Re: High Range for a student


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Posted by DS on September 09, 2003 at 22:31:25:

In Reply to: High Range for a student posted by Concerned Teacher on September 09, 2003 at 22:05:08:


The following glissando exercise will help (if it is done daily):

1. Play a fat sounding F whole-note in the staff, 1st position. Rest 4 beats.
2. Play the same F in 6th position, slowly gliss up to Bb in 1st position. (Gliss over the space of at least 4 beats.)
REPEAT

NOTE: the tone and volume should be even all the way up the glissando. Rich, full, fat and fairly loud (a solid mf-f).

3. Play a rich sounding Middle Bb (top of the staff) in 1st position. Rest.
4. Play the same Bb in 5th and slowly gliss up to D above the staff.
REPEAT

5. Play a rich D above the staff in 1st position.
6. Play the same D in 4th and slowly gliss up to F above the staff.
REPEAT

Rest

7. Play a solid F above the staff in 1st position.
8. Play the same F in 6th and gliss up to High Bb in 1st position.
REPEAT

9. Advanced students can go as high as they want. From this point up, you can start any note in 6th or 7th.

Steps 7 and 8 might be tricky at first. Find out where the pitch falls off. Have the student gliss up to the point where the tone almost crumbles, then back down a little bit to where it sounds good again. David Vining includes a similar exercise in his excellent book "Daily Routines." It is under the last routine "Easy Routine." The whole routine includes everything a player needs to do on a daily basis to improve their playing and takes less than 15 minutes to complete--perfect for high-school students.

Using plenty of air will help in the upper register. I like to have my students move paper on the music stand by blowing through their mouthpiece. With students who are really not moving any air, we practice blowing spit-balls through the mouthpiece to see what it feels like to move a great deal of air.

ObTubaContent: trombone is my main instrument. I would be glad to respond to any trombone related questions. Payback will be answers to my many burning tuba questions, or a pint of Guinness!

Cheers,

Donn Schaefer
Trombone, Low Brass, Jazz Studies
University of Mississippi
schaefer(AT)olemiss.edu 662-915-1275


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