Posts made by Dr GO

@Dr-Mark said in Problems with Air and Nose:

@Dr-GO said in Problems with Air and Nose:
...One guy went into plumbing and now has a prosperous plumbing business and lives in the most exclusive part of the county. Interestingly, the most hell I caught from administration while I was a professor was for sending kids away from the college and toward the technical school.

I always told my medical students that cardiologists and plumbers have a lot of similar knowledge as to how fluids flow through tubes... only difference... plumbers make more when applying the skills that apply.

@Dr-Mark said in Range Improvement:

@Dr-GO said;
"Practice make perfect, but nobody's perfect, so why practice?"
I have my own;
"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."
Think about it. How many times have you come across someone who practices daily but uses poor technique.

As for why we practice? Sunk cost and sheer stubbornness.

Careful Dr. Mark. Don't EVER achieve perfection. That, my good friend, will hold you back. Yes?

MuseScore is another nice product that is free on line for music notations and can be found at: https://musescore.org/en

Please refer to post 11 under: Problems with Air and Nose https://www.trumpetboards.com/topic/398/problems-with-air-and-nose/17 to find my description, diagrams and video of me playing with the vertical smile. Make sure you focus on my cheeks to see the effect of the muscles I use.

@Kehaulani said in DUH!! I finally figured it out, after all these years! (playing with minimal pressure):

Wouldn't a "vertical smile" put a toothy crease right in the middle of your face?

No. Actually the stress is projected laterally (at the coroner of the smile) not over the middle, which would more like put a crease in the nose if that happened.

@Kehaulani said in DUH!! I finally figured it out, after all these years! (playing with minimal pressure):

Wait until you're on the fifth set in a three-horn section playing Earth, Wind and Fire tunes.

Been there. Done that. Wish I had the vertical smile in those days!

@Dr-Mark said in DUH!! I finally figured it out, after all these years! (playing with minimal pressure):

@ButchA
You have good reason to be excited! Keep up the great work. Always inhale like a yawn and exhale normally. We never force the wind. Also, I like that you didn't blast. Playing soft and relaxed is another way you are reducing mouthpiece pressure. Very smart!

Oh, but Dr. Mark, you can play loud and clean (NOT BLAST) with the vertical smile as well as control with amazing accuracy a high soft tone lead range with the "vertical smile". Give it a try. Let me know what you find.

ButchA; Very nice comments.

First let me say, I agree with your comment on the inefficiency of the "smile".

It makes good sense how your "frown" is more efficient. There is more muscle insertion on the lower mandible in the "frown" than the "smile (traditional buzz)"

Let me also recommend the concept of the "vertical smile". That works exceptionally well for my as just as your frown uses more muscle insertions, so does the "vertical smile" that uses the zygimatic arch (bones just below the eyes). I posted on another site me playing with a vertical smile where you can see my face expand under both eyes when I play. That embouchure not only allows me to play longer, but also higher, making the Double High C that was impossible for me to achieve only a decade ago, to a note that has a high degree of accuracy and volume for the last 5 years after I discovered the "vertical smile".

Here is an arrangement I wrote and performed to "Jesus is All the World to Me" recorded with the band I started in the early 2000's (Second Coming):

https://soundcloud.com/user-296675506/07-track-7

@tmd said in ii/ V7/ I in All Twelve Keys:
...And I agree that learning everything in 12 keys is a good goal to have. But the vast majority of the Real Book tunes are in the keys I listed. There are a few exceptions, like Wave and Take Five.

Mike

That is how Claudio Roditi taught me improve. He had me prepare a lesson from a transcribed solo of a jazz performer and my lesson was to run that solo through all 12 keys. This really helped the fluidity of my phrasing (which is why I feel comfortable soloing in ANY key).

@Dr-Mark said in ii/ V7/ I in All Twelve Keys:

@tmd said in ii/ V7/ I in All Twelve Keys:

It "scares" you? Many people are "awfully dependent" on it?
Why?

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There's been more than a handful (more like a fist full) of times I've been at a jam and someone calls (for example), Autumn Leaves. .

Specific to Autumn Leaves... I love playing my improv hitting on the flatted 5th of the chords that progress by. Adds some refreshment to the traditional changes. Leaves a lasting impression don't cha know!

What's all the BIG DEAL about Giant Steps! It's so simple, even a kid can do it:

@Dr-Mark said in Problems with Air and Nose:

@Kehaulani said in Problems with Air and Nose:

Well . . you do know what they call a doctor who was last in his class?

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Dangerous!

Dr Mark. I so agree. And what scares me about the current age of medical education is we are not permitted to assign grades, only pass or fail. So we no longer know who graduates last in their class. We are now teaching the generation of medical students that played T-ball as kids, where no one kept score, and everyone won the game.

So what if the doctor amputated the wrong leg, after which the correct leg is finally removed. Everyone is a winner. The doctor gets twice the pay, the patient finally gets the correct leg removed, and the patient cannot sue the doctor as he won't have a leg to stand on.

