Claude Gordon Brass Camp 1991 - Claude Gordon on Wind Control and Fingers with Rich Hofmann

You know, it's great to see. Here's one of the foremost trumpet players in the country.
And he comes in and sits in on all the sessions.
The doctor is really excited this morning.
And I feel very happy and honored that Frank Canarelli comes and sits in and pays this much attention.
Can I make the other two questions?
I have to say that the pleasure is mine.
You know, this is your lecture, so I'm going to keep my watch out for you in here.
I do want to say that I think playing the trumpet, or any instrument, is a lifelong project.
And I always said to myself that the day that I stop studying is the day I'm going to play the trumpet again.
And this is a learning experience.
And when Claude asked me to come, I came happily because I knew I was going to learn something.
And that's just the way I feel about it.
And I think that a lot of you have never been to a camp like this.
And exposure is maybe years down the way when you don't take your notes and you remember things that have been said.
You say, my garden stands by the white flag, and they really are.
Thank you.
I really get a kick out of it.
Last night I was talking to one of the students, Frank, and one of them asked me,
and it made me think of your conversation with me a lot.
It was the trumpet player in New York, Gary Glick.
And he said, is Frank Patrick Everett Russian Jewish?
No, not Russian Jewish, Czechoslovakian Jewish.
I said, no, he's Czechoslovakian, born in this country.
And the innocent thing about Frank, he speaks Czechoslovakian, so absolute fluency.
We've had some good stories about that, how much that has helped him over in the old country.
All right, did you study your book last night?
Any questions on it?
Okay, now then.
The study for today is page 27 up through page 28.
That's an easy one.
27, 28.
And our discussion today, we talked about wind power,
and you all realize how that's tied in with endurance now, because what was the rule again?
The wind does the work.
The air saves the lift.
What's the second rule?
Tongue channels the pitch.
Okay, now today we're going to talk on wind control.
Now, wind control does not mean that you play until you're so out of wind that there's just nothing left.
You're playing like this.
Wind control is to play completely through a particular part or etude or what,
and end up with plenty of air.
The last note should always be the strongest with a slight hold, everything you do.
Herbert Clark used to get so mad if you take his technical studies,
and at the end of every exercise it has a hold over the bar, not over the last note, it's over the double bar.
And he used to get so mad every time we turned to him.
The hold should be over the last note.
So they make these mistakes in the printing, and then they never get reprinted.
Who has the clock technical studies with them?
In the red book.
Now it's a shame, we talked about this on Sunday night,
it's a shame how revisers get a hold of books.
Now I don't know how this reviser got a hold of Clark's books,
someone in the company hired him after that night,
and I don't know why they didn't, if they wanted it revised, why they didn't send it out to me,
and I'd have done it for nothing.
You know, there was no revision to the old Clark book.
My, it was almost perfect.
There wasn't a mistake in it, the text was excellent.
Now this version comes out, I want to read to you.
Now on the ninth study,
in the original Clark book, excuse me,
in the original book, it read that, have you done it?
Up in the top, it says each of the following exercises should be played four more times in one breath.
That's all right.
And he started also explaining what they were, the chromatic scales,
starting with low F sharp up to G and back down four times in one breath.
Then it goes on to say it continues up by intervals.
Then he says in the original book, no strain is necessary if played properly.
Now I have asked many, many players, what do you suppose he meant by that?
Well, actually, he meant exactly what he said and what we mentioned in the Williams book,
where Williams said if you're in tune with the elements of nature,
now that's exactly what he meant.
He's talking about if your tongue level is working like it should,
your wind power is up so that your power is there, no strain will be necessary.
Now you couldn't put it any other way.
He couldn't go in and explain that, it would take pages,
and then you wouldn't understand it if you put an interpretation to it.
Like we've been all week just getting an idea of correct ways of practice.
So he said no strain is necessary if played properly.
Now this is what the reviser has put in.
You will not need to strain on the high notes if you keep your lips flexible
and avoid playing too loudly.
Absolutely what he did not mean.
And that's what you're stuck with now in the instructions.
It wasn't Clark's instructions at all.
In fact, he would have told you, you play lightly on the lower notes.
I don't like the word soft, very soft,
because then you start holding back lightly.
Your chest must be up.
Then as you go up, you crescendo.
You step on the gas, you're going uphill.
The tongue arches up and you get the note solid.
Now when you come down, you ease off a little.
So this is what he meant to practice on.
Not all this garbage about keep the lips flexible.
How are you going to keep the lips flexible?
You're playing on a long, dramatic scale.
What would you do to think about to make that work?
You'd tighten and you'd get scrounged up and you would never get the exercise.
The last exercise on the next page is from low G to high G four times in one breath.
Actually, that gets easy.
It's not that difficult.
When I was much younger, when I was studying with Clark,
I was able to do it six times in one breath.
You have to have a little speed,
but you play it lightly on the bottom, strong on the top.
It comes out fine.
I didn't do it the first year, then the second, then the third,
then the fourth, but eventually I did do it.
All the way through the book, and there's mistakes.
There's terrible mistakes up in the exercises.
And that's the new revision.
So, remember those things.
If you can get the old editions, that's the thing.
It's funny.
I just revised Saint-Jacques.
And you know how I revised it?
I put it back the way Saint-Jacques intended it to be.
The revisers really messed that book up.
And the funny thing, they revised the book,
but the notes that have been in there incorrect for a hundred years
are still in there incorrect.
They never saw those.
How they revised it, they put their own ideas as to what was meant.
So, you've got to really check.
Like one player up in Canada, real good player,
and he was working for his doctorate, and he did his thesis.
