Monette Club

This is a photo I took at a Community Band Concert.

The following is an interesting article from the BBC which gives a British perspective of Louis Armstrong’s legacy.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240722-louis-armstrong-the-us-jazz-icon-with-a-controversial-legacy

That all being said, I did recommend an overdose of very, very quiet longtones and lipslurs. To enhance those exercizes, take a 10 minute hot shower right before hand to get as relaxed as possible. To not use the tongue to get the tone started - just exhale into the tone or slur. Read the circle of breath first.

@Trumpetb said in 1970 Bach 43 elusive high G#:

Make ROWUKs words your bible. This last post by him is gospel if ever there was a trumpet gospel.

Yes to "What is appropriate is whatever works"

Yes to " My goal is not a six-pack in our face and an industrial level compressor with the lungs"

These are the golden nuggets that we should use as a foundation to our beliefs.

Add to that others great advice such as "All we have is our sound" always always always work on your tone make it the most beautiful humanly possible by using ROWUKS words "What is appropriate is whatever works"

Read every other post of ROWUK the man knows what he is talking about.

I have reached many of the same conclusions as he states in here but it has taken me a very long time to reach that position.

Read absorb digest his words and become all the better as a performer for the doing of that.

Thanks for the flowers, but I stand on the shoulders of giants. Nothing I post is originally mine. It is all part of Arban, Irons, Stamp, Schlossberg, St. Jacome, Clarke and many others as well as practicing things like meditation, yoga and Feldenkrais.
I firmly believe that every person has a "different" entry point and finding that is my #1 priority when starting a student. Building vocabulary is the #2 step. Learning what I mean by integration is the critical part. As babies, we do all of the basics of posture, motion and breathing naturally. Once we start going to school, we start to lose these abilities and "break" our bodies in small steps. By the time we get to high school, we slouch, have back and neck tension as well as many other symptoms of our "bad behavior". Some people start to excercise, get therapy, turn vegan in hopes that things will get better. They seldom do because the "core evil" is not the symptom of pain or decreased ability to move, it is a learned reduction in integration of mind and body. That in turn leads to many pathological things.
In my view, when we are looking for a solution to something, we must identify the "root evil". As everybody with upper back pain has learned, treating the pain by massage or medicine is at best a very temporary reduction. Getting the coordination of the skeleton, muscles and mind back would be the best solution, but what specialist can you go to that offers that type of integration? In traditional medicine, there are basically none and Yoga as it is most commonly practiced, is a sports activity not a holistic thing. Many of the best other possibilities are considered too esoteric and therefore, we are all stuck with whatever ails us.
My approach to teaching trumpet is by integration. We need to leverage at the most basic level to be able to build good habits. Neck tension could kill a lesson on double or triple tonguing. Emotional tension severely limits our ability to turn airflow into music.
We are creatures of habit and our development is based on a system of rewards. That is why I say what works is the first definition of appropriate. Accomplishment->Satisfaction->Desire to repeat. This is how embouchure pressure develops. In our early developmental stages, pressure works and encourages further similar behavior. Replacing that with something that in the end MAY be better, is difficult because when trying to change habits, we have many things competing in our brains. Many times we only have lessons in the part of the year where we are performing. That means that we need to focus on what works, we have no time for addressing deeper issues that get worse before they get better!

So, if there were any words that I think would be most helpful, they are not for the physical level, they would deal with the mind and leveraging our reward system. If a high G# is hard, then do not keep trying to "hit it". Leave it alone for 4 weeks and build supportive habits (integration breath and embouchure) that ultimately could uncap blockage for an octave more than that. That is not 3 posts and an online 30 minute lesson.

Let us not forget that there ARE many "students" that benefit from dominating teachers. Some people actually "beg" for this dominance (not just in the trumpet world). For the rest of us, we generally get lucky and find someone where the "chemistry" lines up or at least where personal motivation is possible.

I basically disagree with most of the online schemes as I need a better picture of what the whole body is doing. I do not want to reduce the efforts of online teachers to a practice monitor, but my experience shows a predominance of exactly that. Integrating body use, breathing, technique and musical expression is a HUGE thing and working with people that have not had structure is an even bigger deal. It takes (too much) time just to find a common vocabulary!

