Claude Gordon Brass Camp 1992 - Claude Gordon on Wind Control, Fingers, and How You Practice

As soon as I get my coffee, I'll feel pretty good. I feel pretty good today. I already feel pretty good. I did not have vegetarian food this morning.
Gets to you, doesn't it?
My first wife had a hysterectomy at Loma Linda when she was 20 years old.
And just after my youngest son was born, which was almost a disaster, we almost lost them both.
And one doctor told us, she can't have this. The other doctor says, you work on the mother, I'll try and save the child.
And six months before, one doctor told us, she's not able to have this, she's got to have an abortion.
So we went as far as the front door where he told us to go.
And I looked at her and she looked at me. And I said, what do you think? And she said, I don't like it.
And we broke off. That was the great pianist.
Isn't that something? I said, I want you to have an abortion. We didn't. And that turned out to be the great pianist.
But what I was getting at was, I'd come out to visit and I just didn't like vegetarian food.
And that's all I had. So down at the bottom of the hill was a little coffee shop.
Now none of this complex was here or around. It was just the hospital. Not that large either.
So I went down to the bottom of the hill and here were all the doctors having me eat breakfast and everything.
Let's get to Clark Technical Studies.
And I want to draw another picture. Unfortunately, I know this through Carl's book. He's got this in his book.
Very good.
On the tongue. If you looked at your tongue at the top, it would look something like a speed board.
I'll visualize that in my mind. That's what you'll think of it as.
Now remember, Liberati said, well first of all, there's the tip, right? The tip is the front of the tongue.
Now Liberati said, the very tip. That's important. So when you read, like I tell you, get the sense of it.
He didn't say the tip. He said the very tip of the tongue. That would be right there, wouldn't it?
The very tip never rises above the lower teeth.
You're still tonguing with the tip. This part of the tongue.
Up behind the upper teeth.
You get the sense of that? So you're still sort of striking up here, of course.
But the very tip is against the edge of the bottom teeth.
Now remember, don't let it get down on the gums because then the tongue is going to go like this.
I think we demonstrated it. Does everyone understand it?
Now think about it. Don't just listen to this and then go home and not even think about it.
Think about it. You're not going to blend other teachings and wrong ways of playing with the right way.
They're not going to work together. You don't blend them. You're going to go a whole new direction in playing that instrument.
Understand?
All right. Now as I say, it's sad, but there'll be some here that'll leave and that'll be the end of it.
They'll go right back the way they were playing before or trying to blend it with what they'd done before
and put them together and it'll work.
It's a whole new way for you of playing, but it's the oldest way of playing. There it is. It's the right way.
Now every great player plays that way, whether he realizes it or not.
Now I went into the Chicago area shortly after I'd had heart surgery, four bypasses,
and so getting well took quite a few months and never touched the horn.
So I really did not have an embouchure or facial strength. I had no wind power. I couldn't get my chest up.
And I had to do a demonstration to this high school group.
Right then when I did that demonstration, I knew this was the last time I'm going to demonstrate.
That's it. And that's on the videotape and I used it and it's out.
You can get it through summer, not through me, and get it through summer.
And you'll notice if you get this tape that my hand shakes and I get it up.
That's not a vibrato or nervousness. It's after the heart's had cut all these muscles and I still cannot hold.
If I get that up on the horn, it shakes. So ignore that. You know what it is.
I had no embouchure, so I demonstrated poorly how you can play from here to here.
I didn't do it really well. But it's enough that you can get the idea, which is very good.
Now we're going to use that videotape. I'm going to show you a couple excerpts of Tom and Dick and we get that.
The first one will do the tongue level of glissando.
Now you must remember that my wind power is zilch and so is my armature.
But I had to demonstrate it and I was glad that they took it on tape because it is at least a demonstration.
And really it'll do you very good. I get many letters from players thanking me for this and how much good it's done them.
There were some French students over from France and they lived in an apartment in Studio City.
No matter when I called those guys, they had that videotape playing every day.
They studied it and studied it and studied it and told me how much they got out of it. So hopefully you will too.
So they can hear it well.
To go all the way up on the exercise. So rather than do that, I'm going to go over here.
Let me put this jacket on. I feel more comfortable that way.
Let's go over here and I'm going to demonstrate, rather than the exercise,
I'm going to demonstrate how you can develop a range from pedal C, double C, back down to pedal C and back up to low C.
Now, any one of you can do it.
And you do it easily. You notice even then there was no strain necessary.
All right. Now then let's take, we'll go to the next one, but wait a minute first.
Take your clock technical study.
Preferably the old book, but if you don't have it, the new book is what we have to work with.