@Carsen-Abraham said in Problems with Air and Nose:

@Dr-Mark I can do everything except for sing without air coming out of my nose. Should I be trying to strengthen my soft palate so it doesn’t give out?

Carsen-Abraham. I searched PubMed and while there are articles (as our administrator posted) that tell you about the problem, there is little on reports of therapy. In the medical literature the most specific recommendation I could find is REST. They recommended 3 months of NO TRUMPET PLAYING. There is little comparison evidence to go full court press on this recommendation.

While resting the pallet makes sense (that IS what we as physicians recommend for any sprain), ANOTHER option is to try to BUILD back the pallet. That is where the vertical smile comes into play.

When most traditional trumpet players buzz, they are doing a lateral smile... they use muscles of the cheek and jaw that project East and West. I am recommending you use muscles that go North. The muscles of the cheek that insert into the zygimatic arch (bones along the lower eye sockets). Smile toward your eyes. THAT is a vertical smile. It pulls the pallet up not out. This will hopefully close the gap causing the air leak AND give you the BETTER TRUMPET embouchure that will increase your endurance with the minimum amount of strain. I have discussed this technique before on this TB forum (as well as on TM) as the Phwooooooo techniques as that is the sound this embouchure makes... not that inefficient disgusting buzz that most trumpet players seem to have drilled into their heads.

I have circled in the figure below the muscle groups to which I refer:

Watch my embouchure in this video of me playing:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HaK1sYi5_cfSw3C1N7Hv-Y9oA3PliAaR/view?fbclid=IwAR1MakCr297ZHEIPTQSav-MpA2DdE_aQVK43HU44d9KpLI-oir7Rh32ahB8

Note how my eyes buff out (not my jaw) when I play. Not how there is a ridge between my Orbicularis and jaw. That is because the muscles filling in the space (the buzz muscles) are not in use. This is the vertical smile that produces the Phwoooooo sound. Hope the anatomical and video illustrations help you but this together.

...OR come to me... I can always use more cash:

...OR not because here is your problem. You most likely have a hyper mobile soft palate or velopharyngeal Insufficiency. Many times, this relates from over playing prior to the problem starting Before you spend lots of cash on people like me, try these steps:

1. Play with a good posture
2. Rather than buzzing, try playing with the Dr O patented "vertical smile" with the coroners of you lips up (not out) or others have called this to "smile inside". This helps close off the pharyngeal passage
3. Consider backing down the length of your practice sessions which may help eliminate the fatigue creating the insufficiency

Hope this helps.

Here is an example of use of rests (and notes) in Kenny Dorham's, writing genius in his composition "Short Story" at the swing section:

Its such a nice use of space in the first series (quarter and eight rest) introducing the first whole not phrase, than a subtle triplet quarter rest to set of the next whole note phrase then bam on beat 3 to bring home the last of the three whole note phrases. Here is how it sound in the song (first entry starts at 0:28):

Another perspective, but the HARDEST thing for me to read on any chart, classical or jazz, are NOT the notes, but the rests. The rests are truly the most important aspect of a musical piece to me, and the print that keeps my vigil most focused, because when not to play is I feel more important that when to play.

Anything Miles Davis. But hear is one that is nothing but space: "Eighty-One" written by Ron Carter:

What works is that it gets you into the song by enticing you to listen closer.

@mdwilliams said in Shallowest flugel mouthpieces?:
I do prefer deeper V shaped peices on flugel in general.

Thanks!

This just in: U versus V mouthpieces. Read this one with a grain of salt, as this research while reporting on tonal quality does not report on the range of tonal variability between the two types of cups:

J Acoust Soc Am. 2013 Nov;134(5):3872-86. doi: 10.1121/1.4824338.
Trumpet mouthpiece manufacturing and tone quality.
Zicari M1, MacRitchie J, Ghirlanda L, Vanchieri A, Montorfano D, Barbato MC, Soldini E.
Author information
1
Dipartimento Ricerca e Sviluppo, Scuola Universitaria di Musica, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, via Soldino 9, CH-6900 Lugano, Switzerland.
Abstract
This article investigates the relationship between the shape of the mouthpiece and its acoustical properties in brass instruments. The hypothesis is that not only different volumes but also particular cup shapes affect the embouchure and the tone quality in both a physical and perceivable way. Three professional trumpet players were involved, and two different internal cup contours characterized by a "U" and a "V" shape with two types of throat junction (round and sharp) were chosen, based on a Vincent Bach 1 [1/2] C medium mouthpiece. A third intermediate contour was designed as a combination of these. Over 600 sound samples were produced under controlled conditions, the study involving four different stages: (1) Simulation of air-flow, (2) analysis of the sound spectra, (3) study of the players' subjective responses, and (4) perceptual analysis of their timbral differences. Results confirm the U shape is characterized by a stronger air recirculation and produces stronger spectral components above 8 kHz, compared to the V shape. A round throat junction may also be preferable to a sharp one in terms of playability. There is moderate agreement on the aural perception of these differences although the verbal attributes used to qualify these are not shared.