Transcript Summary
How's everybody feeling?
Everybody happy?
Having a good time?
Are you learning anything?
That's the main thing.
Remember, we're here to learn.
Did you study the book?
Okay.
Any questions on that?
Okay.
Now then, this morning I want you to get out your systematic approach.
That's what we're going to do.
Now, you'll have to excuse me for a minute because I got a bad throat this morning.
Why? I don't know.
I'll put some oil in it and see if that helps.
You get used to doing this after you have all these problems.
At first you gag, and pretty soon you get used to it.
Did you enjoy the concert last night?
Yeah.
Now we use systematic approach.
As I told you, one book finally came out that's a good book.
That's Carl Leach's new book.
He just showed it to me for the first time.
It's just excellent.
There are some cartoons to demonstrate in it, everything, and they're very humorous.
Let me see.
These are the average questions of every player, every student before they go on a job.
He says, let's see, here they are, I need more endurance.
I need more technique.
I seem to be having pitch problems.
How can I improve my sight reading?
I don't seem to have enough air while playing.
I feel stiff moving around the horn.
It's hard moving up and down.
What about pedal notes?
I want to increase my range.
I have trouble doing shakes.
Last night it was great.
This morning I can't play.
Now these are the normal comments, especially on guys that start playing Las Vegas and those big shows.
Right now, that's all out right now.
But for many, many years that was the big thing.
If a guy could last over a month in a Las Vegas show in the first trumpet part, he was a good player.
Generally they folded up like accordion.
They went through trumpet players like...
And that really separated the men from the boys.
When they first go, it's good that they're studying.
When they first start Las Vegas on a big show, that's when my phone rings constantly.
And that's when the danger is of getting in the mouthpieces.
Because they're mouthpiece crazy over there.
Because of these problems.
And this goes on and on.
And this book goes into those answers.
I've never seen a book come out like that.
Congratulations, Carl.
That's a great job.
And the title fits.
It's Streetwise Trumpet Playing.
So you might want to check that out.
Someone should go see me.
All these books are costing money.
That's right.
They do.
I spent every extra dime I had on buying books when I was studying.
And we didn't have any extra dimes then either.
That was back in the 30s when you could get a full course dinner for 25 cents.
The only thing, we didn't have 25 cents.
And many times going to my lesson, I didn't know how I was going to approach Clark because I didn't have the money.
And I know many times, one time in particular, we left my wife's watch at a gas station so we could get gas enough to go on to get to Clark for lessons.
And he was very gracious about it.
In fact, I had to have a horn one time and he got me a horn.
He was a very loving guy.
I had a, I hope you'll excuse this soap for a while.
It'll go away.
Barbara went out to get me a cup of coffee.
Sometimes that helps.
I'll tantalize you all with coffee.
Somebody did a clinic the other day.
And Shilkey should be horse whip for this.
Shilkey got a hold of a letter, a personal letter that Clark wrote to Bench when Bench was taking lessons from him.
And he's publicized that letter and put it out.
I think this is terrible.
That's a personal letter.
It wasn't meant for anyone else.
And they're putting it out with the attitude of this silly old man.
Well, it's out of you.
And that just irritates me no end.
How anyone could look at Herbert Clark in that manner is very irritating to me.
This clinician got up and he read the letter to about 250 in the audience.
And when he finished, he said, oh, the letter, the letter goes on.
He's telling Bench about cornets and trumpets.
And he told Bench, who was starting to make instruments, he said, stick to the cornet.
Because he went on to explain that the trumpet was terrible.
Like he said, an instrument of the devil.
And if you understood Clark's strict religious background in his home, you could understand that statement.
And you would have to understand what he meant by it.
And he went on, and this clinician put that down.
He says, boy, what a bigot.
And if I'd have been there, I'd have thrown something at him.
How anyone could talk about Herbert Clark like that, who was absolutely the opposite of anything like that,
the most kind, loving, caring person, but very Victorian, very strict.
And I know one time when I was playing and very timid, I was very young and very timid,
and I was really intimidated by the immensity of Los Angeles and the great players that were around.
And I came down from Helena, Montana, which was maybe, what, 15,000 people.
And now I'm in this monstrous city, and he stopped.
Oh, and it says double piano on all the books in it.
You'd have to take that with a grain of salt.
And many great players will tell you to play soft.
Now, that playing soft is even within reason.
I want to bring out one point.
Never play softer than you can get a sure positive sound.
You can cut that down later and get the control.
When I was studying with Clark, I was up to a top F and a whisper, but you couldn't play it that way all the time.
And it would not be good to practice it that way, because you must get stronger as you go up.
Never forget that.
The air knows the worth, and we're going to get into that today.
So anyway, I'm playing very poorly, of course, and all of a sudden he says,
would you put some air through that thing?
I'm blown.
And he says, no, you're not. You think you are.
And he was a big chess player.
And he turns around and he goes whop, and it hit me like that.
And I went down.
And I'm trying to protect my horn.
And so I carefully get up and whop, he hit me again.
And we went all around the room that way.
Up and down, up and down.
And the minute I get up that big chess, it whop again.
And I got back to the music rack and he said,
Now that's the way you play that thing, and don't you forget it.
I never did.
But the thing he got across to me, you've got to get rid of that fear.
You put air through the horn.
Sure, you're going to miss.
But that's why you're practicing, isn't it?
