Re: Conn v TU-29 v Schilke


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Posted by Steve Dedman on June 11, 2002 at 00:34:49:

In Reply to: Conn v TU-29 v Schilke posted by Doug on June 10, 2002 at 22:15:31:

Doug Elliott is the way to go. Find out where you can contact him and meet. I'm willing to bet that he can watch you play and come up with a rig that is right for you that may or may not be what you're thinking right now. What I got was vastly different from what I expected to get; yet it works extremely well for my face, embouchure, and horn combination. A quote from Doug Elliott from the Trombone-Online Journal:

"Your best embouchure type is determined by your facial structure, and not by what type of
player you would like to be, or by what type of embouchure your teacher has. It is
important to develop the embouchure that will ultimately work best for you, in order to
attain your maximum level of playing efficiency.

There is not one "right" or "wrong" way to play because each individual is different. These
ideas continue to be very controversial among brass teachers, but I believe that knowing
how your particular embouchure works best, and practicing it that way, can give you a
tremendous physical advantage.

I have seen this at work in myself since ITEC and the purchase of my DE rig. It works FOR ME, but I seriously doubt it would work for you. The advantages to getting a "fitting" for a mouthpiece are huge. There's no getting around the need for practice to improve your sound and ability. What the right mouthpiece does is to make that practice time more productive, since you aren't fighting an improper mouthpiece along with the particular thing you are working on. The first time I spent in rehearsal with the new piece, it felt like I wasn't working at all. On my helleberg, I was done after 2 hours. I mean my chops were spent, and I didn't want to play another note. On the DE, I felt like I could go another 2 hours easily. It also feels like my 4/4 horn turned into a 5/4. Since I'm not making my embouchure try to work inefficiently, I'm getting a lot more bang for my buck in terms of air usage.

I couldn't be happier with my mouthpiece. Your best bet is to get with Doug Elliott, and get fitted for a mouthpiece that could very well change your whole outlook on playing.

Steve


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