And the thesis was, let's see how I'm going to put this.
Oh, he was comparing the different amateurs that were taught.
And he said, Arben and Saint-Jacques both advocate putting the mouthpiece low.
Saint-Jacques did not advocate that.
He advocated just the opposite.
But what he did in his studies for his thesis,
he took the new Saint-Jacques, which has been out for quite a few years,
which is some reviser's revision.
And this reviser put the Arben text in the Saint-Jacques.
So now, to further these errors, in his book, which generally they publish those thesis,
anyway, in his book now, it just carries on the error.
And that's the way it goes.
Now, let's speak up louder.
Someone tell me what she said.
Is the Saint-Jacques revision that you did, that you edited, is that on the market now?
What was that?
The new Saint-Jacques that you revised, is that out on the market?
Oh, no, it's not on the market yet.
I really don't know why.
I think it may be because they're waiting for all the stock to sell out before they change it.
And I changed nothing on that.
I mention that again when we talk about the lift, because that's interesting.
But I put it back the way Saint-Jacques maintained it.
And that's the way it should be.
It's Saint-Jacques' book.
It's not my book or somebody else's book.
It should be as to what he said.
All right, now wind control.
Wind control is definitely linked with your technical ability.
In other words, if you don't have the technique down,
you're not going to be able to develop wind control with the exercises that you must do.
Now notice through the Clark book, everything has to be done many times in one breath.
You're not going to do that the first time through the book.
No way.
First of all, you have to learn the exercises,
practice them until you have all the correct fingering down so that you don't stumble.
If you're trying to play an etude in one breath and you stumble,
you've lost two bars of air.
You're not going to recover that, are you, in that etude?
So if you stumble four or five times, now your control is shot before you're down.
So you have to practice in a manner I'm going to show you later.
How to practice.
I call it that, just how to practice.
It's a method of practicing backwards from the end to the front.
And it works miracles, as most of the students will tell you.
Who's got a horn?
A trumpet.
Where's Bruce?
I got one here.
I got one here.
Did you want a French horn or a trumpet?
Trumpet.
Now, a French horn is, we're going to demonstrate how to practice on a French horn.
Because the French horn has a little more problems fingering with the left hand
and holding the instrument and all that.
But it works for them, too.
Now, if you're going to work on your technique, which is violin,
first of all, you should hold your horn properly.
Now, like I told you about the little kid I was talking about,
holding the horn in the clinic.
And everybody at that time used to hold their horn like this.
Now, you have no control over that horn when you're holding it like this.
You might even drop it.
I'm kind of told that.
So, hold the horn correctly.
Now, the little kid got up and he said, well, Maynard Ferguson was through,
and he held it like that.
And that's, like I told you, fine.
When you play as well as Maynard, you hold it any way you want.
But until that time, do it right.
Now, I like to say the horn, you hold it with a firm grip.
Not like a vice, but firm.
You're controlling this thing.
You don't let it control you.
And then you put your, around.
Now, notice flat in your hand.
Not like this.
Flat.
And keep a firm grip on it.
Hold that horn straight up and down.
Not like this.
If you were a big conductor, would you hire a trumpet player that looked like this?
Notwithstanding one that looks like that.
Got more money than all of us put together now.
But he didn't get it from Trump, but he got it through a record company.
And he became very successful.
But you don't hold a horn like this.
You don't look like a bird getting ready to fly, either.
Keep it comfortable.
Always be comfortable.
Now, this, in your practice of technical things,
let your little finger rest on top of it.
And so that it can fly.
You see, if it's in there, now there's a tenon that runs right across that fourth finger.
And if you're in that finger hook, only that fourth finger has a hard time working.
So let it fly.
Now, it's there, if you need it, fine, use it.
That's what it's there for.
We didn't have an art horn years ago.
We had no finger hooks.
We just let it fly.
Sometimes you'd see us do this.
But that's not good, either.
Now, put your thumb, now you're told so many times,
put the thumb between the valves.
Never.
That's a very bad position.
Now, fine players will vary what they do.
Fine players and so on.
But you as a student, your thumb goes on the first valve, on it.
Not between them.
On it.
And never let the thumb bend.
Stiff, like this.
I used to take, Tom, do you remember what I used to do with students
that get bent in their thumb?
Carl does.
I used to take with the youngsters a very sharp pencil.
And they'd get bent all around it.
I'd very launch them out and they'd get up and I'd have this pencil.
I'd walk around like I'm watching them.
And when I'd get right by them, I'd put that pencil in their thumb.
Boy, pretty soon, if I'd just move at the desk, I'd see that hand.
They'd get conditioned.
So you have to be careful now.
Some parent might take you to court because you run a pencil
and it didn't stick right there.
I never ran it.
I just a little jab.
It didn't hurt them at all.
Okay.
Now then, I found another way I did it.
I'd take a piece of tape and tape it around and pull the thumb up
and tape it up the other end of the thumb.
So it would hold that thumb.
And every time I'd try to bend it, that tape would pull and they'd feel it.
And that worked pretty good.
I kept it on the first valve.
Now remember that.
Now if it's on the valve, now your fingers are going to fall right where they should.
The ball of the finger on the valve, not the first joint.
Or not on the second joint like that.
You see so many fingering that way.
Now if you get between the valves, the thumb will bend and then you're like this.
You will never gain any technique fingering like that.
On the valve, now so many, and I've seen guys that say they studied with Clark talk about this.
One says, well you keep your finger on the valve so it doesn't have to move so far.
That's garbage.
You get that finger off the valve, high, and strike hard.