And the minute, like if you miss on an important job,
that miss is gone, isn't it?
There's no retrieving it.
So quit worrying about it.
You worry about it. You worry about it.
Oh, I made that horrible miss.
The next time it comes up, you're going to miss it worse because you're afraid of it now.
Get out of your head right now.
Misses are part of the whole thing with brass players,
although eventually you'll get so you don't miss.
Did you notice Brad last night?
Some of the difficult things that guy did, there weren't any misses.
Jumping octaves like he was on a pole jump, you know, and everything.
No misses.
You get so you don't miss, even on French horn.
And the French horns miss more than any instrument made.
It's a mind-boggling instrument, really.
But why do they miss? Because of the nature of the instrument.
And it's so common that everybody expects them.
But my students don't miss.
They get so they nail it right down.
We'll get to that tomorrow.
All right, now let's take systematic approach.
Now this is very important.
If you don't have your book, we'll take a minute and go get it.
Because if you don't practice this right, it's not going to do you any good.
Remember that.
It's how you practice.
Not playing notes.
You could take systematic approach.
You could play it every day, every day.
And in a couple of years you come back and say, gee, I'm not improving.
Of course not.
You won't improve by playing notes.
Every book is full of notes.
It's how you practice.
Okay?
All right, now let's turn to lesson one.
All right, we'll discount lesson one.
If I were to revise a book, I'd leave it out.
Now the reason why is that everybody misconstrues lesson one as a routine of long tones.
I don't believe in long tones.
It was not meant as long tones.
It was meant to keep the chest up and hold the note until that air was used.
It's been used entirely wrong since I put out the book.
So discount lesson one.
We don't even use it.
We start with lesson two.
I'm sorry I put that in, that lesson, because of that.
And like many books, they start out with long tones.
Now think about it a minute.
After you do a few of those, you're going to be stiff.
And your practice is over for the day.
For example, if I wanted, or any of you, if you wanted to strengthen your arm, get some strength.
I did when I was younger.
I went to the gym and I was like Mr. America for a while.
And anyway, so you'd hold your arm out stiff like this all day.
Would your arm get stronger?
No, absolutely no way.
But it would get stiff and ache.
And you've got to have motion to develop muscles.
And that's why, now the book in Systematic is all written half notes.
That doesn't mean you're counted as a slow half note.
That's strictly a notation so you can read it easily and see it easily.
You notice there's never a time signature.
So now we're going to discuss how to practice this.
Now if you don't do it how to practice, if you don't do it right, it's just as well close the book and don't do it at all.
It's how you practice that does it.
I've had cases where I was, excuse me, back east.
And a player came up, a good player too, he says, I've been working out of your book.
And he says, I'm not making any progress.
And I says, well let's go back and check it out.
So we started the part, lesson two.
He was not doing one thing correctly.
No chest up, no holding of notes.
He never thought about his tongue level at all.
Just plain notes.
Of course he wasn't improving.
And he did not do his pedal notes correctly.
That we'll discuss today too.
You got your horn in the car?
Now get the systematic approach in your hand.
This is going to do you no good unless you see it.
If some of you need to double up, double up.
But check these books.
Now when you first, in the first place, read the instructions in the book.
Nobody reads the instructions.
That's an amazing thing.
They just open a book to the first notation and start playing
without any rhyme or reason of what the author meant.
Why is this exercise here?
What's it for?
Now I'm going to say this again and I'm going to reiterate many times.
Get the sense of what is meant.
And if you don't get the sense of it, ask some questions and find out.
But don't ask questions from someone that has done nothing and knows nothing.
Does anyone think they could play that stuff?
Like there's one book out, a trauma book out now that says that for the high notes
you form a little hole here in your lip.
And for the low notes that hole gets bigger.
I never heard such garbage.
Forget it.
And that's another day.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
I'll take lesson two in systematic.
Now the first thing, when you start, I don't care if you only play a 32nd note,
you'll get that chest up.
Like one reviser in the Saint Chacon book says take the only amount of air
that you're going to need for the phrase.
What a stupid statement.
Supposing your phrase is a high F 32nd note.
How much air would be needed for a 32nd note?
But how much air and wind support is needed for the high F is what's important.
The chest must be up.
That's the first thought.
So if you're sitting down and playing,
now you can always tell my students in an orchestra.
I don't have a chair, I wish I did.
I'll just take it for a minute.
You have the trumpet section.
And I saw a television of the Boston Pops one night.
And here were the trumpets.
Like this.
But if I have a student in that section, you will see him like this.
And every night is opening night.
You never relax.
Remember that.
Every show, I don't care if you've been playing it for 10 years,
every show is opening night.
You're not leaning back in that chair.
You're sitting up with that back straight and that chest up.
Okay, thank you.
Like Clark said, the power generated by the muscles of the chest.
Okay?
Now is there any more questions on that long tone that I mentioned there?
Why they don't do a job.
Now I didn't say don't ever play a long tone.
I didn't say that.
I said as a tool of practice.
That's like holding your arm out and expecting it to miraculously get strong.
It won't.
That's why all the technical books.
Dee da da da, da da dee da da da.
Now you're working it.
Any questions, though?
I'm going to ask for questions as we go along so that you get it answered as soon as possible.
Okay?
All right.
Now I noticed the first thing Carl does, he fills up the chest.
He's not doing this.
Now even singers teach that.
