Claude Gordon Brass Camp 1987 - Claude Gordon on Wind Control and Fingers with Rich Hofmann

I'm not used to these guys that sit down. You ever notice in bands that when the soloist comes out, the soloist comes out and he sits on a stool like this.
I don't know whether they're getting more tired or lazy or what. It seems out of place.
Okay, I know this last act is watching different ones play. Now, actually we're here to testify on all these seven items.
Now, if we don't listen to it, if we don't digest it, we're not doing anything good.
And I know several of the players last night are playing and absolutely their chest down.
Some of them are playing like this with their stomach out.
So you should start ingraining these things right now because if you don't, they're not going to get any better.
They're not going to work unless you use them.
So we've had so far what? We've had wind power, right?
Does everyone want to understand how that works now and what to do about it?
Number two, the tone. There's really no detail on that.
But if you don't forget about it, then you don't have to listen to it. You've got to do something about it.
And remember, it's not going to start working for the night.
It's going to be many months to get that tone working naturally as it should.
Then when you started, did you tone it correctly or did you tone it?
How long did it take you to get the tone right?
About five months.
So it takes time. Everyone would tell you the same.
If you try it and it doesn't work, then you don't describe it.
You stay with it. It'll work.
By now we had wind power, tone level.
Now the third natural item is wind control.
Now this, we have to tie this in the fingers too because the best way to work on wind control is in the flight sense.
Now to play softly, you have to have just as much wind power as to play loudly.
That's why it's dangerous when you're teaching someone and they're taking a lesson and the teacher says,
Oh, that's soft. Soft.
Well, then the student is not being developed.
Knowing how to use his wind, he quits bowling.
You don't play softly by stopping the bowl.
When you're ever going to practice a soft exercise, you get that chest up.
You'll be more conscious of it even when you're playing loudly.
The chest must be up all the time.
Now if it works, that would be one exercise in the head.
You know about that?
Now notice that it's a chromatic in F sharp to C.
Look.
Now first thing, notice that there's a little hairpin underneath there.
But you get a little stronger as you go up.
That's because remember we said yesterday, the day before, the air does the work.
On the airplane when it's up, we're going to give it more power and more play.
So it's the same with the brass instrument.
With a slight nudge of air as you go up.
Now the first time you start doing these, you're not going to play them really soft.
First of all, you have to get the fingers worked out.
And most young players play terrible on chromatics.
They're all mixed up and stumble.
You have to go through it and get the notes worked out, the fingers, and all this.
Now you'll go through the whole book that way.
Then when you come back, the second time, now the first time it'll take you eight months to get through that book.
You spend the month on each step.
The reason for that, we're going to do the models on it.
You start out tunneling, with the correct way of tunneling.
So you go...
That time, you do an adjustments riffle.
Once and a repeat.
Next week, you do it with the K tongue.
This is where you start calling the early name of the book.
And you think the same solos.
And the tongue is always in that same position.
Lightly against the lower teeth, not anchored.
And also, the tip, remember, is near the top.
Alright, the third week, double tongue.
The fourth week, slurred.
That takes one month to get through that study.
Now that includes the A2.
However, you're going the first time through the book.
You're not going to try it in one breath.
You may have to take several breaths in the A2.
You play lightly on the lower note.
Now, I'm not going to use the word soft.
But you play lightly on the lower note.
It saves what you need for the upper note.
But you're not worried about playing softly the first time through the book.
The second time, this way.
Doesn't matter at all, you do it slowly.
Speed comes later.
In fact, you can't get any speed at first.
Because your fingers won't be ready for it.
Only your air or anything else.
You just get your notes worked out.
But you get the accuracy.
That's the first thing.
Accuracy.
After that, then the speed comes.
You won't even have to work for it.
Speed comes easy.
After you get the accuracy.
But if you don't have the accuracy, it never will work.
Okay?
If you don't get to the high C,
if you don't get to the high C, then stop as far as you go.
Go as far as you can, that's all.
But if you're not getting to the high C,
all the force in the world will lay out.
Until that tunnel gets to the point where it can channel the pitch.
Then it gets very easy.
Now in that, you go through the whole book that way.
Now you've got it down pretty well.
You've got the fingers, your fingers are working.
You know what you're doing.
Now you're stuck all over.
Study number one.
And I'm going to incorporate the fingers in this same discussion.
So we're really having a really good control and the fingers at the same time.
Tom, you got a one here or whatever?
Yeah.
That's all ready.
I'm getting out of the habit of cleaning the hole.
That gets to be a habit.
A habit.
You're getting a habit off of these.
A bad habit is just as easy to develop as a good habit.
Sometimes easier.
And now I'm getting a habit of not cleaning the hole.
What about working it with medicine on it?
At first, I would not.
Because you're going to stumble.
And it's awful hard to train the metronome.
It just stumbles.
It won't turn into a good one.
It will just thank you all the time.
But after, you can do it.
Now the second time through, yes, the metronome is one of the best devices you can use.
So we start that out.
It's that one.
Oh, you better have that.
Oh, and now notice also what Clark says at the top.
Now the old edition is right.
The new, great edition, all the text is wrong.
We had a lovely reviser get a hold of it and put in his ideas.
And it isn't what Clark meant at all.
Notice what it says about the, let me have the, that's the new edition.
Let me have the old edition.
Now notice what Clark says here.
Contract the lips slightly in ascending.
Relax in descending.
Now for a minute I'll explain that.
Notice the new edition.
Some guys put in there.
Tighten the lips slightly in ascending.