Up and strike.
You don't push the valve down, you strike it down.
Otherwise you're going to play mushy.
You're not going to have any speed.
You'll never gain speed with the fingers on the valve pushing down.
I watched Dave Evans in his crankshaft the other night.
And I was so pleased.
Did any of you notice those valves were, his fingers were really coming up high.
He played very clean.
And I noticed the same with Rich Hoffman.
So the horn, hold it.
You're in command.
Don't worry about whether it's going this way or this way.
That means nothing.
That depends upon the shape of your face and your teeth.
And if you try to go contrary to nature, you're going to have trouble.
Kondrat Gaza was one of the most powerful first trumpet players in the world.
This was like this.
Others that play higher than anybody else actually went this.
Doesn't make any difference.
Let the horn be.
And your horn will move when you play.
Fine, let it move.
And yet I've seen those that say, no, don't hold that horn straight.
Don't you let it move.
It's got to move.
Whenever your tongue moves, your jaw moves.
And when your jaw moves, that horn's going to move.
If there was more of where to go, then you do.
So follow law naturally.
You have to play, like Clark said, no strain is necessary if correctly.
Play correctly means naturally.
Stay within the terms of nature.
Don't add burdens to this that don't exist.
Naturally.
Another man I respect very much is Larry Sousa.
He sat on the other side of the wall.
I don't know how he stood it.
All day long I would teach.
And he's on the other side.
And he has to hear all this all day.
But he's the only one that I've ever seen that he can be on a high-powered job and play beautifully.
And then he'd put the horn away for a week and come back and go on another high-powered job and play just as well.
I told Larry one time, I said, I ought to kick you all over town.
And Larry will probably remember me.
He says, why?
What did I do?
I said, it's not what you do.
It's what you don't do.
I said, if you would practice, you'd be probably one of the greatest virtuosos that ever lived.
He said, I don't like to practice.
But he always plays.
And talking about armature, I'll talk about it tomorrow.
You see, is armature in many different places?
That's modern.
Cool place.
All right.
So we have to get technique before we could get wind control.
All right?
Yes.
Thank you, Tom.
Yes.
In the first study of Clark, let's take your Clark book, everybody.
Now, let me have your horn again, Tom.
I'm sorry.
Rich, you got your horn?
Now, I want you to see.
Now, notice the hand to the stem of it is right, like this.
You're moistening your lip, of course.
Now, forget your lip.
Now, in the book, it'll say, contract the lips slightly, and the entire lip relaxes coming down.
In the new book, it's, let me see, it's not understandable.
Oh, I'm sorry.
In the new book, now, this is terrible.
Tighten the lips slightly in the descending eyes.
Loosen them on the descending eyes.
No, that leaves the wrong idea.
Clark didn't say that.
He said, contract the lips.
And even that is not absolutely right.
It's the facial muscles.
That's what contracts.
The lip itself does not move at all.
It's stationary all the time.
But you do contract these facial muscles.
That's very important.
Now, when you do this, it's, you strike your valves.
Chest is up.
Now, it says double piano.
Ignore that.
Never play softer than you can get a good sound.
So you get a good, sure sound.
And the first time through the book, don't worry about those double pianos.
But do observe the crescendo.
Because you're going uphill.
So now your fingers, notice where the thumb is on the first valve.
Now lift those fingers up.
See how high they go?
And strike them hard.
You'll never get any speed if you don't.
Now then, oh, you will get any strength either.
Now, we had examples of this.
When I was studying with Clark, I was very proud.
I could do 16 times in one breath.
I thought, boy, that's very good.
Rich off, but demonstrated a few years ago.
54 repeats in one breath.
Just think of that.
That's what you can do today with your athletic health development and all that.
54 repeats.
Now then, the etude is to be done in one breath.
Not the first time through the book.
I thought I did very well on that.
I could do that four times in one breath.
How many times did you do the etude, Rich?
Six.
So you see what could be done with practice.
Now, don't try for speeds so much the first time through the book.
Get the notes accurate.
Well, my fingers are getting worse.
They're getting stiff.
Someone says, well, a horn bounces.
Let it bounce.
That doesn't hurt you.
And just hold it a little further.
I know, I told you the other day about that cue of a show where we were doing Boby Dick.
It was so difficult.
And what we did on the show, I nailed it accurate.
Missed it every other time, but nailed it on the show.
And I was striking those vowels so hard, I'll bet they heard it through the microphone.
I just pounded them down.
Why?
All of a sudden, you're focusing your attention on accuracy.
And when you focus your attention, you strike that vowel in your head that nails that thing right there.
So concentration still plays a great part in what you're doing.
All right, now, do not use alternate fingers on the chromatics.
Use your regular scale finger.
Remember that.
Do not use alternates on the chromatics.
Now, in the second study.
Now, in this study, you have to use all the alternate fingerings.
I don't go through that with the French horn players because they already have many, many alternate fingerings.
And they have to work that out.
But on the other brass players and the trombone players, use the alternate slide positions.
Like I see the great trombone players, they never use the seventh position at all.
They're always up right around here.
But when they practice, they always practice it clear out in the seventh.
So that's very important.
Like, what was the great trombonist name in the Clark era?
Pryor.
Who?
Arthur Pryor.
Yeah.
And he was sitting on a traveling case backstage one day.
There was no light.
And he's sitting there watching him practice.
And he's practicing all these exercises clear out in the seventh.
And I said, why do you practice out there so much?
You can do it so much easier up here.
He says, that's the whole thing.
I can do it easy up there.
So I'm practicing where I can't do it easy.