You know, you go into the universities and the vocal department,
they got the students pushing out the diaphragm.
They're not pushing out the diaphragm.
They're pushing out the stomach.
Chest up.
All right.
Now you take it not too slow, but you take it dee.
This is part one of lesson two.
Dee da da da.
Now when you get to that last note, that chest is still up.
You don't go dee da da da.
That chest is still up.
Now the chest muscles are pushing.
Now you get down, and don't think about that.
That's natural.
It'll happen anyway.
Now you get to the last note.
Constantly keep that chest up.
Not stiff and rigid.
Comfortably.
All right, you hold that last note.
And you hold it.
And you hold it.
And you hold it.
The chest stays up.
It's going to want to come down.
You keep it up.
And these muscles push.
Now as you start running out of air, you'll try to get, you won't,
but try to get a little crescendo.
That'll push that more.
Then all of a sudden it'll like this.
That's enough.
In that sense, it's kind of like isometrics.
Okay, go on, let's hear it.
Good.
You get the sense of that?
Now you notice the chest did not drop, did it?
It stayed up.
All right, now there's a rest, isn't there?
I didn't put that rest in there to write music.
I hate to write music.
So you rest about as long as you play.
That's a general rule, about as long as you play.
You are not practicing to get tired.
You're practicing to train.
If you practice correctly, you can practice all day long.
Now how much more is that going to accomplish than 20 minutes of practice?
There's one book out, some of these books are laughable, you know.
It says that you can get your whole day of practice in 20 minutes.
I had a student come in the other day and I was having breakfast.
I was late.
And I said, going out in the studio and the reader, what is this?
Can I warm up?
Do whatever you want.
So on him, he's going through a routine.
He went through the entire routine of his practice in 10 minutes.
The rest of that lesson I clobbered all over him.
He won't go again.
All right, go ahead.
Beautiful.
That's the way you do it.
Now if you do it any other way, forget it.
It's how you practice.
Someone says, see, that takes me a long time.
Of course it does.
But this is a form of athletics.
It's got to take time.
Okay?
Great.
I'll never forget the first time Carl was up in the clinic.
I think he just started to take like a mental call.
He's sitting right in the front row.
And I'm doing this.
And at that time I would demonstrate for myself.
And Carl's just sitting there like this.
I remember some of the statements afterwards were absolutely marvelous.
But from then on, he did it more.
Yeah, I never did half the way he did.
I was like, I'd finish and I'd be out of there,
but I wouldn't do that squeeze or anything like that.
And here's this guy up on stage.
He almost like doubled over.
And I knew I hadn't done it quite to the extent that I was supposed to.
And did you notice last night both the soloists,
you take Dave and Brad, did it look like they were straining?
It's easy to play correct.
No, they just played effortless.
How far up did you go, Brad, on that couple endings as top notes?
It was a highly flat concert.
Now that's William, the double one.
Did he strain to do it?
So someone would say, well, he's got a natural lip.
What is a natural lip?
When you're born with it.
Yeah, okay.
I don't know what I'm on.
Oh, beautiful, Carl.
Look at how easy it looks.
He's not buzzing a mouthpiece and sitting there like that.
He's got the trumpet going.
And this wind power is about 90% of your endurance, don't forget that.
The air does the work.
Keep that thought most in your mind.
Now notice just as a point of interest, notice where Carl's mouthpiece sits.
It's up here and just sitting there.
It's not too early.
When you walk, when you talk, when you do anything, all day long, keep that chest up.
If you had to lift, what is, you got something heavy around here?
Well, I want someone to lift up something heavy.
Anyway, you can demonstrate it to yourself.
You go to pick up something heavy.
You would probably never think of it.
But the first thing you do is you get a big breath.
Otherwise you have no power at all.
Check that out, okay?
That kind of a thing is as much long tones as you ever practice.
That was pretty easy, Bruce.
Did you notice, lean down and pick it up and notice what happened?
You took a big breath first, didn't you?
You never think about it, but you do.
Because if you're empty of air, you're not going to lift it at all.
All right, now, was that F sharp?
All right, now we get into what we call the pedal range.
On trombones, you're down to E flat.
That starts your pedal range.
French horns disregard this because they can go on forever.
That kind of French horn is quite an instrument.
So in order for them to get into this pedal range, they have to go another octave down.
So how long do you think their practice routine is going to go
the time they add another octave on everything?
All right, now, the pedal register is probably one of the most misunderstood parts of brass playing.
Yet it is a vital part, should be practiced.
Otherwise, you're playing within a little square, like a picture frame, and you never get out of it.
As you come down, the pedal constant E flat is the first pedal note.
It's so simple and so effective, mama. I appreciate that.
This is what's a privilege.
Wait a minute, I'll suffer you guys.
Makes it twice as good.
All right, now, I've had players that played for 30 years,
and after a year or so, you almost give up with them.
They still can't get a pedal F.
And there's absolutely nothing to it.
I can take a youngster nine years old, he'll get it right now.
Because he doesn't think it's hard.
You go down, you just say, oh, no, you hear the note and just go on.
You'll do it. You've had that experience, haven't you?
It's no problem. But a guy's been playing 30 years, boy, he's got a block right there.
I had the principal French horn out of the San Francisco Symphony.
He came down and wanted to take lessons.
So we got down to the end, and I said, all right, now we'll keep going.