Now the reason I say preferably the old book is because of the text.
So get the sense and remember that the text is not accurate.
First of all, notice it starts double piano. That was a habit then.
Everything is double piano. No matter what you look through, double piano.
You take that with a grain of salt. You never play softer than you can get a good, sure sound.
Later on, you can get it down to very, very soft.
But you see, you don't get it soft by not blowing.
And when anyone tries to play soft, they stop blowing until you develop.
Clark put it to me in a way I did not understand it for a while. He said, you veil the lip.
Now what he meant, this goes to the lip muscles of the face.
Now this is the next item, the natural item that has to be developed.
This muscle structure that hold everything in place.
And when that collapses, you're through playing until you rest.
Because that holds everything so that it will keep vibrating.
Now then, you veil the lip. What that is is you hold, don't try to do this.
It will happen naturally if you practice.
But I'll try to explain what he meant by that.
You hold the lip and it keeps it in absolute subjection.
So you're holding it like veiling it.
I don't know whether that means anything to you, but you hold it.
But your wind power is the same.
That's how you can get up on a top note and bring it right down to whisper, you're holding it.
That's why I made a statement in systematic approach.
It says the softer you practice, the stronger your lips become.
Now take that for what it means.
It doesn't mean that you're to practice so soft that you can't get any soft.
What it means is just saying that those facial muscles are dripping and they get stronger that way.
But you just don't forget the lip.
Now I'll explain it to you. Now forget it. Don't worry about it.
Now then, Clark's book, if we're going to develop wind control,
you have to have fingers and technical proficiency.
Every time you stumble on a finger and you lose a measure of wind.
Now wind control doesn't mean that you end up still forcing your chest down.
It doesn't mean that.
Wind control is to control your wind so that you end up with plenty of wind left.
Now this is where the double pianos came in.
You save it when you don't need it.
I don't like the word soft.
Have I got a student here that can tell them what word I use?
Light.
Save it on the low notes.
Keep the chest up.
Use it without reservation on the top notes.
But when you come down, you ease off and save it again.
You notice the hairpins, crescendo marks whenever exercise?
The air is doing the work.
You're going uphill, and there should be a little accent on the top note,
but I don't think there is.
They have time accents in the book, but I want the accent of air.
Notice I'm not going to the...
I notice even a lot of students make that mistake.
It's not...
Right?
Now the hardest student to teach is the one that's been playing 20 years, 30 years.
They're not going to change.
Now this gets down to how to practice.
If you're going to get this book to mean anything, you've got to practice it correct.
It's how you practice, and I don't want you to ever forget that.
I'm trying to get you with that enough this week so that it's constantly how you practice,
how you practice.
You develop a habit, and if it's a wrong habit,
it'll be just as common for you as the right habit and vice versa.
It's how you practice.
Now is Rich here?
Rich, would you come up?
Now I had a gentleman come in, and he says,
boy, I'm not improving.
I don't understand it.
I said, well, are you doing what I tell you?
Yeah.
I practice Clark here, and I do this here, and I do this here.
But he didn't say how he practiced it.
He just said, I do this.
So I said, all right, let's take Clark.
And remember, so much is talk and talk music.
This is fine.
You're here to make music.
But without technical proficiency, there can be no music.
And remember that.
Now, this fellow came in, and I just feel like, oh, no.
All right.
Now, Rich, here's the way he played.
He took Clark like this.
His fingers are like this.
All right.
Now, he's going the horns down.
The chest didn't come up at all.
And he's going ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Just the opposite of what he should be doing.
Let's see what that sounds like, Rich.
Ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Pretty good.
That's just the way he was practicing.
And he'd been practicing that way for year after year,
for many years, and said, Jim, I'm not improving.
Now, another natural item is holding an instrument.
There.
Now, some of us used to hold this around here
because the old Bessons used to go had the ring under there.
That hurts.
That's not good.
So, Jim, that horn has got to be flat in your hand.
Pull and grip, not like a vice,
because this thing's got to be supple and move.
All right?
Not like this.
That horn should be straight up and down.
Okay?
The thumb.
Stiff like that.
Under the lead pipe, all on the valve.
Not between.
Because you know what happens when you put it between the valve?
It does this.
Like that.
Can you all see that?
It doubles over.
Then you finger like this.
Don't get.
It's not going to develop.
One teacher in a book, he's talking about flat,
and it's so wrong.
I don't know how long he studied with him.
I have a hunch he took one lesson, and then he studied.
That thumb is straight.
I used to take and put a piece of tape around it
so they couldn't bend that side.
And they'd hold it there.
Now, on the ball of the finger.
Like that.
Okay?