Now, remember that.
You practice on what you can't do.
The easy things will come along.
You'll practice on the hard things.
I was even practicing up with Larry's Suzy Studio things that I couldn't play anymore.
I'd still practice because they were hard.
And then Larry would come in, and we'd have coffee.
And I wouldn't worry too much.
OK.
Now then, as an example, in the key of A, that's what?
The third one.
Now, the key of A.
I'm going to use the first gram at all.
Now, this is practice.
You have to practice so that you can use these alternate fingers without thinking about it.
And that's what I train the students to do.
You'll notice some of them have marvelous technique.
They're not using scale fingers all the time.
You'll run across passages you have to play that scale fingering will not work.
Violinists don't use the same fingering all the time.
They change.
Pianists.
Ooh.
Boy, they finger everything out.
45-minute concertos.
And they finger completely differently on some things.
You know what I mean?
So why not the trumpet?
And the other battles.
You play which makes it easier, smoother.
And that you've been execute all the way.
For example, in that key of A, don't use the first valve at all.
On As or anything.
You don't use the one and twos.
This.
That's low A.
And that gets a little tricky when you play it.
But you work it out until you can do it smoothly.
The key of E down at the bottom of the page.
Third valve on all As and Es.
All right, now at first that's going to get you all confused.
You do it slowly and work it out.
Now, you won't know all these fingers.
So in systematic approach, I don't remember what lesson it's in.
In an early and systematic approach.
It will give those fingers.
You get your talkbook and write those fingers in.
Now, sometimes you will use scale figuring on one and not the other.
Like the key of C.
C, D, E, one and two.
Third.
One and two.
That's smooth. You're crossing over.
Now, someone will ask, well, why did you use third or one and two?
Why did you use one and two?
It depends on what you're using before.
If your first valve is down, then one and two is smooth.
In other words, the less valves you use, the cleaner you're going to play.
So you can't think of all that.
But by practice, practice does everything.
Theory does nothing.
By practice, it gets to be in a habit.
And you automatically use those fingers without thinking about it.
That's why I have the students do it so many times.
Hundreds of times.
Over, over, over.
Now, as you get up a little further...
Oh, no, we did the E.
Now then, you go back to the D.
And you use that same fingering on the D.
Remember, it was...
But now you hold the first valve down.
Lock it down.
And then use that fingering that's on E.
Da, da, da, da, da, da.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Now, when you first start that, you're going to end up like this.
It's very awkward.
But in a while, the D becomes so smooth.
And your E and D are fingered the same way.
The only difference is D has the first valve down.
You get up higher, all the As, all the As are thirds.
Now, you get up in the top register, that...
You can use what you want.
You can use the regular or the alternate.
Like when F was the top line.
I like the third on the A and the one and two on the E.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Well, that's the third of the E you get.
Now, see, it came automatically, didn't it?
I didn't even thought of it.
So you work on them until they're automatic.
Now, you go all the way through the clerk book like that.
You mark your fingers here.
Do you do this the first time through the book as well as the second time?
No, the fingers you always use.
Yeah.
The fingers always use your alternates.
On the third study, the chords.
You don't go da, da, dee, da, da, da, dee, da, da, dee, da, da.
It's da, da, dee, da, da, dee, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
with thirds. It gets so easy. Now, if you don't work on this, you're not going to finger. Now,
a very fine trumpeter today will tell you the same thing. You lift your fingers higher and strike
the valves hard. He uses the term, bang the valves down. And that's, yeah, Clark Terry. He's a very
fine player. Clark Terry and a beautiful basher. Clark Terry and what's the other one tonight,
sir? Doc Settlinson. I've heard him say that many times. Bang the valves down. And yet, you'll find
these teachers tell you, no, you say, right on the valve. Believe me, you've got to remember what I
said. Use that reasoning. Think. And it makes it, many trumpet players don't think. They go by
emotion. Trumpet players live a lot on emotion. And they're very insecure. And they're very
over-anxious. You build a house. You build a foundation. You put the sides up. Then you
put the roof on. So what goes on last? The roof. Trumpet player doesn't want to wait. He wants to
put the roof on first. And that's where he really runs into trouble. You don't take these things,
all of a sudden, a big jump. You go gradual. Stair step. One thing develops. Then you move up.
You develop another. Finally, you don't have a fix to get it. All right. You go through the
entire Clark book like that. Now on number four, it has whole tone intervals. Or not whole tone,
whole step intervals. Now this gets very tiring and it gets difficult. Now what are we going to be
working on? These fingers. So you don't use third on that E. You don't go ta-da-dee like that. You
don't go ta-da-dee. You don't go ta-da-dee-da-da-da-dee-da. That's the simple way. You want ta-da-dee-da-da-da-dee-da
because you want to get these two fingers there. Then up higher, you go on and say G. Now that's a
little different. Ta-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da. Not because you're working on this finger again.
