I review a trumpet video made by the legendary Peter Bond, currently retired from a long successful career with the NY Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. #trumpet #trumpetplayer #trumpetsound #reaction #reactionvideo #reactionvideos
Thank you for taking the time to do this. I am a comeback player, starting in 2018 after >30 years away. I vividly remember as young person (middle school/high school) just lightly “whistling” through the horn with decent results and thinking I was doing it wrong because I wasn’t actively buzzing or putting out a lot of effort. I still have a few issues, but I never got wrapped up in the “trumpet playing = lots of physical strength” bullshit. When I came back to playing after all those years the internet existed, and a few players were saying (or trying to say) how the instrument really works that actually made sense to me. Notably Greg Spence’s Mystery to Mastery content seemed to have most things right, but of course I wasn’t sure. After all, what the hell do I know? In any case, I know folks are encouraging you to call out the BS that is out there. That’s fine (and entertaining), but I think it is at least equally important to do what you did here with Peter Bond’s video, and identify content that is generally good advice. I say again, thank you. You are going to help a lot of people if they can “hear” you.
Thanks so much! I try to make my videos entertaining, but some people take me a bit too seriously and get their feelings hurt. Thank you for 'hearing' me! Peter is a friend of mine and Paul is clearly a very accomplished player and seemingly nice guy. There is no ill will here, just different ways of describing things in the spirit of sharing!
There's a misconception about mouthpiece throats. That's not where the primary resistance to the moving volume of air occurs - it's at the vibrating aperture, which is affected and limited by the inner contour of the entire brass pipe. So, cup, throat, backbore, leadpipe, bore, bell taper, flare, overall length, etc., establishes the resonant wave that instantly comes back to the lips and creates the available "slots". So what we're really doing on an ongoing basis is deciding whether or not we want to counter that resonance in some way, or attenuate our physical effort to match and facilitate it for however-loud we want to be. Full resonant warm tone, or breathy jazz tone, or set the horn up to sizzle in the high register more easily for a more commercial tone, etc. There are infinite choices to be made and everything is a trade-off. "Efficiency" is not the top priority, either - it's just really nice to have, for as much as we can achieve. So yes, choosing a larger or smaller throat is going to affect things, but it doesn't do it by providing "resistance" to the volume of moving "air". It's a change in how the sound that resonates in the cup is then amplified from smallest point to largest point in the resonant system of cylindrical/conical shapes. A longer cylindrical throat (typical of reamed throats) can actually create more "perceived resistance" than a tapered throat that is actually smaller at its narrowest point. High range/Lead players who must use a lot of compression, and whose job it becomes to regularly operate "in extremis" much more often than most, will often benefit from trying different throat sizes and backbore contours with their whole setup to discover how it all works best with their own physiology and concept of sound. A mismatch can result in less efficiency, reduced endurance, intonation problems and even a greater inclination towards passing out, etc.
Hi Jon, I made big discoveries about air flow and efficiency in my late 20s, after being taught for years throughout high school and college to "blow" and I reached heights I never thought would be possible for me. I think the "lots of air" school of thought ended up forcing me to use an embouchure that was built for inefficiency throughout high school and during the early years of my career, and when I finally got frustrated enough to change my embouchure to something that was more naturally resonant and efficient, I realized that I had been working far too hard with the air. That said, I'm curious as to what your thoughts are regarding the seemingly widespread pedagogical approach to trumpet playing that seems antithetical to efficiency? There seems to be a focus on high amounts of air pressure and lots of active blowing, particularly in the band world, and it only seems to be gaining more steam. I have a sneaking suspicion that music schools are misguiding students, perhaps unintentionally, for the sake of the quality of their ensemble performances - throwing a one-size-fits-all band-aid on students that may produce adequate ensemble results, but at the expense of future success in their students' independent professional careers?
Hi there! I actually have some strong opinions about this and it give me a great subject for my next video! Thanks! Do you have anything specific you would like me to cover? (methods, gadgets, etc) Best, Jon
If you have air and release problems, this is great stuff -- I love the review, and I love Peter Bond. But if you have chop problems, I have two words for you: Roy Stevens.
In the Paul Mayes video you go to some lengths to criticise (and basically laugh at) his suggestion that 'the mouthpiece should hold the lip in place, so once the lips are in the mouthpiece you can relax', you do a so-called demonstration to apparently disprove this. HOWEVER, that is in total contradiction to your thoughts in this video (12:40) you say '..we say M to place it but then we don't keep saying M, we're not actively trying to buzz the lips...' etc. By all means, make enemies; but at least be consistent in what you're saying.
singing is not about creating tension in the glottis! that is death to singing too. people talk and sing "from" their vocal chords when their also are doing it wrong. the air creates the vibrations in the chords or chops. air going past/across or through...not squeezing from the chords or lips. singing properly requires a fully open throat, not the tight squeeze that "Dante" is demonstrating.
Thanks for watching. Nowhere in the video did I suggest 'tension in the glottis'. In hindsight, I should have discussed lowering the 'Adam's apple' or 'raising the soft palette' which is exactly what singers do. Also, I'm not sure where I demonstrated a 'tight squeeze'.... Also not sure why my 'name' is in quotes lol.
My apologies for the quotes, Jon. I didn't put 2 nd 2 together. It is a while since our patch crossed and "Dante speak" is neither clear as a name for you nor grammatical. . there is nothing I see about SSO in this video and I didn't go to your full video page. I may have misconstrued your comment at 4:34 and overreacted. that said, we don't need to "assume" that whenever we speak, we are automatically creating tension. and yes, it is glottis, but the vocal term you need is larynx...low larynx, but that is also not a one size fits all situation. us of the larynx is quite complex...high, low, neutral etc etc. even the lifted soft palate has variations. some schools of singing focus there and we hear the reedy English sound. others will aim for a darker more chest oriented, covered tone, passaggio rather than "soft palate". (Frank Sinatra sang that way) Believe me, very interesting for aligning the various elements of the trumpet vs vocal techniques vis a vis both production and sound/colour. Right on the money here, of course, is efficiency and using less to achieve more. Apologies for offence in my first note. BTW I think we might have met in Thailand ...2005?
No offence taken mate and yes I believe we did meet in Thailand! Completely agree! Lower larynx is totally what I meant and explained it very poorly. Hopefully people will go through the comments and see this exchange. All the best!@@MANGLE1000
When someone says "in my experience" thats what they are talking about. is this really the best that you can do. The arrogance of Dante is truly unbeleivable - why dont you do something positive you might even get a few more subscribers.