He looks at me and says, the horn don't go no farther.
I said, I know that. But I said, we're going to make it go further.
Look, the horn don't go no farther.
He wouldn't even try it. Never did.
He just refused. The horn don't go no farther.
And that was it.
How's he going to learn to practice correctly if he doesn't do what you say?
Brass instruments are amazing.
Actually, there's nothing you can't do with a brass instrument.
You can go to infinity on either side with ease.
Like I had a student, he didn't last very long, I think three lessons.
And we got the part, I said, you're not doing what I tell you.
He says, what do you want?
I said, you're not lifting those fingers up and striking them.
He says, no, I don't believe in that.
He says, I'm an organist and I don't believe in that.
I said, you're not playing an organ.
You're playing a brass instrument.
I said, now if you don't do what I say, that's it.
And I never assigned him another lesson because it's useless.
So who failed? The student or the teacher?
The student did, didn't he?
It's how you practice that counts.
Don't ever forget that.
All right, Carl.
Now to get your pedal F, I'll show you how simple it is.
Carl, play a low F sharp.
This is the drinking click up here.
All right.
Now play the F sharp normal.
Now force it flat.
What's hard about that?
Anyone can force a note flat.
Now they say, oh, well, I do that with a lip.
No, you don't.
We'll get that tomorrow.
What makes a note flat is the tongue.
But you're not conscious of that.
Don't think of that.
Anyone can flatten a sound.
Do it again.
F sharp and then make it go flat.
So simple.
Now that's the feel.
You can try that.
And that's the feel.
Now in the application class, you'll go to that, right?
You get the feel and check each one, Carl.
Make sure.
If you make a lot out of it, it's going to be hard.
If you don't make anything out of it, it's going to be easy.
Now let's come down the arpeggio.
Well, first of all, play it flat and then change the first vowel.
That's your pedal F.
Now what's difficult about that?
Absolutely nothing.
He does it so easy.
When I first got there, it was a struggle.
All right.
Now come down the arpeggio.
Great.
They all feel the same now.
E feels exactly like the F.
There's no slot for it.
You hear it.
The E.
Now it's the same on every brass instrument.
I don't care what the instrument is.
All brass instruments are basically the same.
That's why I get so upset.
The older I get, the madder I get all the time.
There's garbage about the lip placement for different brass instruments.
It's all the same.
I had a student up in San Francisco on a double B flat tuba.
Now you know how big that instrument is.
He went down, which I've heard some statements from some great tuba players
recognized around the country that said, pedal tones on a tuba?
Are you kidding?
He went down to the first pedal one octave below on a double B flat tuba.
You remember him, but I can't remember his name.
And you know how high he went on a double B flat tuba?
Double high B flat.
So don't say it can't be done because it can.
If you practice correctly, okay?
E flat.
Notice I haven't said a word.
His chest is still up.
In other words, he's practiced it now for many years.
It's automatic.
He wouldn't play without the chest being up, okay?
Now you see, practicing like this and resting between each note,
all that will happen is he'll start feeling better all the time.
He gets a feeling like he's loosened up, blood circulated.
Get that rest.
He doesn't feel tired like he's been blowing a lot of notes.
All right, B flat.
Good.
Now if you want to know this beautiful position of playing and everything,
take note and try and imitate that.
I had a guy in New York, a student went back to New York,
and he's sitting at the bar and he's watching the band.
And the band was marvelous.
Some of those New York bands were great.
And not all of them, some pretty poor ones.
This one was a great band.
It was sitting up there playing, and the student at the bar,
he was an excellent player.
So in intermission he went up to the first trumpet and he says,
Jesus, you play well.
He says, I appreciate it.
He says, come on over, I want to buy you a drink.
So the guy, they're sitting at the bar,
and the student looked at the player and he said,
you know, he says, you look like you might be a student of a teacher I studied with.
And he said, why is that?
He says, well, the way you sit, the way you breathe and the sound.
And he says, well, I studied with a guy in Los Angeles named Gordon.
And the guy says, that's my teacher.
And he probably never left the bar.
Now we get down to pedal C, concert B flat.
Now it's a whole different picture, a whole different bag of tea.
Can I see your systematic?
Now something that probably no one has ever read,
because they got the book.
Page 10.
Where it starts, it says the register.
Someone that can read loud, would they read this?
You did it yesterday, read that.
On page 10.
Let me see, now this is bass clef.
No, I need it out of the treble clef.
Now who read that?
Oh, good.
Read it once more, real loud.
And you know how long it may take you to pull it up to pitch?
Three years, four years, five years.
Forget you're a musician at this point.
To do it correctly, it has got to be flat, very flat.
Probably clear down to a G, a fifth.
Now Carl, can you play it incorrectly?
Sure.
Now incorrectly is trying to do it the same way that he did the F.
In other words, trying to get it with the lift.
You want to hear that?
I don't want to try and get the pitch.
No.
He can't do it wrong.
Once you do it right, you can't do it wrong.
Now generally, everybody tries to get it the same way and right in tune.
That's not right.
This is not going to be in tune, so don't try to get it in tune.
Now the way we get this, you drop your jaw.
Dee da da ah.
It has nothing to do with the lift.
Forget the lift.
Dee da da ah.
And let come out anything that comes out with a full sound.
I don't care what the note is.
Now let it come out wrong.
The way to drop.
Now that is correct.