This gets to be one of the best fingers on your hand. Run it fast. And third finger. Oh boy,
that's a good finger. And so forth. Now some on record for playing A, you start out ta-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee,
ta-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee-da-dee. Now you change. Like that. And I think that's all in systematic.
at it. I tried to, in the trombone book or the bass clef edition, I tried to put all the alternate
positions in and the puncture wouldn't do it. It cost too much to put the print in. But that is very
important. All the way through that plank book, you use those alternates. Now notice, in the very
first study, it says to be played four or more times in one go. Now generally the student can't
make it once the first time. That shows you how little development you have on your wind power and
control. Now once through is twice up and down. Most cannot even go that far. But he says to do it
four times in one breath. The first time through the book, you ignore all that. You're not working
out. You work the first time so that you get the fingering, you get these things under your finger
so that you can play them. Don't worry about if you can't make the high notes all the time. Like
the fifth study goes up to high F. All right? Just go as far as you can. And don't go forcing and
straining. That's far enough. Eventually you'll get the high F and higher. But if you're not ready
for it, get the fingering, get the notes. Now you go through, the ninth study is a little strenuous
for the student the first time through the book. So I take them through eight studies. Now they've
got the fingering down if they practice. They've got the fingering down. They've got the notes. They
understand the etudes. Now we start the book over again. Now this time the chest is up. So now you
go back and you start playing it lightly. Again, I don't like the word song. Lightly. Just figure,
oh this is so easy. Come up here, Richie. Now it says double piano. You try to think that with a
grain of salt. Just get the attitude, oh this is easy. Now with wind control, it takes just as much
wind power to play softly as it does loudly. The only difference is you're controlling it. So you
start with that chest up. Let's try that, Rich. Have you played today? Not really. Okay. Take it
lightly. Now you don't have to make a marathon out of it. We'll do it a few times in one breath.
Okay. So you play it lightly. Now you start working for four or more times in one breath.
You won't make it the first time, but you try and you work on it. Now I'll stay on each study
for one month. You're going to accomplish quite a bit if you have to do it. We used to, I was playing
in a theater in LA with the house band and we'd have to play 11 o'clock morning matinee and then
we'd have the stage show. Then they'd have a film and we'd have the stage show and so forth,
all day long. I'd get in early in the morning. I'd get in about nine o'clock and I'd go down
into the basement by the, they had these big steam boilers and things for heat, you know. And I'd go
down there where if there was anyone up in the theater that wouldn't bother them and I would
practice this. And I'd go through that whole thing many times. I didn't have the time to play the
first show. So I'd get up and we'd be on stage. Now the minute the show was over, the guys run
out for coffee and donuts after the first show. I'd go back down to the boiler and I'd do that
again. It's just absolutely like everything Clark told me. Fingers high, strike them many times in
one breath. Time for the next show. I'd go back and we'd get on stage. Now that it was middle afternoon,
the guys ran out for a beer. I went back. I had a fellow and I said, boy, I'd like to have your
fingers. I said, yeah, I'd like to have your tongue. I said, I'll tell you what, I'll trade my tongue for your fingers.
Now we used to batter around like that. Now talking about tonguing. Oh wait a minute, first of all, wait a
minute. Now you go through that entire book that way. Now when you get to the fifth etude, it'll say
the page in one breath. That's not so difficult. That chest up, you'll end up, and the idea is to end up
with the chest up with plenty of air to spare. Not to be like this, trying to grasp it out.
That chest is up now. One of the students, Bob O'Donnell, one time came in and I said, Bob, I think
we're about ready to work on this for a little more control. I said, let's take the fifth etude
and try it in one breath. He says, okay. How do you want it? Tongue or slur? We're about to show off, you know.
And he tongued it through very well. But the interesting thing, he didn't go that fast. And he still ended up
with air to spare. I've had many students K-Tongue in one breath. And all, all these ways. So work through the book
do as it says. Work for one breath. The etudes breathe where it says. Then, once you get them down, now try to do them in one breath.
You can play every etude in that book in one breath. At first you say, oh, that can't be done. But it can be done.
Now, when you do that, think of how much easier your playing is going to be. Now, tonguing plays an important part.
You don't hear much talk about tonguing, only what we mentioned yesterday. And you want to tongue, they'll open up
a harvest book, so they'll practice it. There's exercises for harvest. But what I do, and I've been doing this now
particularly much more than the students, they have to learn now, and they're doing it very well, to triple tongue
with a double tongue. In other words, you're tonguing triplets, but you're doing it with a double tongue.
Instead of, and this is not new, it's in St. Jacob's, 120 years ago. Instead of going T-T-K-T-T-K-T-T-K,
T-K-T-K-T-T-K-T-K-T. T-K-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T. Boy, you can tongue so fast.
I believe that Fingers, in his Carvel of Venice tongue that way. How'd you do that yesterday, Brad?
T-T-K. I did it the regular way.
Was it T-K-T or T-T-K?
T-T-K.
I believe Stager did...
actually double tongue.
Mendez was tremendous reputation for his tongue.
He told me one day he had a lousy single tongue.
He's like, I can't single tongue work the neck.
He double-tongued everything.
And look how he can tongue.
So they have to go through each exercise.
But just like St. Jacoba laid it out, tk, tk, tk.
And that's not enough.
Then they have to do it backwards, ktk, tk, tk.
And so then we go through the entire urban section,
each one with ttk, tk, tk, tk, tk, and ktk, tk, tk.
Now, after a few months of that, it will look pretty good.
Now, back to Plum for just a second.
The first time through the book, you do models.
You take the first study one week singletongue,
one week ktongue, one week doubletongue,
and one week slur as written.
So it takes a month on each exercise.
Now, after, that'll take eight months to get through the book.
Now you're ready to go back and start over.
Now, a little bit on that tugging.
Do you have any of those tugging exercises you can remember?
Anybody have an Arbens book?
Now, Rich is doing very well on this, though.
What page, remember?
160, so that's the start.
It'll take much longer.
Let's just do one.
Don't get it too difficult for them.
You've been through them, so.
Now, first of all, he's going to do a t-t-k.
You've got to do a doubletongue with the triplets.
T-t-t-t-t-t.
OK, now do it backwards.
K-t-k-t-k-t.
K-t-k-t-k-t.