Loosen them in descending.
It doesn't mean the same thing at all.
And it is slightly, in other words, there's a movement of hold, and that's all it is.
So ignore that at first.
And all the way through that new edition, all the text is wrong.
It's changed, things like that, all of it.
Like I think I mentioned one Monday, a similar one where I was talking on the ninth study.
That's the one where we do full breaths from low G to high G and back down again.
I mean one breath, four times.
The original book says, no strain is necessary if played properly.
Notice what this guy says.
Just about the same answer that most people give you if you ask them what it means.
You will not need to strain on the high notes if you keep your lips flexible and avoid playing too loud.
It doesn't mean the same thing at all.
In fact, that's what he did not mean.
Now this is what revisers do to books when they get a hold of it.
They just destroy it.
Okay, so in this red book, hopefully they're going to put it back because Carl Fischer's got a lot of static on that.
So hopefully they'll put it back to the old text.
It's right in there.
It's right in the tarmac.
It's been just for the last year that that book has come out.
Why did they do that? Why?
I can't answer. There was nothing wrong with it.
In fact, in that book, there was I think one mistake that you couldn't even tell what it was unless someone pointed it out.
In this book, it's loaded with mistakes.
The print is terrible.
So this is what revisers do.
So you cannot always believe the text that you read.
It's just like I'll get into another thing in a bit.
What happened in the Saint-Jacques book.
Did they take out Carl's text altogether?
Yeah, just change it around.
Put in what he meant.
Don't let these people in.
Mostly they're business people.
They think they're going to dress this up and put it to three languages all along text.
So hopefully it'll be changed.
I can't go into too many questions because I won't get on with the subject.
So hold your questions and be sure to ask me later.
Alright, now the second time through the book.
Now we start planning it for repetitions.
Now you should have a little accuracy down with your fingers.
So you strike.
And work to get it four repeats in one breath.
Now as soon as you get it four repeats in one breath, now you work, maybe add two more.
We'll go for six.
Then go for eight.
Now when I did it, when I was studying with Clark, I had to go 16 times in one breath.
That's 16 repeats.
And that developed it.
In fact, he wouldn't let me off of it.
Developed it until I could do that all the way up to the top end.
Very lightly and softly.
16 times in one breath.
Now you don't do that when you first try it.
Work it up gradually.
Now 16 is a good accomplishment.
If it actually made a lot, I could do it up to 20.
Maybe more.
I'm going to have Rich Hoffman come on.
Is that the word?
Now Rich, last year, did this for us.
Rich had a funeral every day, so he doesn't have to talk what he did last year.
Last year he did it, how many times was it, Rich?
52.
52 times in one breath.
Now that's an accomplishment.
He's the only one I've heard do that.
So you just, yeah, over 20 is a great accomplishment too.
So do just what you feel comfortable.
Now notice the first thing, he's not playing loud.
You're not going to get wind control if you're going to blast.
But you don't hold back either.
He plays lightly.
Try to get out of the habit of using that word, soft.
There's a whole different thing.
Some people don't know what a word connotation would do.
Light, easily.
But notice the first thing, that chest must be up.
You cannot play lightly with control if that chest is down or you're standing like this.
It's impossible.
Let's start.
Big breath, the chest up, and then lightly.
Always strong enough to get a good sound.
Right?
Right.
Well, that's what I'm telling you.
Right.
Now, 34.
That's it.
Now, all of you guys have a lot to do.
If you think it's easy to play an alloture, you put up the steps.
You don't put up a hole to try and play that.
You want to breath, but you won't.
Because that's the physical.
All right.
Now then, the thing is you do each one like that.
Take the horn off to 300.
You do each one up as far as you can go.
Then when you get to the etude, now you do it in one breath.
Start, chest must be up.
You start lightly.
Then as you go up, use it when you need it.
Then when you come down, you save it.
Tom, how many times did you have that one breath for me?
What?
First etude?
How much you did it?
Four.
Four, how much you did it?
Five.
Yeah.
That's it.
So, varying degrees of different guys.
Now, if you work, you get it once through.
Then you work for two.
You work for three.
You work for four.
And finally, you'll get it down to five.
And again, the chest must stay up.
That's your control factor.
And you'll find that once the chest is down, you don't have any more control.
Now, to end up, every etude in the book will end up the strongest note.
Now, to play in one breath doesn't mean that you're starting to force.
Force, force, force.
That's not playing.
When you play something in one breath, you end up like this.
Then you're doing it in one breath.
Now, first of all, you go through, you breathe naturally.
You have to breathe more often.
Heart has marks in it for the breathing.
But finally, you eliminate those breath marks and you play the whole thing in one breath.
Okay.
Breath control is very important.
And it's going to make you go and work on breath control all your life.
Okay.
Now then, the next thing would be the lips.
I want to tell you one thing I want you to remember.
Forget your lip.
If you leave the lip alone, it will take care of itself.
Just like when it says in Clark's, I'll get back to that now, it says contract the lip going up.
Relax going down.
Then I see the students read that and they go, no, no, no.
That's got to do with it.
That isn't what he meant.
He's talking about the structure around it.
You notice he said slightly.
It's just a slight grip.
In fact, it might be better not to even think about it.
It will happen anyway.
If you get the crescendo.
Because as you get the crescendo, the lips will take care of themselves.
It's automatic.
It's natural for them to hold.
You see that?
Okay.
Now, let's take a look at St. Jacob.
Then Arthur.
Then there's both of them.
Now, if you have the big, thick international organ, it would be better to look it up in English.
Not the French.