I think it's not even a G. It's lower G, isn't it?
Don't worry about what it is.
That's the way it's going to sound if it's right.
Try it again.
Down.
Ah ah ah ah ah.
Now notice the lift did nothing.
The jaw dropped.
Dee da da ah.
Let that jaw come down.
Now some are going to do it right away.
Others will work on it all day and it won't come right away.
But it will.
Now the reason it doesn't come at first is because you won't let it come.
Let loose.
Relax.
Do it once more.
Ah ah ah ah ah.
From there down, they all feel like that.
Let me hear the beat.
Half-step wonder.
No.
Ah ah ah ah ah.
Same thing.
Now notice the lower lift does not turn out.
You never worry or you never think about that lower lift turning out.
If it turns out, you're doing it wrong.
Leave the lip alone.
It stays.
The jaw goes ah.
On top.
Do it again.
B flat.
Ah ah ah ah ah.
Now some will try and get it and some will teach you this.
Turn that lip out.
No.
You never saw anything happen there at all, did you?
All right.
Now let's go back to the pedal B flat, the concert and the pedal C.
Now get it under like you did then and then start to bring it up.
Ah ah ah ah ah ah.
Now it'll come up like that as you go along.
And eventually it'll get in tune.
It'll get in tune like you noticed the soloist last night.
Or they were then out of that pedal register like there was nothing in there.
They were doing octaves and intervals and everything.
Eventually it'll get in tune but not for a long time.
Now if you try to bring it up, you're going to be in trouble.
I had a student in San Francisco, a very good student.
After one year, now every lesson he'd come in.
He said, I can get it in tune.
I said, I told you not to get it in tune.
No, but I can do it.
Okay, let's see.
You did it?
Absolutely wrong.
That went on for one year.
Then I said, all right, now what was your name on the whiteboard?
Oh God.
No, that wasn't your name.
Was it Tom?
Anyway, I said, all right.
I said, all right now, Tom, we're going to start all over.
This is all over.
I said, right.
And if you don't do it right this time, we're not going to start again.
I said, I told you not to get it in tune.
I don't want it in tune.
All right, this time we did it.
We started all over the beginning.
By the end of the year, he was doing it fine.
It wasn't in tune yet, but he was getting the right form and shape.
You're not going to use it in music anyway right now.
In time, as the soloist did last night, you'll lose it.
But we're not going to use it now.
So why are you worried about it?
It's a calisthenic.
Get it right.
All right, now on part two.
Now some of you that are not, you'll always use, in the application class you'll get this.
You always will use this part one routine.
But on those that are having problems that we have to work with, we'll go into the physical approach.
So you will not be using the part two routine until you've completely finished that other book.
But here's what we do.
Now your pedal C will be under.
And you notice that part two is tongue.
Part one was slurred.
Now part two is tongue.
Now the first arpeggio is the same thing going the other way.
Your pedal C, E, then G and C.
Now your pedal C will be under.
Understand everybody?
All right?
The pedal E will be in tune.
You adjust to that as you go up.
Now some will say, yeah, but I have a hard time coming out of that.
Of course you do.
That's why we're practicing.
Eventually you won't.
Now in order to do this right, before you start the first arpeggio of part two,
test an octave E and play the E.
All right.
That's the note you come to after the pedal C, which is way down.
So keep that feel and that pitch in mind.
Like that.
Of course there will be adjustments.
Somebody says, well, my lip seems to move.
Of course it will.
It has to move.
But don't go looking in mirrors.
Forget the lip.
Let's try it now.
That's it.
Now that is not a long hold.
The long hold is on the first one only.
Now notice, though, he did make a crescendo.
That's it.
You never lose it.
You quit at the strongest point.
It's a crescendo and it's a hold to the crescendo only.
Now that's the only tricky one.
You'll have to work and that will be an application.
Now C sharp.
Now if you don't have your fingers and you're stumbling
all over with fingers, you're going to have a problem.
Mark them in if you need it.
Don't go by chance.
And you read those notes.
Don't go by ear.
I've got so many students that never learn their arpeggios
because they're trying to hear everything rather than read it.
And Don, you know what I'm talking about.
All right.
Next one.
Now notice he stops between each one.
You test each starting note with the octave.
O.
O.
And then you rest.
Not because you're tired, but because you don't want to get tired.
And you rest.
I wish you had a cup of coffee.
You know during a lesson, I'd have several lessons in the morning.
And I found out later I was drinking 22 cups of coffee by noon.
When I stopped, it was like going to sleep every day.
And that's not good.
Yeah, but when I was taking with him, I remember Bruce and I would drive down
at least at one in the morning in San Francisco and drive all the way to LA
because our lessons were at eight and nine in the morning.
And during that time, we were like one of the first people
to start at like eight or nine in the morning.
And he would go straight through until one, sometimes two in the morning,
no breaks.
This was back in the 70s.
And what he would have was like one of his students that was waiting
because everybody went over.
Everybody.
He had to be first in the day if he wanted to be on time.
And he'd be waiting and he'd send you out for lunch.
And he'd eat his lunch while he was teaching.
He never got out of that chair until midnight.
And then Bob O'Donnell.
And then Bob O'Donnell and Tom and John would be the last ones.
And then they'd say, come on, let's go out and have pizza and beer.
And then they'd keep him out until all hours and he was up the next morning.