It's not that hard.
But you know that I don't know any young player that would even
think of doing that or practicing it hundreds of times
as it's necessary to train the tongue.
But I've had many students say, well, which one do I use?
Now, which one is the best one?
Now, I'm going to answer like Clark answers me
on a lot of questions.
I don't care which one you use.
You use which one works the best for what you have to play.
OK, thanks, Rich.
All right, now then.
I've got to remind what I said the other day.
Without technical proficiency, there can be no music.
Now you play easily.
You notice the thing about it.
Everyone that plays well plays easily.
And that's something you ought to take note of.
It's not that, well, the china shop, blow your eyes out.
They play easily.
All right, now then, on the wind control,
if you stumble, you lose air.
And now also, when you're playing,
in order to have that control, you keep that chest up.
Once the chest is down, there's no control.
Why?
This is your gas tank.
This is your power.
Like Clark said, which was so great.
The power generated by the muscles of the chest.
Now, we certainly learned that with Dr. Miller's
demonstrations and all.
Not the diaphragm.
And yet you'll find the word diaphragm in everybody's book.
It was in systematic approach, but I've got it taken out.
Unfortunately, I was able to do that.
It's in Clark's book.
He said the power generated by the chest and the diaphragm.
That was such a common belief at that time.
That the diaphragm had that important part.
And nobody questioned it.
They did not have the modern fluoroscopes and things to check it out.
So they just added that in.
So they, because it was such a common thought.
Clark never talked that.
Never did he mention that.
He said the power generated by the muscles of the chest.
Just like we've been talking about.
Now, you must get those things all in one breath.
That's going to take time.
I'm going to ask Mary Devon, can you come up?
Can you get your arm up?
There's a way to practice these.
And get them down so they're flawless.
I call it how to practice.
Just to give it a name.
You know, if you're going to talk about something.
It has to have a name where you don't know what we're talking about.
Now, this, you can sit down if you want.
I don't care.
French horn players don't like it.
Because I make them stand all the time when they practice.
But they like to sit down.
Like, you'll see many French horn recitals.
And they sit down.
But you notice Brad yesterday stood up.
And it looks much better.
And you're a soloist then.
All right, now, take your second etude in Clark's book.
The second study.
Now, you've written in your pencil finger.
And you're honking it.
Always writing in.
So it's using.
Now, what we're going to do.
Always, I happen to do it on the first week.
So you're toning it.
Let's take the last five notes.
Actually, the last four notes and the ending note.
And I want you to tone it slowly.
Da, dee, da, da, da.
And you're concentrating.
Right on the four notes.
The last four notes.
Yeah.
I want you to hear.
Now notice one thing.
And French horn teachers won't teach you this.
Turn the other way and do it once.
Notice your fingers?
They're up, aren't they?
It's the same principle.
You're striking something.
And French horn valves are not that agile anyway.
An old rotary valve is kind of a flubsy valve.
They're a little slower.
That's right.
Frank, did you ever have a leader in a symphony
that asked you to play a rotary valve?
Did you like it?
I don't know.
But the French horns are stuck with it.
And they're going to be forever.
So in fact, it wouldn't even work with it.
Let's try that.
Now do that again.
Very slow.
Very accurate.
If you make a miss, it doesn't count.
Again.
Again.
And again.
All right.
Now back up and do the next four notes.
D, da, da, da, D, up to the first note.
Da, da, da, da, da.
Da, da, da, da, da.
Da, da, da, da, da.
Da, da, da, da, da.
Now put those two together four times.
Da.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Da.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
I notice Tom's really watching over there, there's Tom's student.
Let's go back one more.
Da dee da da dee.
Four times.
Now so many students say, oh that's so tiring, you know she takes a horn off every time,
but it's not going to tire you out, and make sure you concentrate, and I say now let's do all three together, four times.
Da dee da da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee da dee
da da da da da da da flood
Okay.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
That's four times you're supposed to do that.
Wow.
One more.
Okay.
Now, I wouldn't have counted that one
because the second note was a little squirted on it.
Okay.
Geez.
Okay.
Okay.
I wouldn't have counted that.
We'll count it for now.
It's kind of fun, isn't it, though?
I've had many students that will say,
oh, that's so tiring.
Do I have to do that?
Well, no, you don't have to.
But if you're going to be a good player,
you're better.
It's accuracy.
You've got to be accurate.
Well, I mentioned yesterday at the concert
of how many misses that you get in the French horn section.
It's not that necessary.
How many auditions do you set in front
on horn auditions in symphony?
At least a dozen.
What do you notice about the average French horn player?
Well, the thing that has always puzzled me
about horn players is that they're not interested
in wind power and control.
The style today is if it's a little bit longer phrase,
somebody else will pick up part of it.
Yeah, I'm serious.
You know, right?
The associate is a very famous horn solo.
That long note, the associate will play that.
I had the opportunity to play with some great horn players
like Phil Farkas and Mason Jones and people like that.
And they didn't play that way.
But today there seems to be more and more of a style,
especially in auditions, we would say.
And they'd have to play the whole solo by themselves.
You know, you couldn't have an associate come running
on the stage and play that.
They'd have to play it.
And when they'd play that whole solo, they'd say,
oh, this guy.
I don't know how good is this guy.
They have no endurance factor at all.
I don't know why they're not interested in horn players.
Actually, what it is, because horn has really been neglected
a lot in proper teaching.
And anyway, it gets down to correct playing.
Mostly today, horn players are playing on little tiny mouthpieces,
small war horns.
That's not the way to go.
Brad, you played a very taxing performance this day.