Find the section where it says mouthpiece, basically.
If I find a five, you'll give me a six.
Six.
Alright, page six.
Alright, now find the place you want it.
Find the place where it's talking about mouthpiece placement.
This is called the lock and pop.
Notice that he says place the mouthpiece one third on the upper lip.
Two thirds on the bottom.
That is wrong.
And then he went on to say, which nobody reads any further, at least this is what I believe.
Or the way it seems to me.
At least this is the way it seems to me.
So he did not make a dogmatic statement that you must put that down.
The opposite is true.
The mouthpiece must be popped.
That placing it low on your mouth has been the cause of frustrations and troubles for over a hundred years.
And that placement got into the school system.
Because Arthur was the professor in the conservatory.
And so that passed on and on and on and on until that became the thing.
This is the vibrating surface.
You get it down low and youngsters will be the worst on this.
They'll get it down low because they want to play high notes right now.
And they'll get a little pinch, just a little bit of skin there.
A little pinch and it will sweep.
And they think they're playing high.
And then pretty soon the whole facial structure develops around that.
Now it's difficult to change.
But if you're playing low on that mouth, mouthpiece placement is important.
If you're playing low, you get it up high.
Someone will say, how high?
Watch some of the great players.
It just sits right on that edge there on the bottom.
And most of it is way up on the top.
Now, half and half is fine.
You don't have to change it if it's sitting evenly, at least half and half.
In fact, Arthur used to say, well, put it half and half.
But you see, the bottom lip actually isn't doing the vibrate.
The top lip is.
You have to...
That's Tom's problem.
If you put it, you have to even...
Well, to show you that the lower lip is not doing the vibrate,
and that's a big argument all over the world.
Which lip vibrates the most?
As a player, who cares?
If it vibrates, that's all you want.
But if it sits up high, I'm not sure how high it sits on the top.
Now, I changed my officer many times during the period.
I had an officer here, here, here, here.
Underneath the lip, up here, everywhere.
And that's what I've been telling you, that there's only one way it works right,
and that's high.
So, Arbin was in error all the way.
Now, then, St. Nicole said just the opposite.
Their books were written about within 10 years of each other.
St. Nicole's is just as great a book as Arbin's.
Arbin's is as great as St. Nicole's.
You can't do without either of those books.
But they were different in this.
Now, St. Nicole said, and this is indicative now, so remember this.
St. Nicole said, place the mouthpiece toward the center of the mouth.
Now, notice he didn't say, get it right in the center.
Who was I talking to last night?
Because he was telling me that when he first started, he played quite easily,
but he was playing a little on one side.
Who was I discussing that?
And his teacher told him he had to get it right in the center,
so he was watching right there.
It was you.
Okay, now, it ended up that for a long time,
Mitch tried and tried, watched in the mirror.
You break every mirror in your house.
And looking in the mirror, you're going to get your head in there.
In fact, I think I met this the other day.
What are you looking for?
And if you found it, what would you do about it?
Nothing. You're just worried.
That's all.
You've got to be natural.
Again, stay within those natural forces.
Now, Mitch fought that and fought it and fought it.
And when he started studying, we discussed it, and I told him,
let it go where it wants to go.
The shape of the teeth have a lot to do with that.
What's dead center for someone here may be a little here for another.
A little here.
The only guy I've ever seen play absolutely dead center is Bob Ladella.
For some of these guys, he sits right there in the middle.
Most of us play a little to one side.
St. Jacobin continued, St. Jacobin says,
place the mouthpiece toward the center of the mouth.
He said a little to one side or the other is used by most players
with no seeming credit or discredit to their play.
So if a guy's playing over here,
he shouldn't try to change it over here necessarily.
Have I got almost your all in my mouth?
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
Ah.
We'll get away with the quarter.
Ah.
Ah.
In other words, you can develop an embouchure anywhere you can get a vibration.
Now to show you the vibration is high,
you can even use your tongue for a lower lip.
Ah.
Ah.
I don't know what tongue is that.
Ah.
What I'm getting at is that cockeyed lip phobia
is going to do more harm than you've ever had.
Now he said place it toward the center of the mouth,
then he says place it unevenly.
Two thirds on the upper and the rest on the lower.
So he didn't measure the exact measure.
And actually two thirds it gave even more than that.
Like old Harry James who you don't know if you ever heard of
that.
That old guy is a great player when he was young.
He was phenomenal.
And his sack right there.
No two are exactly alike.
One guy is high and will not be high for another guy.
Oh, he said place it two thirds on the upper,
the rest on the lower,
according to all professors.
And one third on the upper,
the rest on the lower,
according to one sole individual whom I shall not name.
Now that was St. Jacob's original text.
Now to revise this by the way.
Now who let it as their St. Jacob?
Okay.
Now open your St. Jacob to where it's talking about
the mouthpiece placement.
And you'll find that the Arbor's text is in it.
So the revisers have taken out the St. Jacob's text
and put the Arbor's text in it.
That's not their business to do that.
That is not what he said.
Now the reason I know is I've got the old people.
I've got one that goes back probably one of the very first
St. Jacob's that came out.
And that's the text that's in it.
And I think it's hilarious.
According to one sole individual whom I shall not name.
All right.
Now in systematic approach,
I did mention that the mouthpiece grips
towards the mouthpiece.
It does.
But in a way, I probably didn't even mention it
because then everybody tries to overdo it.
They sit there and take a...
trying to grip like this and that.
That's not going to nip.
It's a slight boom.
So the best thing to do is get that armature
in the right place.