I'll never forget one student came in one day
and they all improved to a point where, of course I'm used to this now
and I know how to handle it, but they get to a point where they're going to test you.
I tested you.
Yeah, I know.
And he brought in this book, Aaron Harris book.
And I had never used that at that time.
This is quite a few years ago.
It's a marvelous book, but very difficult book.
Very difficult.
And full page etudes.
And he says, you know, I've been looking at this.
Now this is at nine o'clock in the morning.
And I'd played in the studio the night before
and I was still trying to get my eyes open.
And he says, would you play this for me?
He says, I just can't get anything out of it.
And I'll swear he must have studied and taken the toughest etude in that book.
I think it was in seven sharp or seven flats, seven flats.
And right away it dawned on me, oh, this kid's putting me on.
I hadn't had the horn out of the case since the night before.
So we put it up on the rack and I got the horn.
And I says, all right, Chuck, that was Chuck.
And I says, OK, Jack.
And I played it from top to finish.
No such thing as a warm-up or anything.
And I put the horn down, my hand in the book.
I said, ah, Jack, when you can do that, you call yourself a trumpet player.
He never mentioned it again.
OK.
Everybody's done that, though.
I've got to agree.
OK.
You notice the first thing?
Still up, isn't it?
You're out of the pedals.
How hard about that?
OK.
Don't get impatient and try and rush.
Relax.
And you can have a sip of coffee if you want between some of them, you know.
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.
Oh, yeah.
And Carl is the prime example of a great student.
Believe me, I could go into hours of discussion.
And he had his doubts at first on things, which is normal.
But boy, what a student.
And Carl Leach was put down by all the teachers in the San Francisco area,
the college teachers and everyone.
Stay away from that guy.
And yet, he turned out a lot of good students.
He sent me more students in that one year up there than I could even handle.
And he still had plenty.
OK.
Golly, what am I on?
Yeah.
Right.
That's right.
Way back.
Way back.
He sent me Tom and Ken when we first went up there.
And now Tom and Ken are virtual players.
And the teachers all put them down, too.
There was one time I remember I taught, I had over at San Jose State University,
and they had two pieces of real down on this.
And because the teachers that were there had tenure,
they had their own little universe, you know, ideas and stuff like that.
You don't want to shake those things up.
And one year in the symphonic band, which was their top band,
except for one person, they had like one person on a part,
and there were three trumpets for it.
It was like seven trumpets or something like that.
And out of the six or seven trumpets, six or seven were mine.
And they were all the first chairs.
It was already the last chair.
Oh, I gloated.
That was a terrible night.
Paul Redwood was the first chair.
Paul Redwood.
Did you get your horn played?
Yeah.
Looks beautiful.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you did a good job.
Who did that?
Larry.
Oh, Larry does a good job all the time.
What horn are you playing?
This.
Okay.
Do you want to know the number?
Number five.
That'll be a real collector's item.
Okay.
This pipe here, I played this for so many years, and it's like after a while.
I didn't have any, what I might have was lacquered when I first got it.
It was half a year ago, and I was playing this night on the show,
and I felt my finger just kind of like, seemed like it was moving down there,
and actually went right through the pipe.
And I looked down, and there were like 11 holes down a bit of my finger cover,
and just like tiny little holes, and I just put it down the middle,
and it was like rubber, just ready to go.
So I sent it to Larry, and he played the pipe, and did all this other stuff.
It lasted a long time though.
Because I had it when we first did it.
Yeah, right.
Well, that's 10 years ago.
A mile.
Two years, isn't it?
That's right, that's right.
Now, notice that sound isn't getting thinner, is it?
It's exactly the same all the way.
It's the same, okay?
Ah, tee, tee, tee.
Okay.
Now it starts to sound like that.
I'll do it for you.
Sure.
Okay.
Contrary to what you're told, when you're playing correctly
and using the tongue in your mouth, the tone does not get smaller.
And yet you're told in your classes that if you use the tongue level,
your tone gets smaller.
That's not true.
It'll get bigger.
Now, maybe you get to the sea, and that's as far as you can go.
Fine.
It's not how high you go, it's how you do it.
You go as far as possible.
Now then, your criteria is if you miss it, you stop.
Okay, now you try it again.
You miss it, you stop.
Now you try it one more time, thinking all the correct things.
Is my chest up?
Is my tongue level?
Am I thinking T?
Am I blowing stronger?
If you miss it the third time, forget it.
That's it.
Baseball rule.
Baseball rule.
Three strikes and out.
And don't you dare try to go further now.
We're working for a feel.
And it's not theory.
It's the feel.
We don't play by theory.
We play by feel.
You think.
Now if you drop it, if the tone drops, like you lose your top note and you drop down to the interval below, you either quit blowing or your tongue level drops.
Then you go tee-ya, and the tone will drop.
We used to call those kind of misses tee-ya's.
Oh, good God.
Now he doesn't talk.
Now notice that high F is just as big as his middle C.
And he's not trying to make it that way.
He's just playing correctly.
Someone will say, well, you play, your mouthpiece is too open.
You've got to get a smaller or it won't cut.
That'll cut through anything.
Now, again, Bud Hurst is back in the Chicago Symphony.
Can you imagine him playing one of those little tight restricted mouthpieces and trying to get out ahead of that orchestra?
It won't work.
That mouthpiece has got to be open.
Okay.
Good G.
