Posted by Roger Lewis on October 01, 2002 at 07:52:07:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: lip slurs ascending posted by Jay Bertolet on September 30, 2002 at 15:19:14:
Right on, Jay.
The one thing I try to get my students to understand that babies and monkeys can buzz their lips - what we do is not rocket science (otherwise we'd all be making a lot more money). Slurring is like lip trilling - better if kept simple. Over my many years of self analysis as to how things happen I have found that the lower lip is the key to slurring (okay everybody - I've got my fireproof underwear on) - that combined with backing off the air ever-so-slightly right at the exact instant of the interval change. If you are slurring up, the lower lip turns in just the tiniest amount to go from a soft surface to a firmer surface. Lip trills are controlled by a very subtle movement of the lower lip and larger interval slurs are as well.
When you are working on a solos piece with slurs of over an octave to two octaves or more, to get them to sound effortless here is what I do. On the lower note I increase the speed of the air (but not the volume of note being played) and as I prepare to move to the large interval I back off on the air just a bit and bring the lower lip in and then speed the air back up as I make the leap. The end result appears effortless and, for example on octaves, the lower note just vanishes and the upper note is there in its place, leaving people wondering, "how the hell did he do that". It took me many years to figure out the little intricacies of what I was doing and to get to the point where I could put it into words.
So, these are my observations and do not reflect how others accomplish this. FWIW
Roger