Never leave those fingers rusting on the valve.
Off the valve.
Strike them hard.
That's the only way they're going to develop.
Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Get them up and lift them down.
Every great technician will tell you the same thing.
Okay?
Now then, the way is to be done.
Now, when you first start the book out,
you're going through it all the way, first of all,
so that you can play the notes and get the right finger.
Then you go back and go through it again.
Now, this is where you start your wind control.
The chest must be up.
Put the thing this high.
Du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du.
Let's hear that next time.
Chest up.
Okay.
Now, now you notice the top note must be stronger.
Du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du.
Now, what Clark meant when he said soft,
he wouldn't start off다고 ready-ra-yeong, that's all it is.
Comfortable. Light. You must get that surge of power. The air is doing the work. Now my
students I stamp every book, every page with two main stamps. Big breath chest up. That's
the first thing you think of. The other stamp says lift fingers high. Strike valves hard. Now if
you're not thinking of that, you're not practicing. You're just going through notes again. Remember
what we said? Playing notes isn't going to develop anything. It's how you practice. Now when you get
up a ways, your tongue will rise. Be conscious of that. Now let me hear it on number 20, C sharp.
And now you're up higher, so you're blowing stronger. You're a little louder. You're going
uphill. Now you get up higher to 25 is F sharp. Now you go higher. Now you're stronger. Now the
first time through the book you're not going to play it that rapid at all. That comes later with
the wind control. Now the wind control is where you finish. Your chest is still up. You're not
down like this. The chest wind control is controlling that air so that you end up with
plenty. That's what you're working on. I had that down pretty good. I could play for a solid
minute without taking a breath. That's quite the way. Brad, are you feeling good today? You want
to demonstrate that motor for us? I can't. I haven't clapped as fast as last year. I'll be
fixing the breathing if you want to, so. Well, all right. Let me, wait a minute then. Yeah,
I don't blame you. That motor perpetual takes seven minutes. There's not a place anywhere where you
can breathe. Nowhere. Brad does it. But he's breathing while he's playing. Now that takes a
lot of practice. But the nice thing about it, you can't tell. The chest is always up. You will
never learn to circular breathe if that chest doesn't stay up. Yes, Marla? Yes, I want them to
see that. Some get very apt on it. I explained that at camp in Michigan. And we had two students
with hairlips. You know what that is? Where the cut of the lip goes up, right there. And they were
told by their teachers to get something else so they could never play a brass instrument. Those
kids were the most dung-hole kids I ever saw. We told them how to circular breathe. Two days later,
this one young fellow called me and said, I can do it. I can do it. I said, again, I see it. He played
over a little bit, of course. He circular breathed beautifully. By the end of the week, both of them
were doing it. None of the others in the camp could do it. The first two little guys could. And they
were told, one of them had had an operation and had that corrected. They both played well. Wasn't
their lip? As long as their lip vibrated, they could learn to play. And they're doing well. So
don't let false information deter you. All right, now at the end of that, incidentally, when you go
through the book the second time, you do each one of those four repeats in one breath. That's what
you work for. Now, I thought I did good on it. I had 16 repeats in one breath. One year here,
Rich demonstrated 52 times in one breath. 52 repeats. That's 104 chromatics up and down.
And he demonstrated that. He was moving fast, of course. But it just shows you what can be done.
And that's what Clark meant when he said, don't stop where I stopped. Keep going. And Rich,
all right. Do you remember the atrium? You don't have to take a breath in it. But when you first
started out, you do. So you get a breath. Now notice Rich's chest did not come down. That's the
purpose of wind control. The chest is up and you end up. Now on the fifth exercise, the fifth study
of Clark's book. He has a page. And he says you must do the entire page in one breath. You can do
every atrium in the book in one breath if you work on it. And it would be good to work for it. I have
a recording when Bob O'Donnell was studying. And I don't know where that is. Do you, Kent? It might
be in my briefcase where it says vintage tapes or whatever it is. Anyway, Bob came in early one
morning. I said, Bob, I want to see what you can do on your control of the air. I said, take the
fifth atrium and let me see how far you can go in one breath. He said, okay. How do you want it?
Slow to tongue. Okay, smarty. Let's do it tongue. He did. First time, all in his year, no effort.
When he ended, boy, that chest was just like that. Keep the chest up. Now there's two reasons for
that. The chest is your fuel tank, right? You wouldn't start a trip with your gas tank half empty,
would you? You'd go down and get it full of gas. So it's the same with this. This is your gas tank.