Okay.
A flat seems to be a little elusive.
You may squirrely around it, but that was good to all buy that car.
Okay.
Carl, you need to work on your tone.
That's a pretty good B flat.
Ah, that's a good double B.
Okay.
Well, they don't need to stop there with Carl.
Double C sharp.
Okay.
I don't think so.
You can tell Carl's having a bad day.
Okay.
All right.
Three strikes and out.
Now, last year, Carl went up to, what was it, F sharp.
I'll buy an E flat double any time.
Last year, he went up to a double high F, just as big as his middle C.
All right.
Now, what you're playing in the next day will have an effect, but Carl is always doing
the same thing.
All right.
Now, yeah, there'll be tension on your face, because in a sense, that's a kind of a long
tone feel, but we're moving, so it's not long tone in a sense.
But you will still get that stiffening.
Not here.
Forget the lip.
It means nothing.
But you'll get tense here.
So we have to take that tension down.
So turn to lesson three.
Now, in lesson three, part three is the way we take the tension off the lip.
We call that the relaxer.
After every register exercise in the book, you use that relaxer.
And don't say, oh, I forgot about that.
I haven't been doing that.
It's how you practice.
Get that tension off your mouth like this.
All right.
All right.
Three times.
Now, put the horn down.
Put the horn down and turn away from here.
In the book, if I were going to revise it, I'd do it differently.
You'll notice it says after the first routine, it'll say rest 15 minutes.
That's too long, really.
Rest between routine one and two, a couple of minutes will be fine.
Five is enough.
The reason I put 15 is because if you say 15, the average youngster might rest one.
So after the second routine, it says rest one hour.
That's too long.
Five, 10 minutes is plenty.
It says in the book one hour.
That's too much.
I purposely put these way over because knowing the impatience of students, if you say an hour, as I say, they may rest a couple of minutes.
But five, 10 minutes is plenty.
All right.
Now, you notice there's no diaphragm mentioned.
It has nothing to do with diaphragm.
Now, the minute we get into diaphragm discussions, like Dr. Miller, is he hearing it?
Dr. Miller and I were in New York at the brass conference and another doctor came up to him and they got to discussing the diaphragm.
And the doctor, the other doctor says, you're wrong.
I just finished the lecture on it.
Larry Miller said, no, that's right.
You cannot use anything like a diaphragm.
It's a false theory.
And the first thing you know, it's becoming almost a fight.
This other doctor was going to fight him.
And I didn't notice what was going on.
I was talking to another player and they were behind me.
Larry says, where were you when I needed you?
But they were, they were back there and had almost got in, two doctors had almost got into a fist fight.
And this doctor said to Larry, he says, well, have you ever seen a diaphragm?
Larry says, every day, because he does cardiovascular surgery.
So he says, only every day.
And then Larry says, have you?
Larry says, well, a few times.
So he's the one that was going to do the argument.
Now, Bob, do you want to come up here?
And I want you to tell them about some of the experiences you've had with diaphragm discussions.
I think that's a very close one.
Come up here and we can hear you.
Now this, this will happen.
Well, I think, I think my son Eric is the one that had this.
Oh, was he?
Yeah, it was Eric that had this.
Oh, is he here?
He's here somewhere.
We've had major discussions, but I've never had anything like that.
Uh-huh.
But Eric has, right?
Yeah, he has.
Yeah, see if we can locate him.
I'd like to tell what you're going to be up against with these theories.
Okay.
Kent, is Kent there?
Huh?
Call Sandra and Tom.
I want to use the videotape.
Any questions while we're sitting here waiting?
When you're doing that liporectis, does it really matter what kind of slur it?
I, I think it works better when you talk.
And that, a nice strong attack.
Slurring goes too smooth, you know, because that's what we want.
We want to get that, and after that third time you'll notice that tension is gone,
and you feel pretty relaxed.
Okay, now then.
Okay?
Have we got the video?
I don't know if it works.
What we had last year, same thing, where I went up to the double C and back.
Oh, we've got to have it.
Now's the time to do it.
And then the other one was the chromatic scale, up and down.
Well, we should, but okay.
Why don't you find it in market?
We'll go tomorrow.
Here, put this on the table.
I have others too, but I don't know whether I got it here or not.
You might put this on the table too.
Oh, right.
Okay, is that it?
Yeah, we'll get it tomorrow.
Okay.
Now then, we'll do that, we'll do that tomorrow on the other,
that's going to make the session tomorrow really long.
Sorry.
We got to what, 11 if we need it?
We'll get it.
Okay.
All right.
Now incidentally, while you've got a chance and you're here,
try that trumpet that Carl was playing.
We'll get into that later in the week, but that trumpet is amazing.
And I don't care what you play, that's up to anybody, but try it.
Try it.
Now when you try an instrument, don't take the instrument
and see how high you can play it.
I see guys at these trade shows, they go in and they get a missile
and they're going to try it.
All I hear is whee, whee.
Finally, you have to walk out.
Well, I don't know what they're doing that for.
That doesn't mean when it's a good trumpet or not.
The trumpet doesn't get you high range, so you do.
So don't forget that.
When you get a trumpet and you want to try it out,
get the center range so you feel what that thing is responding
and how light it is.
Now don't go by tradition either.
You go into a symphony and they'll say, oh, you've got to play a Bach.
That's tradition.