And then practice directly.
And forget the lip.
I've had students come in
and after they've been taken maybe several months,
they say, well, I noticed it in my lip.
And I said, forget it.
Yeah, but the lip...
And I said, forget it.
I don't want to hear it.
And they still want to insist,
oh, my lip, my lip feel really...
Forget it.
I don't want to hear about your lip.
If the placement is right,
keep the mouthpiece moist.
You cannot develop with a dry lip.
So I'm going to say why.
You wipe your lip dry,
you wipe your mouthpiece dry,
and you put it up there, now it sticks
because it's more not moist.
So it sticks there.
And you play, and you play,
and you think you're developing,
you're not developing any muscle structure
because it's just hanging on there
because it's dry.
It's got to be moist so that
this machine can move.
And the sponge players,
oh, you can crank one of the glass players,
it's so funny.
Well, how wet should it be?
How wet is moist?
Keep it moist.
You just lick the mouthpiece,
and that guy came in with a dry lip one time,
he's a pretty good little player,
but he's never had any experience.
And I looked at him and I said,
are you playing with a dry lip?
He said, yeah, I always play with a dry lip.
I said, moist it.
He said, you don't have to.
I said, if you were studying with me,
you'd do it.
He said, I can't do that.
I said, moist it.
And I said, now that you play that way
every time you pick up that horn,
the next week, when I saw him,
he forgot all about it, he was playing fine.
It's not drastic at all.
You keep that mouth moist.
And that you'll find in the articles,
you'll find many articles talking about
wet lip versus dry lip.
There's no such thing.
Wet lip, moist.
And you won't find
one virtuoso that'll tell you anything different.
All right, so,
get the mouthpiece in the right place,
practice, and forget your lip.
If you leave the lip alone,
it'll take care of itself.
Okay, now the lip,
the next thing is the facial structure.
This is the muscles
around the face
that hold the lips in place
so that they will vibrate.
They're not holding it
so that you're going to get high lumps
or low notes, like we showed yesterday
when Tom was here.
Squeeze that lip all he could, what happened?
Did he go higher?
So the muscle structure isn't
so that you're going to go higher
or lower or anything else.
It's to hold the lips so that they will
keep vibrating.
Underneath the mouthpiece,
nothing happens.
The lip doesn't change,
you're nothing.
If under the mouthpiece,
you're dripping with the facial structure.
Now, on some,
it will look like the mouth is going this way,
smiling, depending on the shape of their face.
It'll look like this smile.
Now, what we used to call smiling muscles
is when you stretch back like this.
But when you play, some guys
it'll look like the corners go up a little.
Others it'll look like they're coming down.
That's only because of the structure
of your face. Stay away from the mirror.
Some will go up on one side
and down on the other.
And vice versa.
But what's happening is the same.
The facial structure is gripping.
Now, because it grips,
it has to be very strong
but it also has to be
very elastic.
Every time that tongue moves,
the jaw moves, now his face
automatically changes.
So on some, you'll see a lot of movement
in the face.
Others you won't see any movement.
But what's happening is still the same.
That depends on how you're built.
Stay away from the mirror.
I hope you get it.
All right, now then,
I have one student.
He's a good player.
He played good jazz.
He was making limit
in the jazz bands around.
Bruce, these guys don't want to talk about
his elementary.
But he was a good little player.
College, age,
and played all the time.
He decided, well, I don't want to just
play jazz. I don't want to go,
I don't want to play something too.
So he went to school, university.
He enrolled in a symphony program.
Instructed him
to play something.
Played some of his music.
Played something.
He said, oh, wait a minute,
that's wrong.
He said, what's wrong?
He went to study
music, symphony.
Oh, that's wrong.
He said, what's wrong?
He says, look in the mirror and tell me what you see.
So he looked in the mirror and he played music.
He said, I don't see anything.
He said, you do it again and you watch
your nose.
And he said, you got a little
higher. His nose pulled a little to the side.
That's the main thing.
I didn't even see your eyebrows pull up.
And the nose is one side
of the other.
That's because your muscles are all tied together.
There's a reaction of something
the way the muscles work.
So the instructor said,
all right, now that, you've got to correct.
That's wrong.
And we're going to work on it until that nose doesn't move.
Two months later,
the guy was even afraid to play the drums.
Just afraid to play.
He just lost all his confidence.
He's sleeping on this thing and can't play.
So he called me up one day,
and wanted to know if I'd look at him
and see what was wrong.
So I said, sure, come on over.
And when he told me the story,
I'm sorry, I just
backed up.
It was
the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of.
And pretty soon he was laughing, too.
And then he got the gist
that this is ridiculous.
Forget it.
In fact, he's slowly putting it on loop
until he sees nothing like it.
In about a month, he's playing fine with it.
His nose is still moving.
So all these little things,
when you go in, it's like when you go in
with a teacher and he says, okay,
what do we work on today?
The teacher's asking the student,
what do we work on today?
What kind of a teacher's hat?
Why don't the teacher say, okay,
we're going to be this.
And this is going to be your routine.
You work on it.
I've seen
the student playing
and the teacher's dozing in the chair.
He's not even listening to what's going on.
And that's kind of sad
to spend the money on.
Okay, so
the muscle structure
is important. Remember, when the tongue
moves, which it has to do,
the jaw moves.
By the way, the facial muscles have to
strengthen. Now, these facial muscles
will strengthen just like
the lip. It'll strengthen if you
leave it alone and practice the right
exercise. Like if you're going
like in St. Jacob, they show you a
pita, pita, pita, pita, pita.