What mouthpiece do you play?
It's a one drill.
A number one drill.
And did he sound like he had a real thin sound?
Or like he was working?
And he ended up, he had to go play a job after that concert.
Were you tired, Brad?
Were you worn out?
Here and here.
To the back, the wing part.
It's a problem here.
We're coming out of breath control again.
Okay, let's keep going.
One more time.
Four times three.
That wouldn't count.
You see, and you make a little light and you make mistakes.
You don't go, oh, fancy thing.
And if you make a mistake like that, forget it.
If you're performing, I'm talking about.
You make a mistake like that, you forget it.
You don't harp, oh, I made that mistake.
What am I going to do?
The next time you'll make it again only worse.
It's gone.
You're not going to recover it.
Forget it.
Not in your practice.
Okay.
Okay.
Now, you go through the entire A2 that way.
Not one day.
I have the students think that line one day.
Then the next day, do the next line the same way.
And when you get up at the beginning of the next line,
do the entire two lines.
How to practice.
Then the next day, take the next line.
But when you get to the end of that, only three lines.
How to practice.
The fourth day, the first line.
Then you go all the way.
When you get to the top, you do the whole thing.
How to practice.
In four days, you will not miss a note.
Just in four days.
Now, that's not so bad to get an A2 under your fingers, is it?
Then the rest of the time, you work on it as written
and start getting your speed up.
Then you start working for one breath.
Now, when you do it as written, watch your slur lines.
They change.
They get obvious when you re-attack.
So then you're playing at ease and not missing.
Then you work for two times in one breath.
You get that down pretty good.
Now you work for three times in one breath.
And the finale, four times in one breath.
Now, it's possible to do it more than that.
I had it up to four times and some more measures.
And that's all, because I was going under something else.
But I've got students to do it four, five, and six times
in one breath.
Rich, do you remember how many times you did the second A2 one breath?
The one she's working on?
Yeah, the second A2.
I'm not sure about 10 or 11.
How many?
Ten, I think.
Ten times.
Really good.
Take one, take one.
I'm sorry I hate this.
Now, if I'm a ten, you get up to the fifth A2.
The fifth A2 would be an A2.
Okay.
That's the way you work all the way through.
Now, if you get a hard fingering, like one of the alternate fingers,
and you find, gee, that's difficult.
You know, like cha-da-dee, da-da-da-dee, the key of E,
or the key of D with the first five down?
No.
You do that out of practice.
A measure of the time going back.
And by the time you've done that a few times,
that fingering won't be so hard.
So don't use it just when you do that A2.
You make it a tool to use on everything you do.
You're going to do your solos.
No matter what you're going to do, we're going to know how to practice.
And you're not going to be so nervous either.
Because once you know you can do what you're going to do,
the nerves will disappear.
It's when you're not sure.
That's when you get nervous.
Clark used to have quite a thing he told me about.
He always had these things worked out to help him play.
Like he would, before he did a solo,
he would go in the back room and he would play the entire solo
a half a step under what it was written or what he was going to do.
Then he'd take a little rest,
and he'd play it a half a step above what he was going to play.
Then when he went out to play the solo, it was nothing.
He had it down so bad.
So that's the way.
And like I told you the other day,
because of his wonderful breath control and wind power,
he was never known to tire out.
He would do all those things and still end up with them.
Plenty to spare.
Take it easy, I'll play it.
Isn't that wonderful to be able to do that in that way?
You can do it, too, if you work as hard as he did.
And that's the whole thing.
Where are your values?
How much do you really want to be a great virtuoso?
Do you want to be just a player?
You're not playing any rock band.
Careful.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Well, some of those aren't so easy either,
but it's not what you want for your...
How did Paul tell you about this group?
Paul?
What?
Oh, yeah.
There are some bands out there they call rock dancers.
Like Manhattan Transfer.
That group was phenomenal.
And Rich played some, but it's very taxing.
That's the book. Thanks.
Very good, Mary.
Thank you very much.
So Rich will get up some mornings and his lips are so swollen from their mouth blowing
they have to do with some of those rock bands.
It's a part of the experience.
So...
Well, I forgot what I was talking about.
Do you remember?
Yeah. All right.
Okay.
Tell them about your student, Paul.
It's in the rock band.
He's a top of the player who's in a rock band.
He's been playing in the band 24 years.
He's been playing like 30 years.
And he's a diligent practicer like a lot of us.
And he's practiced real hard on a lot of the wrong stuff, I guess.
And he's not really famous as a great trumpet player.
And I met him on a video shoot.
Actually a friend of mine was shooting a music video for him.
And we got to talk about breathing.
He had just stopped smoking.
And like nine weeks before.
And so we were talking about breathing.
And he said, oh, I got a call.
And you and Pat were on vacation or something.
And I gave him my number too.
And so he called me.
And we've become really, really good friends.
He started studying.
He literally...
Well, he had like five months off before he went on the road.
He kind of came every week for a lesson.
He called every day.
And he said, you know, this felt like, is that right?
Is that okay?
Yeah, that's okay.
And it was then like...
He'd kind of squeeze out about a G or an A above my C.
And, you know, when they do their records,
they go back and just bang out another take
and bang out another take until he gets back to doing it.
And he hated that.
But, you know, we got to practice what he was practicing his whole life.
And it never worked out.
By...
Within a month, he was playing...
It was systematic.
He was playing up to double C.
You know, not great, but he was getting there.
And he was absolutely ecstatic.
Now, he's excited.
He's got a whole new lease on playing.
Now, what I meant by you can get in the rock band...