Now there's nothing wrong with playing a Bach trumpet.
It's one of the best made trumpets ever.
They also make the C.G. Selmer.
They're made right on the same bench.
So it is made very well.
And those trumpets have the best vowels in the world.
There's no vowel that can come up to the Selmer vowel,
which is the same that's in the Bach.
It's the tapers in the horn that make the difference.
And we'll get to that on another day.
Don't ever try horns prejudice.
You might buy a horn because you like the way it looks or something like that.
Or maybe you've got in your head, oh, I've got to get that tunable bell.
That's a disaster.
I don't know how some of these players get by with that tunable bell.
But they do.
I notice that one of the things that David, that Evans did last night,
he used that tunable bell.
Could you imagine sitting in the symphony and then,
oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, let me get this bell tuned up here.
And it means nothing.
Because Dave has a horn now.
He's going to have to use it, so.
I paid for it.
Did you find, Eric?
No, but we're still living.
The band is gone.
I had a feeling you ran the band over.
Okay.
While we're waiting, is there any questions now on the discussion this morning?
Any questions?
Oh, good.
Come in here.
Now, if there is, ask them now.
Or when you go into the application class, ask them to.
Yes?
Carl?
Carl, I just like, I only bought three books.
But I'm saying we're going to go through it on the 29th.
So I'm going to talk about it today and I'd like to go through it.
Yeah.
A lot of questions.
That's a good decision.
It's a good book.
It really is.
I went through the whole thing yesterday.
And Carl, I'm real pleased with what you've done on that book.
And he's really done a good job.
That shows that over the years he has learned everything.
And one thing of all, remember now from today, it's how you practice.
I'll tell you how to do it.
Now, if you don't do it, it's not going to work.
Don't just play notes.
That will develop nothing.
You can go through that whole book dozens of times.
It won't mean a thing unless you practice it correctly.
Now, you'll notice that every great player and every great teacher has stressed that.
Clark?
Williams?
At the turn of the century.
I must be getting old.
I keep forgetting his name.
Who was the great player at the turn of the century that I always refer to?
Before him.
Levy.
Jewish Levy.
One of the books calls Jewish Levy the supreme egotist.
And he was.
But you know the funny part of it, he could back it up.
That was an amazing part.
There's a book out that should be in every school library.
Now, they've lost it.
It's out of print.
The guy that printed it just gave up.
It's called Pioneers of Brass.
Pioneers of Brass.
How come these guys got pretty watches?
So proud of them, they hold them up and show them off every day.
And it's called Pioneers of Brass.
And if you can find a copy, buy it.
It's not 100% accurate, but it's accurate enough to use.
It's very good.
Well, it was written by a guy named Bridges.
And he published it himself.
He was a hobby trombonist.
And so he spent all his time looking up these things.
It's got every one of those old pioneers that you could think of.
He has history on them.
And it should be in every library.
It should be in every player's library.
But you can't get it.
I've got two of them, but I'm not going to let them get away.
You see, I was that kind of a player.
And every time something came out, I grabbed it and kept it.
So I let some guys Xerox mine on a coffee machine.
And they get some good out of it.
It goes clear back to Arvin, Saint-Jacques, all of them.
Just a beautiful book.
Okay.
Eric, come up here, would you?
Now, Eric has had some experience with diaphan discussions.
I just want you to relate some of them to the severest, all of them.
Well, last summer I went to this camp and was told all about the diaphan and everything.
So I asked some friends there, some rest support therapists and doctors and everything.
And they're all like, what?
They tried to tell me that this was just renaming parts.
Well, that's wrong.
There's a whole group of things that are called a diaphan.
So I'm here to learn some more.
But all your teachers, like I had voice pedagogy, and all your teachers will say,
no, you sing from your diaphan and everything.
And they could never explain to me what they were trying to make me do.
But yeah, it's just, you know, it's been this way for years and years.
I just, my only question was how to explain to a medical doctor or something.
That's where you take the book Brass Playing and turn to Dr. Miller's statement.
And they cannot, you don't have to worry about whether you're right or not.
You're right.
And they're totally wrong.
It's a misconcept.
And don't be afraid to stand up for it.
Now, this was good, Eric.
You've got to be careful about what clinics you go to.
Because boy, they say some strange things at clinics.
And don't be afraid.
I congratulate you on the fact that you question them.
Question them.
They're supposed to be the teacher.
So a person will say, well, how can this be?
How can that possibly work?
What are the lungs for?
What are these marvelous muscles around the lungs?
What are they for?
Are they just there to look pretty or what?
At least on the girls that are pretty.
So you've got to, don't be afraid to question them, whatever you do.
And don't back down because you're right.
And eventually you're going to be teaching.
So you want that.
Now, you had almost some violent discussions, didn't you?
Can you relate to any of those?
No, it's just that all the respiratory therapists' books and everything,
they'll whip them out and say, no, this whole thing right here,
they can write it.
So they accept anything with a C in books.
Whereas Dr. Miller has studied this with death.
They won't, you know, well, this is what the book says.
So there's a lot of blinds.
That's right.
That's right.
Now, Eric, would you put that on Bruce's table?
And this one too.
Look at this when you go back.
Now, okay.
All right.
Now we're going to move along.
We're going to move along now.
When's the next class?
Okay.
All right.
Thank you very much.
I hope you enjoyed the morning.
Okay.
Thank you.