Posted by Rick Denney on June 19, 2002 at 09:42:28:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: types of teachers posted by MA on June 18, 2002 at 17:22:54:
No big mystery on my basic embouchure faults: Not enough strength and firmness in the corners; too little independence between the corners and the center; too much compensation for these faults using unproductive techniques such as facial movement and pressure. Interestingly, most folks who suffer from these faults complain about the inability to hit notes. In my case, it causes an inconsistency of sound, and that's what bothered me and, separately, my teacher. The treatment is slow lip slurs with a mirror attached to the stand, plus flexibility exercises undertaken with specific mental focus on these issues. I'm also doing some free buzzing, which exposes a weak embouchure embarassingly fast, to the extent that I'm able.
That process demonstrates the point that you are making. The facial movements and pressure were my intuitive response to produce the product that I wanted, if I concentrate solely on the product. This shows me that our intuitive processes are not always wired to produce the correct results, which is the underlying assumption of the only-air-and-concept approach. I'd bet a large sum that Arnold Jacobs would identify such faults and prescribe targeted drills to correct them, despite the notion that he was the most celebrated proponent of the "air solves all" philosophy.
I brought up swimming as an example because of my triathlon activities. From an endurance standpoint, running better mostly results from running more. Cycling requires a bit more thinking about technique, but still the more you do it the better you get. But there are many swimmers, some of whom are reasonably fast, who swim inefficiently because of poor technique, with the result that they waste a lot of their fitness. The more they do it, the faster they get as a result of improvements in fitness, but they still run into a brick wall caused by poor technique. They have to back up the path they have taken and forge a new path, which is what I'm doing with my tuba playing. I could continue on the course I've taken over the years with more facial movement and more pressure, practicing 8 hours a day even, and never achieve my goals. (With all three triathlon sports, technique must serve efficiency, and thinking about technique without understanding its contribution to efficiency doesn't help. This is the same with playing the tuba.)
The breakthrough requires the right sort of guidance, which is, of course, different for different people and for different times in their development (another of your points).
Rick "who learned a lot about tuba playing from swimming" Denney