Posted by Brian Frederiksen on March 12, 2004 at 10:38:27:
In Reply to: Re: Physical Fitness for Brass Players posted by Rob Bass on March 12, 2004 at 02:30:27:
I checked my collection of Jacobs videos and have found nothing - someday I'll have it.
Recently on the trumpet list there has been a discussion about female players. A few posts have stated that female players cannot endure the physical part of playing lead parts. That is a sample of misconceptions going around that seem to spread throughout the brass world. Seems there is a big misconception between air flow and air pressure and the physical requirements to play.
Recently I showed parts of the Jacobs Breathing presentation to someone. During the section that Mr Jacobs talked about the test he did with the four major brass instruments about pressure vs flow. This person commented that Bud Herseth plays in the high range with less pressure than most trumpet players. Sounds right to me, seems there is still a school of thinking about lots of pressure, less flow requiring a lot of physical activity. On the other end is the old CSO brass where, towards the end a bunch of 60-70 year olds blew everyone away.
While Mr Jacobs encouraged physical fitness, he always said that you don't have to be a weight lifter to play a horn.