From: RogMcD@aol.com
Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 15:21:00 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re PED Lip trills
Jeff Nordquist wrote:
<<I have been trying for a long time to develop a good lip trill.
For some reason, I am having absolutely no luck. I've been working with
the Schlossberg lip slur exercises, and while that's helped my lip slurs,
it hasn't made trills any easier.>>
You sound desparate enough to do what must be done. I'll tell you how I
taught myself. It's absolutely sure fire. it may take a while.
Early in Arban there are a few pages of lip trills: half-notes ex, quarter-note
ex, 8th notes, triplets, 16ths, 6-to-a-beat.
1. I stayed on half notes until I could do the exerecise perfectly at quarter
= 120. Breathe often as needed--probably every two measures. My idea of
perfect probably allowed for a pretty squeezed tone--probably stemming
from too much reliance on "taa-ee-aaa-eeee.". I tried to play ex straight
through,
but it's probably mor productive to take the horn off your face and rest
a couple of beats at the end of each two measures. Do the exercise at least
once a day--no more than twice. Feel the burning pain in the corners of
your
mouth. If you can already do the half-note ex, start with quarter-note
ex.
2. Do the same thing on quarter notes until you are perfect at 120.
3. Do the same thing on 8ths until perfect at 120.
4. Same thing on triplets. Here it gets interesting and perhaps more fun.
Accents keep shifting. your slurring ability and control in general are
making marvelous strides.
5. Same thing on 16ths. You're almost there.
6. Same thing 6-to-a-beat. Quit patting your foot and realize you are lip
trilling.
7. No more than once a day practice brief lip trill exercises from Ab above
the staff on up your entire controlled range. Good tone, plenty of power,
no squeeze. It sometimes has seemed to me that to lip trill between two
notes
without losing power one must double the blow.
8. Don't do lip trill exs without being very well warmed up. Offset lip
trill exs with low playing, perhaps tongued.
Roger McDuffie
RogMcD@aol.com
Spartanburg SC
From: James L Klages <jklages@indiana.edu>
Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 14:32:32 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: PED: Lip trills
I will pass on to you what my teacher James F. Burke taught me, and has
worked for me for decades (since I was in high school)
Think of these as TONGUE trills.
(A lip trill will be by definition slowish and tiring. The mental process
is misfocussed.)
The tongue moves (arches) as if saying Tah-eeh-ah... . This can be done
quite fast without effort. Play a note in the proper register- tope space
G fingerd 1-3 and while playing a little to the sharp side bring the
tongue arche into action. If this is done properly, you will get a trill
without much trouble. It takes a while to master this.
When I was at IU getting my
masters (performance 1982 or so) Mr. Gorham suggested that the chin is
a more fruitful way of thinking of this. I agree. (The motion of the tong
and or chin is minimal and not
directly controlable.) What I have said above does work.
Try Arban page 44 for things
to play. I have never had a student who couldn't (in time) get the nack
for this technique.
Jim Klages
(former cornet soloist US Marine
Band)
jklages@indiana.edu
From: B-FLAT MUSIC PRODUCTION / HUNT GRAPHICS <bflatmus@erols.com>
Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 16:04:16 -0400
Subject: Re:PED - Lips Trills and Shakes
Good post, Charlie!
May I suggest, also, that the student WHISTLE ALOUD those pitches and
syllables. In so doing, you will be able to determine exactly, and how
much "motion" is needed to produce the interval in question. Please note
that several "integrated" things occur regarding tongue, lip, and jaw
motion. When you are playing the trumpet, continue to use the "Silent Whistle"
In SAIL THE SEVEN C'S, the technique of the "lip slur/trill" plays a
central role. We teach the use of the "silent whistle" for establishing
the proper "mouth-cavity-shape" for each individual tone.
Clyde
http://www.erols.com/bflatmus