Fill it up. Comfortably full. If you go by support, if you're playing in an orchestra,
say you're playing an arrangement at site. There's a high up. You're sitting there with your legs
crossed. Your chest is down. You're not going to play it. You're going to miss it. That's your
support. Remember that. That chest must be up all the time. When you practice, keep it up. It's how
you practice it counts. All right, like when I had the orchestra at the Palladium one year, I had
Conrad Gozzo on first trumpet. Now he's probably the highest paid first trumpet in the Los Angeles
area at that time. I drove down Sunset Boulevard one night and I heard these high G's in my car on
Sunset Boulevard and I thought, man, gosh, who's practicing? You know, I'm looking. Everything's dark
down here. I got in front of the Palladium and here's these high G's just sizzling out into the
street. It wasn't a sound that hurts your ears. It wasn't like a rock amplified thing at all. It
was just a great sizzling G's. And I found out later that the band that was in there had Conrad
Gozzo playing lead and that's the way he played. No one really took Gozzo's place when it came to
sound or power. He had G's that you couldn't believe. He never played above that. He'd say,
here, let the kid have that. He could. I've heard him do B flats and all this, but this G was just
phenomenal. So I had him in the band one night at the Palladium. He was playing first and we were
playing along. I'm watching him because I know what the arrangement is and he's kind of sitting
relaxed. He's an old hand at it. He's done it for many, many years. And all of a sudden I saw him
come out of that chair. Bull's up right. He was kind of like this. Man, he was like this. And here was that F and he
almost knocked me over with it. I did it on the, I did that same arrangement as a guest soloist on the
Welk Show one night. The first double player didn't even get an F. He didn't even get the octave under it.
I never even heard it. That shows you the difference. His chest was probably down and he would try to
squeeze the F and it wouldn't come out. Keep the chest up. Always. All right. You got the O'Donnell thing?
I had a student in Las Vegas, too, that was this, Mike Paulson. He was another one like that. He was
a dead equal. Have you ever heard him play? He was at the Stardust for years. What a player. He came out
of the March Air Force band. And I had some good students on that band. That's a good thought. Notice that
there's, at the end of the line, there's a fermata mark. Clark used to get so mad. That's not where it
belongs. There's no reason for it. It belongs over the last note. Keep the chest up and hold that note
till it squeezes. That's the way it was first taught to me. And so you're constantly working on wind control.
Save it on the lower notes. Use it unreservedly on the top notes. Then when you come down, save it again.
And we took the horn down and the chest was up and he looks at me, all right, now what? You don't have to do it over, but at the start, he says,
it's 582 in one breath. There's nothing bashful about Bobby, but he's an awful good trumpet player.
Okay, now then, the ninth exercise. Let's get the ninth study. Now when you do, now you can get the tape ready.
Yeah, yeah. The ninth study. Now notice at the start, who has the old book? Okay, would you stand up and read it very loud?
What did he say? No strain is necessary if played properly. Now what did he mean by that? Read it from the new book, someone.
Who has the new book? Okay, read it loud now. We've got to hear it all over the room, strong.
Is that what Clark said? It's ridiculous. And that's what's in the book now. It might be a good idea if all of you write editor Carl Fisher and complain about the text.
That's the only thing that's going to be good, yes, sir. I don't know who did that. I'd like to, probably somebody with a bachelor of music or.
Like I, you know, when I sent brass playing is no harder than knee breathing, I would never get a doctorate in English, believe me, and they know this.
So they edit everything I send them and always have done them a good job. But they were so busy at this time, they asked me if they could send this to an editor.
I said, sure. And the guy that was going to do it called me.
And I said, well, now wait, before you do this, I want you to understand you don't, you do not change anything.
Do not add your own words to the text. Don't change anything. It's got to be exactly as I have it. Now I says, it'd be better. I said, do you know anything about trumpet playing?
Well, I have a bachelor's degree. Is that good enough? Very arrogant. And I didn't want to fight with him before. I wish now I told him, no, that's not good enough.
That doesn't tell me whether you could play at all. But I accepted that. And I still have what he sent back.
I just keep it so people can see. It was the worst bunch of garbage you ever read. If I had put that book out, it would have destroyed me and everyone else.
And he took me to court to get the money. And I had to pay him $700 to botch up that book. And I called Carl Fischer, and boy, I was steaming. I went right through the ceiling.
And Ted Pataczka, bless him. You know Ted, don't you? And Carl, oh, what a one. He sure checked his locker, I think. Pataczka.
And anyway, he did it for me, and that's the way it was done. So he just did a gorgeous job. He'd call me and we'd talk on the phone, and he says, I think this, I think that.
And he says, I think you ought to add something. He said, at the end he says, why don't you put good luck. And I says, no way.