That's the facial structure going like this all the time.
Just like that.
But if you try to think about it and do it,
it's not going to work.
The first place, you'd overdo it.
And then the second place,
how'd you know if you were using the right muscle?
There used to be
a gadget.
I had every gadget.
Oh, I'm sorry
they got lost somewhere.
I think it's still in the trunk that I took the storage
and didn't have enough money to get it
out.
I think there's all those gadgets in it.
But this one was
quite a genius. It had a
kind of a wide curve
with rubber on it. You crack that in your teeth
and tell it.
Then it had weights
like lifting weights and
a sprayer.
This thing would hang down
and then lift your lip, whichever
too little or too little you're not. And in your lip
you'd pull that up.
Then you'd lift
the weights a little stronger.
The first thing you know, that's supposed to
develop in your lip.
And you know what muscles
this is about. And it's certainly
not the way you're going to play a brass system.
Now you've got guys
putting pencils in their mouth.
You squeeze it on
that pencil. That's
supposed to build your lips so that you can
play it harder. You're not
playing a pencil.
You have no idea what muscles it's going
to affect. And it probably
might have a detrimental effect on you.
But if you practice
correctly, and that seems
to be the thing that one wants to do.
They want to go out and get some gimmick
and work on it. And here the simple
thing is just to practice.
Now as I said, some
the face will move and show a lot
of movement on some people.
Others it doesn't. Yet you will have
teachers say, keep those lips stiff.
No.
You let it work. You don't let your teeth
come out. Absolutely.
Because then you're not letting any
muscle develop at all. That has to be
firm. But it has to be the last.
So if you're puffing your cheeks out
stop that now. That's not hard to do.
That's just a little bit
careless.
So the muscle structure
will develop on its own
if you practice.
You know, if you're going
ta-ti ta-ti. Why it's ta-ti ta-ti
I don't know what that means.
But you can't
guess it.
So let it go.
In line with muscle
structure development, can you talk just a little bit about
the need to rest and try not to feel
tired to develop the muscles?
That's very important.
Waterston had a great remark
in one of his books. He says, let your
head save your liver.
And it's so true.
Another phrase he says,
these exercises may be extremely
tiring at first.
In the book that he's talking about in the autumn.
He said,
you should rest before
the book gets tired. In other words, when you start feeling
a little fatigued, take the oil off,
rest a few seconds.
And he says in the book,
rest until the lips recover.
Now we all talk
about the lips, but actually it's this. When you get
tired, you're going to feel it here.
Then you're going to feel it here.
Then you're going to feel it down here. But actually
you don't feel tired here.
Now I know an inexperienced player
may feel tired here for a while.
But here's where you're going to get fatigued.
In your face.
So you rest until that
red lights down, and then you pick up again.
Rest at periodic intervals.
And then he goes on
to say, and when the lips fail
to recover,
stop.
Somebody says, how do we know when I'm tired?
Well if you don't feel when you're tired,
then when you start missing excessively,
you're tired.
Let it develop below that line.
If you over practice,
over practice is dangerous in that respect.
If you keep practicing until
nothing happens, you're not
building up a thing. You're destroying it.
So we're not practicing to tear down,
we're practicing to build up.
So it's like, could you go to a gym
and eat work on your arm
until finally your arm won't even move?
And then you keep trying, is that going to build that arm up?
No way.
You think if you go out and run,
if you're going to be a runner and you run
until you collapse and fall on the ground,
you think you're building anymore?
If you go to a good gym,
that instructor is watching you like crazy.
The minute you start
overdoing it, he gets on your
head and stops you.
It's the same thing.
And the doctors will tell you that, right?
They'll tell you the same thing.
You can't overdo, then you tear
down.
That's not a mystery,
it's just common sense
development.
Okay, now, so much for the
facial structure. Now the fingers
are developing.
This is very important.
First of all,
when we get to the fingers of the right hand,
let's take how we hold them.
The best way to hold a horn
is further.
You don't let it hang there.
You wouldn't put a flagpole
out there, you'd just stick it in a hole
in the ground, because when it came along
it would go overboard.
You anchor it in the cement
so to speak.
This is anchoring everything.
You play the horn.
Now some like to hold it like this.
Well that's alright. Sometimes
a short finger works,
and that gets very uncomfortable.
So logically,
hold it flat in your hand,
don't let it go like this.
Now you don't have any control
over it at all. And you can hold
it with your fourth finger through the ring
with your hand, it's not too big,
and do like that.
Firm.
Not like a vice,
but hold it firm.
You're going to control this.
If you don't have a hold of it, you're not going to control it.
Flat in your hand.
Straight up and down.
Don't let it go like this.
If you were a conductor
and you had a guy on this day
who wanted to play for you,
and he's playing like this,
would you think, gee, there's the guy I want.
That doesn't signify any confidence
at all, does it?
Forget no pressure. There is no
such thing as no pressure.
It doesn't exist.
It's a complete policy.
Forget the term,
and don't ever think about it again.
The amount of pressure
will take care of itself
as you develop it.
You've got to think one time,
Trump or Yola, they were interviewing
one time,
and
they were
interviewing someone, and someone said, well, Doc,
do you play with no pressure?
And he says, well, I don't know.
But if I dropped dead
on that last note on that end,
he said, you'd probably have to bury me in the mouthpiece
of my face.
So there is no such thing as
no pressure. You don't worry about that.
That doesn't mean you'd want to see
what you can jam into your mouth, either.
There was one of the very fine
symphony players
in Los Angeles.
