Re: Re: Re: High Range: Drawing lips toward teeth?


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Posted by Klaus on January 27, 2003 at 19:01:33:

In Reply to: Re: Re: High Range: Drawing lips toward teeth? posted by Chuck(G) on January 27, 2003 at 17:25:20:

You to a high degree are right. However I found through my own development as a teacher, that there are certain tools available.

First of all one shall think operationally about ones own playing, when one teaches.

Then one shall be able to subdivide the processes of playing into elements, that can be worked on more or less separately (but without forgetting the main context).

And then one shall be allowed to break a few social taboos. It has been of immensely benefit for some of my students to put their palms on my abdomen and on my lower back (a palm on each side of the same level of the body is a good supplement).

That tells the students about the differences between rigid tension and operational/co-ordinated application of fairly strong muscle complexes.

My lower jaw area has been covered by a more or, mostly, less groomed vegetation since 1969. Letting students touch the lower jaw through shifts of registers tells them more than many words.

Also the touching of the larynx are tells something about the importance of being relaxed exactly there. As does the touching of the backside of the ribcage tell a story about body resonance especially in the low register. (I am very influenced by the teaching in classical singing, that I received through college years, but you can not hear that in my singing).

I am not the greatest of players, but I could during my teaching years mimic most of the common faults of the type, that have to do with tensions in varying parts of the human brass playing apparatus.

Letting the students hear my sound getting similar to theirs and then letting them feel the reasons first on my body, and then on their own, usually was helpful.

This way of teaching needs a great sense of discretion. With younger students I always presented my method to the parents right from the outset and had them attending at least the first lesson if they wanted to/could be there.

Not all parents or students liked my approach, but then there were other teachers. And the sound quality and the level of intonation of my students told its own tale.

There are other concepts. One certain music school hired teachers by their own performance level. They went for virtuosity right from the outset of their teaching. No problems with sound or intonation should hold the development of speed and range back.

In many ways I was envious of the results created by these teachers. Only the audio output of these students was so downright ugly, that the teaching of any musical ensemble parameter but rhythm was impossible.

My extended concept of sound encompasses a lot of elements: beauty (which is another word for a balanced overtone structure), articulation, intonation, and dynamic, just to mention the main categories.

Rhythm IS an important factor, but when I enter my most provocative mode, I might say, that rhythm only should be considered the factor, that makes it possible to let the harmonic structure of ensemble playing come out cleanly.

This statement of course is NOT true, as it is far too narrowminded. Yet there are some interpretations of certain rhythmically highly intense passages of music like Sacre and Bolero, that benefit very much from sound concepts being involved into the equation.

Have you ever heard the very complex counterpoint singing of Pygmy ladies? The sound certainly is no ideal for my music making, but it certainly carries the musical message.

Have you heard traditional Bulgarian ladies choirs? That sound certainly is a challenge to any loudspeaker cone and might be the real reason behind one of my eardrums being torn (of course that is also a lie, as I don't know when that tear happened, only that there is a scar, and that I had a bad ear period in 1994). But again the point is, those Bulgarian ladies know how to convey a musical message even if they apply techniques very foreign to western ears.

So basically I could have made this short statement about teaching:

A teacher shall know where he wants to take a student. And he shall know of the tools of how to lay out the road leading to that "where".

Sorry for the long posting, but my presentation was not even close to touching all important aspects.

Klaus


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