I says, the word luck doesn't belong in my vocabulary. Best wishes or anything else, but never good luck. Luck has nothing to do with playing the brass instrument.
All right, now notice at the end of the ninth study, he has an exercise that goes from low G to high G and back down four times in one breath.
Now, in order to show this, because some people don't think that's sensible, it can't be done, I did it up to six times when I was studying.
Rich, how many times can you do it now?
I don't know, today I practiced it up to six times.
And you can get it even more in time. But now you'll notice the chest is always up. The low notes are light, the top notes are strong.
Before that, Ted, would you come get this screen out so we can cut a memo?
Thank you.
Now, when I was younger, I could do it four, five, six times. But now, as I get a little older, it slowed down a little.
The first thing, the chest must be up. Big breath.
Okay, now any of you can do that again.
And you can. We proved that many times.
Now, notice with my fingers laying on the valve, they're up and striking.
Now, that was difficult for me at that time because I couldn't get enough air and everything.
As I said, that's when I decided that's the last, no more. And I put the horn away and I haven't touched it since.
But at least I got that tape out to show you what you can do. And stay away from heart attacks and that kind of stuff.
It's kind of detrimental.
Okay, now then, the first time through the Clark book, you tongue it.
K-Tongue modified, right? You know what I mean by that now.
Now, which one is that?
Light. If you go uphill, step on the gas. If you come downhill, lighten up. Chest up.
And that's all the way through. Now, if you don't get to the high C, don't worry about it. You go as far as you can go.
What was your tongue doing while you were tongueing like that?
Well, as I ascend it, it's right to the front of the mouth.
That's right. You're going like, you're tongueing out of here. T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t. And you're not thinking ta. It's t.
All right, now the second week, you do the same study. K-Tongue. And it's not k, it's not ka, it's t.
And that brings it up close to the t.
Actually, when you're really developed, like a cat or an addict or someone like this, that tongue's moving just about like this.
Right, Frank? It's right close. D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d.
It gets very easy. Trumper playing is easy. A brass playing is easy, if you play correctly.
Let's hear it k-tongue now. You can go higher if you want, I don't know how to do it.
You go as far as you can go.
Do it on number 20, C-sharp.
Now notice, boy, it hits, it's an attack still.
That will come in time.
All right, now you go all the way through, including the etude.
When you do the etude, take all the brush you need.
Never get a high note empty.
Remember that.
A good rule to follow is when you're half empty, look for a place to breathe.
Don't wait till you're completely out.
And then trouble, where do I breathe?
And now you're in trouble already.
All right, the third week.
Double tongue.
Tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee, right?
Now you're not going to get it fast like that the first time through the book.
It'll probably be tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee.
I had a student in Tucson, Arizona.
He still comes for his lesson, regular, every month.
He drives all the way from Tucson, has his lesson, drives all the way back home.
And he won't miss.
And he hasn't been for years.
When he first started, I almost was in despair the first day.
His fastest single tongue was, I'm not exaggerating.
Tee-tee-tee-tee.
That's as fast as he could tongue.
But he was a survival.
He just, boy, he stayed with it.
He was going to play.
Everything he did was wrong.
We had to start and learn the whole thing from the ground up.
Now he's playing in three orchestras in that area.
His tongue is up to, I think, 120, 16th notes, single tongue, and he's just doing really
well.
He's just the happiest guy in the world.
He had in his mind that he'd never play, and boy, it took a long time to get that out
of his mind.
I have a student, well, Patty Hanifan's husband.
He came down from Washington or Oregon completely defeated.
He knew he would never play, or it took over a year to even start breaking that down.
And then it started breaking down.
Now he's been quite a few years playing up the double C range.
He performs cornet solos with the Santa Monica band on their concerts now, and you should
see what a transformation it has made in his personality even.
It's a funny thing when you start getting, you know you can play, your whole personality
changes.
Boy, you get yourself, you know, you're proud of yourself.
I had a young man that came over.
His dad was an attorney, and this poor kid stuttered so bad.
And when he first called me, for a minute I almost hung up.
I thought someone was putting me on.
And he started out, nothing, and pretty soon the next word.
And then I realized, well, he's got a real stuttering problem.
He came out for his lesson, and it was terrible.
So we worked on everything, worked on the breathing and the K-Tone, and as he went on,
pretty soon he started feeling what he'd do.
He started playing fairly well.
And the first day I noticed he was hardly stuttering at all.
And as that personality of his developed and he could play, it stopped entirely.
No more stuttering.
And then his dad told him, you're going to school and learn to be an attorney.
He put that horn away, and he wouldn't let him come for lessons anymore.