Somebody asked him
for the clinical analysis.
He said,
Mr. Platt,
what about no pressure?
Did I practice without no pressure?
He said, well,
you can try it
if you want.
But as I tell you what will happen,
he says, first there will be no pressure,
then there will be no tone,
then there will be no jump.
And that's just a thought.
You don't think about those things. You're playing
a horn. So keep it straight
up and down.
Now, this thumb.
I see in books,
and I see in schools, where the student
is fast. Put that thumb between
the dots
and then finger.
That is absolutely
good. You put that thumb
on the first vowel.
Under the lead pipe.
See where it fits?
Can't you have a cup of coffee
in the pocket?
Now, you put the thumb
on that vowel.
See what I'm doing?
Now, notice
it does not bend.
Now, when you
put it between the vowels, it's going to bend.
Like this.
It gets your horn on it.
All the vowels work
along.
Now, the fingers go naturally
to where they're going.
And the ball of the finger, not the tip,
not the first joint, on the ball
of the finger.
Now, to work that way, if you keep that point straight.
I've had some players
that forget that
every lesson. Watch your thumb.
Watch your thumb.
You know what I do now?
I take a piece of tape
and tape it and wrap it around
there and then tape it and play it around
so that that thumb can bend
and follow the system. Then every time
they try to bend it, they'll feel
that pull.
And pretty soon, it's like turning an arrow.
Pretty soon, it reflects action and it won't
hurt anymore.
Place it on that dot.
Fingers on the side.
Forget the hope.
Let the finger fly
when you're practicing
the technical stuff.
Because there's a
tenor that runs across from that
fifth finger
across another tenor
that I don't know exactly, but
it inhibits this finger.
And if it's in that hope, if you're trying
to play technically, that finger doesn't want to work.
And that gets to be the best finger
on your hand. You can trim
everything, you can do everything with that third finger
when it's developed.
Now lift the fingers
high.
Off the bowels.
You never leave your hand laying on the bowels.
Get them off
and strike them hard.
Bang them down like one
player said.
Lift them high, strike them hard.
I get a kid now that
they're crazy now, but somebody buys them for them.
The first thing he does
is take them over to some
mouthpiece maker and gets
the bowels poured in.
So called pour.
That means lined up.
That is ridiculous.
If you have a good answer,
those bowels are lined up and propped up.
Now in time they make it out of line.
But I got a kid
down in Guadalajara who takes
it over and pays the guy money
to get it disaligned.
And that's rather than that.
Now
irregardless of that,
here's the student that goes to get his bags lined up.
Now if these bowels
are pushed down a little ways,
they're not lining up like that.
Yet the student comes in
and he's playing like this.
He's either got his finger wrapped
around like this or he's got it between the bowels.
And he's playing and that's where the bowels are.
And then we're talking.
Then he comes in and says
boy I got my bowels ported.
Plays great.
The bowels aren't ported at all.
He's got them half way down in some instances.
So that's all up in his head.
Unless
he lifts those fingers off the bowels,
strike them hard
so they're down.
You watch how many times you play and that bowel isn't even down.
So you're going to play mushy,
out of tune, everything else.
Strike the fingers hard,
strike the bowels hard.
And I have stamped that so many
million times in my books, I'm sick
but working a stamp.
But you won't forget it,
but every time you turn that page you're red.
With the fingers high, strike around as hard.
What's the other important thing?
Big breath, chest up.
And what's the other?
Lost the time.
Those are the silly things, always.
Alright, now then.
We've gone over
the seven elements of playing.
Those are the natural elements.
Each one of those
must be developed
until it works
correctly by
habit.
Not by figuring it out.
So you're not going to leave here
now and in two days
you're going to do it.
You're going to have to work at it.
Work at it until it
works by habit.
And I get a kick out of a set of these
journals that come out.
If you won't know all these journals,
read everything that's in them,
you're going to be so confused
you won't know what to do.
The ITG
came out with an article last year
it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard
of in my life.
First of all, if you
took off the bottom caps of your horn
and threw them away,
it wouldn't mean one darn thing
only that the horn would get a little dirty
when we were in good order under
pants and dressed well.
It wouldn't mean a thing.
In fact, when we were kids, we didn't have
one of the ending in repair, we'd lose one
sometimes, and for maybe a year
we wouldn't even have a cap on that.
But this article came out and said
if you loosen your third
bow, bottom cap,
to about the first fret
the horn would play better than this.
This goes all over
and of course the repairmen
are cleaning up.
Now they don't have to put a dye in the bottom
but now they've made a little thing to it.
Now I don't know what they charge.
Do you know, Dave, what they charge for doing that?
Why are you asking me that?
I don't see it right. It's true.
Anyway, I think
they've been trying to get at least $20
maybe $25 to do that
and then they could tighten it up
without it falling off.
And I have seen guys say, boy, my horn
plays better than the tune
because he wants it to play better
than the tune. That's all up here.
That has nothing to do with anything
in the horn.
The tunes are clear as well.
An inch and a half above that
where the vibration
is going.
Ridiculous these theories
that come out. Now when you leave here
you're going to go back
and you're going to be excited and want to tell someone
what's in there and say, oh no, don't do that.
That's wrong.
The first thing you're going to do is have all this
weight of top pushed at you
and just many, many
that we have seen starting out great
and really working
hard until they get all this pressure
of all these utilities
and they go right
back to what they need to do.
Now what about instruments?
I'm going to talk
just for a moment about the CG Satellite.
It is a very light instrument.
It's kept going on.
See?