I didn't mean that as a put-down.
I meant that you go out and get one of these kids' rock band.
None of them are school musicians anyway.
And you can get in that band and play.
But that's not what you want to make.
That's a career.
In fact, you may lose your ears very soon.
I've got students that have.
They're in very sad shape right now.
That they've been able to make a lot of money that way.
That's true.
But it's not the finesse.
Can you imagine Frank Tader-Ewok being happy playing in a rock band?
Or...
Anything like that.
And you won't either.
But like this man that Paul talked about, now he's got a whole new life open to him
as his trumpet player.
Yeah, I guess that's what you're getting at.
He now can do... He's been in LA.
He's been in LA for five years.
He can now do studio work.
I got him on some quintet gigs.
And he can play stuff that he's always listened to.
And he could never play.
No one could ever hire him.
Yeah, and see, this is what I meant.
You can get a job in your rock band because you don't have to read.
You sit there and work out each note and learn it.
And you don't have to have technique.
All you have to do is play loud.
Loud and as high as you can.
So without all this finesse, you can get a job in a rock band.
Now, a salsa band, now that's not so easy.
You're getting some of those Mexican things.
You have to really play.
So...
Sorry, Rich.
No harm, man.
As Rich is a fine player, you heard him do his solo concert yesterday.
And you're going to hear a lot about Rich in years to come.
Okay, now then, talking about one breath.
Playing in one breath is essential.
I was working at this club that I told you the story about the little girl last night.
And the sax players in front of me used to turn around and say,
would you take a breath? We can't go that long.
Because with Clark, I was studying, and I go 16-bar phrases.
And I was driving the rest of the orchestra crazy.
And I was just using it for practice.
If those conductors knew that they were paying me to practice all those shows,
they'd have been very upset.
Okay, have we got the video, Tom?
Yeah.
That's the four times.
Clark's night study.
Oh, okay.
Now, I was going to, this last time I demonstrated at this clinic,
I demonstrated the ninth study.
So get your ninth study in Clark.
Now, this goes from low G to high G, chromatic, slurred, four times in one breath.
When I first tried to do it when I was studying, it was absolute disaster.
I couldn't even get up to the top G. He doesn't know how to play it.
And then four times in one breath. Are you ready?
Yeah.
Okay.
Got the lights.
One, two, three.
Got to get those lights on.
First thing, the chest must be up.
Okay.
Now, any of you can do that.
Well, actually, that's not as good as it should have been,
but that was right after heart surgery.
And you notice I had a sheath in my hand.
Actually, it was very difficult for me to do it,
but I made up my mind I was going to demonstrate it,
at least so the students could see that this can be done easily.
That was the whole idea of it.
All right.
Now, Tom, what have I left out for today?
Nothing.
Nothing?
We did it.
Did that take you up?
Yeah.
Before we break that.
Oh, it's right on time, isn't it?
Is there any questions?
Yes.
You mentioned yesterday the battle between Arbon and St. Chacon, the rivalry.
Oh.
Who got the post?
Arbon ended up at the conservatory.
Yeah, you want to know who got the post in their battles for professorship.
Arbon ended up getting the professorship at Paris Conservatory.
And, of course, that's where he got his reputation.
And he deserved it, but so did St. Chacon.
They were both great.
And I'll get into that.
Let me see.
Will I get into that?
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Yeah.
Yes, I'll get into that tomorrow.
Tomorrow or the next day.
So, but Arbon, and it came down, just remember, these guys were the absolute pioneers.
There were no soloists before them.
The trumpet was not a good instrument at that time.
It was small.
It did not have a good sound.
It didn't even have the bow.
Shit.
It came in with the cornet.
And the trumpet was strictly relegated to the percussion section in the symphonies.
And you had to be good, I think I mentioned this, you had to be good at counting.
Because you'd count three or four hundred bars rest.
And by the time it ended up to three or four hundred, like was that three hundred and one
or two?
And then you sit there all of a sudden, peep-a-dee!
That was it.
Bravo, bravo.
And it was Arbon that made a solo instrument out of the cornet.
And they put the bow on it.
So what is that?
Just, somewhat over a hundred years or so.
The instrument is very, actually very young, isn't it?
Very young, isn't it?
But Armand was the first one, and he wrote the first complete book, so he certainly deserved tremendous credit, as does Saint-Jacques.
So it looks very interesting. Now the French horn goes back longer than that.
But again, it was the same. It was the natural horn. All the valves came later.
If you stop and think, you take a trumpet, you actually get three trumpets there.
You've got actually a natural trumpet on each valve, don't you?
So then you put them all together and learn to make an instrument out of them.
I had a fellow the other day sing a tape on,
did I get out of New York on the pit park show when we did that contest back there.
And he says, it just amazes me,
Now you only have those three valves there, and you've got so many notes out of them.
Well, of course, when you understand harmonics and the crossovers between the two, that's not so hard to understand, is it?
But you've actually got three different instruments you're playing.
Yes?
Wouldn't it be four instruments?
Hmm?
Seven.
What would be that?
Wouldn't it be four instruments?
Seven.
Wouldn't it be four instruments she's asking to?
Wouldn't it be four instruments she's asking to?
Four instruments.
Yes.
Seven valves.
Oh yeah, there were all kinds of things like that that came along.
And you can get those in the historical books.
You find the, like the seven, what was it, seven key bugles and all kinds of things.
There's been many, many transitions.
And the amazing thing that's interesting, there were so, so many of them.
They call it what they call the key bugle.
Okay, kids, I think there's no more questions now.
Get off to your application class.
Okay.
Thank you.