At the end of the day, we match expectations with results and the real scammers are those willing to just take the money and run after blaming the students for the rest...

As far as responding to teachers like this. I am most satisfied with NOT FEEDING THE TROLLS. I do not engage them, I do not seek satisfaction by having the last word. At Trumpetmaster, I gave them a vacation if they turned the heat up online (Kurt Thompson comes to mind).

My answer would be: "after considering all of the options, I have come to the understanding that our goals do not line up. Thank you for your patience." Then I block the e'mail address to prevent further "itch to respond".

@JWM said in 1970 Bach 43 elusive high G#:

@ROWUK Too much pressure is surely part of my problem. I’ve made progress in posture, inhale and “exhaling”. I find that I must change my lip position and trumpet position to generate a note. Is that appropriate?

What is appropriate is whatever works. "More" appropriate are the things that most likely prevent failure in the future. If you have summer band concerts, it is tough to make changes and maintain any specific level of playing.

I do not advocate changing the position of the mouthpiece while playing. If we are practicing enough of the right things, lip flexibilities/lip slurs will provide all of the embouchure tension skills that we need. Getting rid of Armstrong is usually the biggest challenge. As I previously wrote: "A buzz is nothing more than the lips opening and closing at a certain frequency. If we apply large amounts of arm pressure to the embouchure, we need far more air pressure to blow the lips apart. That is not a very responsive system!" This means that better breathing does not fix ANYTHING if it is not coupled to embouchure habits. In my world, breathing is an integral part of the embouchure and should be practiced in context (an example is the "circle of breath"). My goal is not a six-pack in our face and an industrial level compressor with the lungs. It is fine motor activity of the embouchure balanced by "just enough" air pressure.

Remember, humans are creatures of habit and we are what we repeatedly do! This is why lessons with a qualified teacher are so important - to build a consistent foundation and confidence in that process. It takes thousands of repetitions for something to become a habit. I have met students however, that have a natural talent for structure. They do not need as much "nudging" as others that have to work very hard for everything.

Practicing in an unstructured way builds habits too - unreliability, uncertainty and frustration.

@JWM The #1 reason for range just stopping at a specific note is too much damn pressure.

A buzz is nothing more than the lips opening and closing at a certain frequency. If we apply large amounts of arm pressure to the embouchure, we need far more air pressure to blow the lips apart. That is not a very responsive system!

In my view, the easiest way to break this habit is to turn the testosterone down. Play ONLY very, very softly for a couple of weeks and focus on the air doing the work. Overdose on pianissimo lipslurs and long tones. Practice to get the sound to start on a wisp of air.

Generally, it takes only a lesson or two to get students doing this reliably. The biggest problem with a social media recommendation is that body use can not be controlled. If someones body is twisted into knots, a big relaxed breath is a challenging thing. Exhaling also becomes a real chore.

My full view is in several posts that I made called "the circle of breath". This is a collection of things from many disciplines. Google it and if there is something unclear, just ask.

@JWM The only way to know if it is you is to have someone way better than you play the horn.
I would say the chances are 99.999% that it is you. There are essentially NEVER any notes missing unless there is a leak and then it is not "a" high notes that get s lost, rather usually in the lower octave.

@barliman2001

@barliman2001 said in A little humour:

Just happened upon this Norman Rockwell painting... I am sure someone can identify the trumpet!

I can’t identify the trumpet , but, As per my previous post on January 31, 2024,
“ On November 18, 1950 a painting, called “Boy Practicing Trumpet”, appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. This painting also featured puffed cheeks and a dog. The model Norman Rockwellused for thispainting was Tommy Paquin.The trumpet was borrowed from Rockwell's middle son, Tommy.
The slip covers for the chair are painted after the fashion of Rockwell's good friend, Grandma Moses. We can safely assume that she was flattered by the emulation.”

https://trumpetboards.com/topic/593/vintage-horn-eye-candy

Last evening, July 3, I attended a soccer game at Gillette Stadium, New England Revolution vs Atlanta United FC. Outside of the stadium the Naval Band Northeast Brass Band set up for a concert. Their performance was excellent and flawless. Below is an example posted in two parts.
Happy July 4!

Youtube Video

Youtube Video