Now
there are a lot of secrets
in the horn that I've
developed over about three years
here.
I've worked with some of the
very best in class.
Strictly, nuclear,
cancer,
all of these guys we've talked to
and they've made things for me
which I couldn't make them out of.
And we've developed an instrument
that first of all is very light.
Anymore I'm worrying about
the shape of the bell
like some of you think, what we call
high note trebles.
The bell will be very restricted
all the way to the end
and then flare up causing
positions.
And so we think that's a high note.
And then they want
a
darker sound which kids
will spend about three years.
You could go on
endlessly trying to figure out
the player is not
knowledgeable enough about horns to do that.
So you can go get a number something pipe
a number something bell
or you can get so and so's new super large
board.
Oh!
Man, he saw them on the road.
And that
could be any great. Because you don't
know and you can't tell until you've played a
horn in six months whether you've read it or not.
But it will blow
easily at first. When we used to go look
at the trumpets, we didn't look
for bore sizes.
They never had a bore size on a horn.
Never. The old horns
don't have bore size on them.
And you wouldn't find a bore size on a CG
because you didn't get it.
Because I didn't want it. I didn't even
want someone to put a bore size in their
catalogs. And that's one of the first
things they did.
Just put it in there. So right away
the sleepiness is here.
I can't wait.
As a result he doesn't even
try and he doesn't even
realize what he's missing.
Now the lead pipe
I'm going to tell you
some of the secrets. The lead pipe is
so thin. It is so thin
that if we used
brass it would collapse.
You'd get a
little pressure on it and it
would cave it right in. So we
couldn't use brass.
But we still had to have a thin pipe.
So we used
nickel silver. Now as
thin as it is, the nickel
silver is stronger
than a thick brass.
So you don't have to worry about it collapsing.
There's a specific size
at the start of the lead pipe that
has to be maintained.
I had a lot of arguments with
the Bach factory when we first started.
Because we'd get them and the entrance would be
maybe
$5,000 or so.
And I followed up.
I said, this is not right.
But there are tolerances.
I said, there can be no tolerances
on this board.
It's got to be exact.
So
it's in the back.
Finally, they're coming up
pretty darn good.
But there's no such thing as a tolerance.
There's no reason you can't make a horn right.
What's the difference if the guy
with the tool stops
a hair soon or too late?
Why can't he stop
just exactly where it's supposed to be?
It's just as easy
as doing it wrong.
So the pipe
has to be right.
Now then, what happens?
If you're trying to CG,
you know that the minute you blow it,
there's absolute response
right now.
Where most mortars that you blow
will kick back at you.
Have you ever seen a guy that
stuttered on his attack?
Have any of you ever seen that?
In a lot of places, it's a very
prevalent problem to play it over.
They can't get started.
Now generally that's caused by
playing too tight equipment.
Too small.
Too small obliques.
Maybe an instrument.
And they get too much resistance.
They can't place things
out, so they start to stutter.
And that grows.
How do I know? I'm big.
I got to the point where I could
not stutter.
Have you ever had a teacher ever
look this way?
Some of the cures were, well, put the horn out
a little deep.
That will never
help it. It will get worse.
Pop the tongue,
put the tongue in the right place
and open the clip. That is the only thing
you get with it.
And the tongue is right when you can't
play it.
And if you start that,
play it anyway.
Even if you miss it, strike it.
If you break that fear, finally it becomes
a fear. Then you're really
in trouble. When you run into
that, I don't know if again you haven't had it,
but it's a prevalent condition.
The bell is extremely
thin. It's like
any fine piece of equipment
that's delicate. If you bump
on this horn, you've got it dead.
It's very critical
at the bell start.
The excellent
reaches a force
in it's largest part.
When it hits the bell,
it cuts back through the process.
So the bell starts
smaller than the horn itself.
So the resistance that you need
instead of being
in the lead pipe before anything gets
started,
it's at the bell.
When you play that thing and it hits that bell,
it just sizzles like this.
And anyone will tell you that it's had
the goodness,
that's the fear you get. And you'll feel
this thing quivering
in your hand. You won't see it, but you'll feel it.
Do you feel that in your hand?
It just quivers.
It sizzles.
Okay, so
if you ever get the horn damaged,
don't take it to anybody.
Make sure you get a good repairman
because if he doesn't understand those
capers, he could be short on the horn.
What happened to you Tom
when you
put a big dent in the bell
and you took it to the repairman?
Well,
he did get a little bit better.
He put more
dents in the horn.
He put more dents in it than he had
in the fork.
It was good.
Did you have to get a new bell or did Larry find a good one?
No.
You can see it up there.
It's still there.
It's still there.
There it is.
Alright.
That's so much for this, but now there's also
the same model
in a sea trumpet now.
Kent, would you give me that
sea trumpet that's in there?
Now this is
not known because
for some reason or other
they just don't advertise.
But I noticed this year
on the boxing club that they used
the same idea of putting a slide over
instead of
opening it.
But they don't advertise this.
The nice thing about
this instrument
what's wrong with, always has been wrong
with sea trumpets. You know the guy goes
he buys a good sea trumpet
and boxing
very well made trumpets.
So he buys a sea trumpet
he goes immediately to the repair van
and has the whole trumpet open.
Why?
If the horn plays good and he likes it
why did he go have a chamber?
If they get a chamber they're going to replace it.
Now one of the reasons
is all sea trumpets
which pitch the tone higher of course
with a very
short lead pipe.
So my idea was to put the
full length B5 lead pipe on it
which goes through here.