He called me a year later, and he's back stuttering again.
So you see what those things do for you.
And I haven't seen him since.
I doubt if he's an attorney either.
Attorneys do pretty well now.
They get money for everything, as we well know.
Like the story, who was it?
You find a snake and an attorney both dead on the highway.
And you know which was which because the skid marks were in front of the attorney.
There's a lot of attorney stories now.
So I don't dare to tell what the funniest one I don't dare to tell.
You know what, that's it.
Let's see here.
Who was it?
Are you paying attention, Rich?
You finished all the bars.
Fourth week slurred.
Now the third week was double tongue.
Remember, it's not going to be fast yet.
Speed comes like, don't worry about speed.
Speed will come anyway if you get it accurate.
Speed gets very easy later.
Now the fourth week is the ice cream after the meat and potatoes.
That's your slur.
Let's try that.
What horn did you play?
Silver?
Oh, of course.
Couldn't resist that.
Hopefully.
Thank you very much, Rich.
I think that's all we need.
Well done.
So now as we go through Clark, fingers are vital.
If you haven't got a finger, then you've got nothing.
So we've got to learn every alternate finger.
And not only learn it, but use it until it happens by habit.
There's solos you're going to play.
And in Zegreiner Weissen last night, Rich, did you use all scale fingering through Zegreiner Weissen?
No.
It's impossible to play those things with scale fingering.
The teachers will call that false fingering.
Get rid of that term.
There's nothing false about it.
You learn to finger.
Now some of it gets a little touchy at first.
Rich, can I use you again?
I'm sorry.
And bring the horn.
Now every one of our staff has had to go through this.
Ken, Tom, Bruce, Carl.
Everyone, until it happens naturally.
You don't think, oh, I'll use this finger.
It'll just happen if you practice.
Nature is wonderful.
It just takes the course that it should.
Can you remember on ta-da-dee-da-da-da-dee-da?
Yeah, I knew that's what you were going to say.
Take the low A slowly.
Turn slightly.
This way?
Yeah.
Ta-da-dee-da-da-da-da.
Oh, sorry.
Alternate fingerings?
Yeah.
Ta-da-dee-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Now first, that's going to be very difficult.
Very difficult using a third finger on all those low A's.
But you work on it until it works.
by habit. All right, now there's no changes until you get up to the key, yes
there is, well E first, start on E. Now you don't use any ones and twos at all,
it's all thirds. Now when I was studying Clark didn't sit down and say not do it
and he just said that's the way you do it and then I did it a few times and
stumbled all over it until I got it right and that was the end of it. Now if I
didn't do it, who was at fault, Clark or me? The next lesson, I did it, I had it,
and he didn't say any more about it. They had the habit of using the middle
initial in your name, you know, and in a while he'd say that's pretty good
Claudie. All right, now then the D, now we use the same finger that we used on
that E but with the first valve locked down. Now that'll throw you for a while,
turn the horn up a little bit. It's not hard but you have to work at it. Someone
that hasn't done it, it's almost amusing. The fingers don't want to work
independently of each other. Later on that third finger gets to be one of the best
fingers on your hand. Okay, you throw with it everything, that's beautiful, but it
has to be done easily. All right, now then P of B. Sometimes the E's are one and two,
sometimes a third.
Did you catch that? Da da dee da da da, third, da da, one and two, say they go back and forth.
Now I don't have the time this morning but Dave Evans later, wait a minute,
Dave Evans later is going to have you mark some of those fingers in whenever you have the time for.
Now you develop them. All right, now the next one is P of C. Now on P of C sometimes you'll use
third, sometimes you'll use one and two. Straighten the whole side a little bit.
Did you catch that? Did you get up the T of F? All the A's and all the E's are third.
Did you get up the T of G? All the A's are third.
Now you get to the A2. By that time you'll be having the fingers down fairly well hopefully.
And later on you'll never think of it, you'll just use them. At first you have to think about it.
Let's take number three and start on the key of C. All your E's and A's will be third.
Now did you notice something? If you're thinking about how to practice, did you notice what Rich did?
The top notes are the strongest. Let the air do the work. He does it without thinking about it.
All right, let's take D flat. If you're following along it'll help you.
How you practice. If you don't pick that top note you're going to miss it most of the time.
All right, now F sharp. Now on the last measure it goes...
But we don't play it that way. Everything is all three except the second note.
See what he did? The next one is one in three on all those last ones except the A.
Play just the last measure. And the A is the third.
Now then the A2. You'll need the book on this I'm sure.
I have a phrase I use, how you practice.
Carl remembers A2-3 don't you Carl? Come up and tell him about A2-3.
