like,
ah, I'm just sitting on power.
And now, you know when we used to play the shows
like Carl's playing now in Vegas?
We didn't do one a day.
We did one show, then we played a 20 minute dance set,
then we played another show.
Two and a half hours each.
Then we played a half hour dance set before we finished.
You know where I used to rate at night when I'd go home?
Most players say, oh, you're a licker.
No way.
Right through here.
The air was doing that pumping.
Let the air do the work.
Now, what you're gonna do after that,
we'll get into tomorrow in a little bit.
Because our time is gonna run short now.
Now, so most of that is the number one part of playing.
Win, power.
That's number one.
That's the main thing to think about
until it becomes natural.
You'd be amazed how many players,
especially you that are going back to a foreign country,
remember the importance of that
because that's the main thing.
Now, when I say win, power,
it's not how loud you play,
it's how you use the force that makes the instrument work.
Read players are gonna tell you push out your stomach.
Remember what I told you.
Violin players are gonna say push out your stomach.
Why?
Because they're not brass players.
And they've heard somewhere along the line
that that's the way it's done.
How can it be otherwise?
Like Larry will tell you,
even the medical circles talk that way.
I had more fun in the hospital.
I had more fun with the, what do you call that girl?
The inhalation therapist.
He went down there.
Now, I've got a pain here.
I'm actually on my way to die.
In other words, like the doctor said,
I just missed it by two hours.
So I'm down there getting ready to go into the surgery
and I'd already had the angiogram.
That's interesting.
You talk about this design.
Did any of you ever have an angiogram?
Yeah, I know he did.
I'll tell you, an angiogram is interesting.
They don't put you out.
You lay there and watch it.
And I thought, boy, I'm not gonna watch that dumb thing.
They make an incision here in the groin
and then they run a tube about the size
of a lead out of a pencil.
And they run up, there's a main artery,
it goes like that, and they run up that main artery.
So I'm laying there, you know, not feeling good anyway.
And they turn in the table and they're watching.
I can hear one guy over here.
Oh, they got dials all over the place,
you know, on television sets.
I hear a guy, 21, 32, 64, and then the doctor's over here.
21, yeah, they're going back and forth.
I don't know what they're doing.
Finally, I sneak a look, and I can see this thing
going up there, too, inside your body.