Well you couldn't do that
and put the slide inside
of that because now the taper shot.
So we put
it over the lead pipe.
So you still have
the full length pipe.
Now the nice
thing about it, everything else
is exactly like the
B flat. So if
you're playing a B flat cell
and you want a C
you get a B flat C.
Now when you pick up the C it feels
just exactly like playing the B flat.
Normally you pick up your C
and it feels completely different.
Someone here that has a GGS
they have the C.
Well he's not here.
I was going to ask him
to tell you how he felt
on that C. He has a B flat C.
And he's so excited because he picks
up the C that it doesn't feel like
he changed horns. He doesn't change
mouthpieces, he doesn't change horn.
And therefore he doesn't make a lot of
misses because the horn feels the same.
Because again you can play it by field.
Every time you change something you're
allowed to be missing. It takes an
awful good player to just pick up many
different kind of horns and play it.
Dave is very good at that.
He can pick up all kinds of little
horns and few horns and everything
and he looks fine when they're up.
He doesn't always hit that right
but he does. He's a great player.
Okay now was there some questions?
Can you still get the options
for it?
I think there will be some stories
that might have it. Either the blue cover
or the one I had the other day you won't
get that.
But if you got the
original you hang on to it
because that's why.
But that new red cover, remember
the text is all lost up.
How critical is the business
in the end of the 19th century?
Oh, that's a good point.
You hear a lot about
president Trump.
You hear a lot
a lot about
the way that
what we all think should fit in with the horn.
Years ago
with the old timers
and the old
trumpets and cornetts
the lead pipe
did not have
a receiver on it.
The lead pipe would come like this
and then they would just flare
at the end of the lead pipe
and the mouthpiece would go
inside of that flare.
So it was inside the lead pipe.
So inside
the lead pipe.
So then they would remount
the end of the mouthpiece.
Just like a razor, you have to be careful not to cut yourself.
So when it went into the lead pipe
it could absolutely
flush.
So the mouthpiece became part of the
instrument.
The instrument is just
an extension from the mouthpiece.
Now we have a receiver
like that.
Can you all see that?
You have a receiver
and you have your lead pipe slides out.
But the lead pipe
would come up into the receiver
about that far.
You all see that?
Alright, now you put the mouthpiece
in and it may come in
about that far.
Now look,
you've got a gap between the mouthpiece
and the lead pipe. Notice the difference here.
Now you've got a gap
and then you're going to get all kinds of turbulence
which causes resistance and is going to
kick back at you.
Now once it gets
out of the mouthpiece into the horn
it changes to vibration.
So the main thing is to get that
air and the lips are vibrating
now the vibration goes into the horn
the horn picks up the vibration
depending on the horn that's going to
hit you or it's going to bite you.
Alright, now we have
some mouthpiece makers
making sleeves
that you can put on the end of your mouthpiece
to bring that back or forward.
Now the amazing thing, the mouthpiece
comes in
the mouthpiece comes into here
it's not going to go
into the bottom.
So you can put any of it
still in the mouthpiece
still in the mouthpiece
you're going to want to put it
no
you might imagine it
because you want something like that
but it isn't.
Finally you get it up to about
an eighth of an inch off of the lead pipe
and all of a sudden boom and a spark
so they now develop
the theory
back the mouthpiece off the lead pipe
an eighth of an inch. That's not true
it's just backwards.
The rule should be
don't let it come back any further
than an eighth of an inch
because an eighth of an inch is where it will finally
start to spike.
So you don't want it to back off any further
so instead of saying back it off
an eighth, just don't let it go
back any further than an eighth.
The best thing, and what I do
is I butt it right up to the lead pipe.
Now you've got
one eighth
the mouthpiece is the second one.
Okay
any more questions?
Yes.
That would be absolutely
going with every innovation.
Some the horn
will play to go up, some it will
go down, doesn't matter.
Let the horn move.
It will tell you what to do.
It's this idea that we're going to
be the theoreticians, you know.
We're going to make everything work by theory
and it won't.
Let the horn be.
There's some
methods out of New York
that teach you to hold the horn in your hand
so it can point up like that.
Start it.
Let it go. Now we have pivot systems
where you're supposed to
get a bunch of exercises
and they'll study your face, they'll say well
you're an A type, so we'll give you
these exercises.
Okay.
We'll take one more
question and then I've got something for all of you.
To get flush?
You have to go to
don't talk yourself.
You have to go to
the quick practice maker.
And don't let him try and theorize
it out of you, because they will.
They'll go up and tell him
I want that to be just barely
not enough so it's not a piece of
skin, but just barely
so it's up close to it.
What?
Yeah.
It shouldn't cost any more than that.
If it was all something for all of you.
Alright now.
This is our 10th anniversary
of the camp.
It's like Jeff Adams'
story when he called me up and said well the camp
must be worth something because no one can hear it.
Most of them
don't know that.
So what I want to do
how many have been here
twice?
One or two?
Alright. How many have been here
three and four?
Okay. I want everyone
let's all take a look. We're going to do
this like graduation day.
I want
everyone
I want everyone
that has been here just
one year
to stand up and come along over here
This is your first year.
Everyone that this is your first year
What was the last one?
Okay.
All of you
come here
one more year.
Let me see your hands.
You can hit two.
Alright. On this line we have everyone
that's been one in two years. One more.
One in two years.
Get out of it.
Go try the field show.
Alright.
Now what do we have?
For each one of you we have
a Pelican
that
in one or two years
will be Bronx
and Maryland.
We're going to combine all of them.
Obviously.