Oh did you? The teacher always gets challenged, don't forget that.
Now Dave will have you mark those fingers in.
Now French horns, they've got so many alternate fingers that you don't worry too much about that.
Unless the French horn player is working and very apt, they'll have those fingers down.
And they'll use different fingers in every register. So that's pretty well covered with a French horn.
French horn is an amazing instrument. Oh I get mad at that horn once in a while.
Just mind boggling what they have to go through. But they do. I think Brad is a great example of that.
All right on the second study, the A2. Now I write in, first of all it says big breath with fingers high, strike down hard, and trombone that still applies with this.
Now when you do this, I put up there how you practice.
Now this is the way you overcome tremendous obstacles. Now do you all have that A2 in front of you?
Now it ends up, E is third, A is third, play it through once. And the first week would be tongue.
All right now, don't go high. That's not the purpose of it. But boy your fingering will get you all screwed up.
So what we do, how you practice, you take the last four sixteenth notes and go to the next note.
Slowly.
Four times absolutely accurate. If you miss a note, that you throw out. It doesn't count. Four times correctly.
And at first you're going to miss the attack or further. That's all right. That doesn't count. No it isn't. Four times accurate.
Turn this way so I can see your fingers. Keep turning the horn up so they can see it.
All right now, four times. Slowly.
Now you're not practicing to get tired, so keep your rest. If you don't rest, you're going to get very tired practicing this way.
All right now, back up one time. And always go to the first note of the next one.
Four times.
Now we're going to put those two beats together four times.
Now we go back one more time and four times.
You notice the beautiful attack which has more of that notice. Pow! Like that.
That comes from developing that K-Tongue Modifying to the limit.
All right. Now you put those all together four times.
Now someone will say, well it takes so much time. Of course it does. What do you expect? If you want to get anything done.
All right. Now you back up another note. Another count.
Now you put those all together four times.
Again.
And one more.
I had one student say, yeah, but I get so tired of it. I said, you get tired of it? What do you suppose I do?
I said, I did it 40, 50 years on my own. Now I got to listen to you guys do it.
Put them all together.
Okay. All right. Now back up another one.
All together.
Okay. Four times. All right. Now back up another count.
Okay. Put them all together.
You do it four times. Now back up another one.
Put them all together.
Again.
Again.
One more.
Now that's what I mean by how you practice. Now say your lesson is on, or you start practicing, say you start practicing on Saturday.
That line, you do how you practice on Saturday. Sunday, you do the next line going up. Monday, do the next line.
Tuesday, you do the first line. Now if you do that faithfully that way, in four days, you won't miss a note.
Then you can work on picking up your speed. Now it's always on the first week, so it'll be tough.
But then after you once get it through how you practice all the way, now you can start, watch your slur lines.
You have a long slur line, then you have one over each measure, then you have one over every two counts, then one over every...
Then you learn to pay attention to those slur lines.
Now when you finish each line, you're doing the whole line four times, right?
The second line, when you finish it, now you go all the way four times.
The third line, all the way four times. And the fourth line, all the way four times.
And now, after that, you can start working on your speed.
So by the end of the first week, your speed's going to be coming up, isn't it? And you won't miss.
Now you start working, you get it all in one breath. You get it in one breath, all right, go for two.
The whole point of this is you get the etude four times in one breath.
That's how you practice.
Now if you don't do it that way, again, who's going to suffer, you or me?
I'll suffer a little bit as your lesson, but you're the one that's going to have the problem.
You go to every etude in the book that way when you get to it, every one.
And you'll get so that you can do every etude in the book in one breath.
There's nothing that can't be done in one breath in that book.
All right, now is that clear to everybody, or are you going to get home and forget it and just work it from the top to the bottom?
Yeah.
Am I wonderful?
And that can be with the youngsters. It doesn't have to be just the older people.
I did a clinic in South Carolina one time, and band directors.
Now there were some very sincere teachers and band directors.
And this one came up afterwards and said, I want to shake your hand.
He said, now I know why I'm having problems with my brass players.
Now I understand it.
He says, I'm going to follow this to the letter.
And he even had his entire brass section out doing breathing exercises on the track every day before they would have band practice.
Now this doesn't have to be brass either.
Sax players are some of the worst in breathing I ever saw.
They should be out doing it, all wind instruments.
It would be good for the singers too.
They won't do it, but it would be very good for them.
I came back there a couple years later and did the same school.
And this guy came up and said, I want you to hear my band.
He says, you won't believe how these kids are playing.
And so I did.
They're sitting up there and they're blowing and they're playing.
So I remember that.
Okay, thank you, Ritz, very much.
And whose is that?
What did you want with that?
All the alternate fingerings for the Clarksbook are in that.
Oh, yes.
In the systematic approach, well, not all of them.
But you'll find a lot of the alternate fingers.
Okay.
He could go on forever.
You notice there's no strain on his face.
Do it again and turn sight this way.
Yeah, so they can see your chest more.
Yeah, you can go on and on and on as long as you don't get too tired.
It's not that difficult.
When I was first taught to do that, I was looking for something hard.
I fell flat on my face, as usual, working and working.
I was in Salt Lake playing at the hotel up there.
And my first boy, Gary, was in the crib here and I had to practice in the same room.
And I was working on it and it wouldn't work.
I just wouldn't work.
And finally I thought, oh, who needs it?
And I threw the horn down and went out and had some coffee.
And I came back and I tried it again.
And it happened.
And what the problem was, it had gone easy, but there it wasn't.
I was looking for something hard.
And the chest, I'm talking about Salt Lake.
We had a jazz trumpet player on this band named Stu Kletcher.
And I don't know if you ever heard that name or not.
He never got to be a big band, but he was a good jazz player.
And we were playing the big room on the top of the hotel.
And that hotel is ten stories high in Salt Lake, in Hotel Utah.
So around the edge, they let us practice upstairs on that roof.
And if you went over and looked over the edge, the rib was about here.
And at ten stories straight to the ground.
But about six feet down, it was a big wide ledge.
So if you dropped anything over it, it would fall on that ledge.
So we're practicing, and Stu, this guy, always doing something, you know,
to startle everybody or to be funny or what.
So he's practicing, practicing away, and all of a sudden he drops his horn,
and he lets out a yell, and he runs for the edge.
And we thought, oh my gosh, this guy's going to commit suicide.
And he runs, and he goes to go over the edge, and he looked over.
There was no ledge on that side.
He passed out completely.
So that's brought out a good moral look before you leave.
Okay, thanks, Brad. That was excellent.
Now we got the formados at the end of those that will explain that, right?
Every time Clark got that book out, he'd get so mad, he'd look at that.
The copyist, they do things that they shouldn't do, you know.
So they go, and with the publisher, it costs so much to reprint and all this,
and they don't want to do that.
So you're stuck with it.
All right, now any questions on anything up to this point?
Okay, now let me see your brass playing book.
Now do you all understand that tongue level, what we mean by it?
Okay, now I want you to study.
We did wind power, we did wind control.
You heard Dr. Miller on the diaphragm.
Start reading on page 27 where it says wind control.
And you study through, because tomorrow we're going to discuss the lip.
We did the finger.
All right, study through the rest of the book.
Now notice I said study. Don't read it.
Study. Get the sense of it.
I have students that read that book every morning, the whole thing,
to refresh their memory on the things they have to do.
Remember, it's how you practice.
Now what you practice, we've been explaining to you.
When you practice, we've been explaining to you.
When you're ready to go on to the next exercise, that's what you know.
It's how you practice, what you practice, when you practice.
What did we discuss the first day?
We said that there's three items to be in a success.
And why do so many brass players fail?
Because they never learn those three items.
And then when they do, maybe they don't follow them.
There's seven items to be developed naturally.
What are they? Can someone tell me?
Wing power.
The tongue.
Wing control.
The lips.
The muscles, we've discussed that up here.
They control, they hold the lip in place, quiet.
So does vibrate.
Not to get strong so you can pinch high notes.
Okay?
Now the right-hand finger, that's what we went into today.
It must be done right.
And the left hand.
Remember those things.
That's what you're working to develop.
It was like when Rich came out from Boston.
What did your teacher tell you?
He'd gone through Clark's very poorly.
When he first played Clark's for me, nothing was developed.
What did your teacher tell you?
Oh, shut up.
Now I've practiced with Clark's people.
I'll never have to play it again.
That makes good sense, doesn't it?
You will never finish with Clark's people.
Nothing ever written like that.
And yet everything that's in it you can find in Irving's or St. Jacopo.
But not in the way he's presented it.
And we'll get into a little bit of Irving's, yeah, with the lip tomorrow, St. Jacopo.
Okay, Tom, I think that does it for today.
Now no questions, huh?
Guys, get your questions before you leave this week.
Now I don't want anyone wondering, wait a minute, what do we do about this?
What is this?
Question.
And if you want to try trumpets, go ahead to your extent.
Later on we're going to let other exhibitors come in so you can try all their progress and all.
But be sure before you go, blow that cell once in a while.
I want you to know what it is, the feel of it, you know.
And we'll get into some of the characteristics of that tomorrow.
Okay, Tom.
Thank you.