TROMBONE-L Digest 2401 Topics covered in this issue include: 1) C.G. CONN 1939 DOUBLE-BELLED EUPHONIUM on eBay by Gordon Cherry 2) Fear, nerves, posture, build, physicality, personality (was Re: It is imporrible to breathe wrong) by sabutin 3) Re: Fear, nerves, posture, build, physicality, personality by Craig Parmerlee ----__ListProc__NextPart____TROMBONE-L__digest_2401 Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 17:05:02 -0700 From: Gordon Cherry To: gcherry@interchange.ubc.ca Subject: C.G. CONN 1939 DOUBLE-BELLED EUPHONIUM on eBay Message-ID: MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_TcNvQPpYDul/1/x5MwHIMQ)" Hello from Gordon Cherry regarding the notice of a rare Euphonium for sale on eBay. Just a quick note to let you know that the C.G. Conn 1939 Double Belled Euphonium that I am selling, is now listed on eBay. You can find it by doing a search and going to auction number: 876393437 or you may access the auction directly if you paste this url in your browser: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=876393437 For your information there 5 bids on it so far and the most recent bid is at $810.00. The auction will run for another 6 1/2 days until Saturday, June 1 at 8:53:15. At the present time the reserve has not been reached. Thanks a lot :) Gordon Cherry ----__ListProc__NextPart____TROMBONE-L__digest_2401 Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 09:38:36 -0400 From: sabutin To: trombone-l@po.missouri.edu Subject: Fear, nerves, posture, build, physicality, personality (was Re: It is imporrible to breathe wrong) Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="============_-1189702098==_ma============" on 5/19/02 3:26 PM, Joe L. Norcross at joetuba@lightspeed.net wrote: > The less you think about breathing, the better. One can screw up breathing > if you try to analyze what you are doing and think to much It's interesting to note how different people have different approaches to breathing as applied to trombone playing. On the one hand, it's a completely natural act that doesn't (or shouldn't) take any conscious effort to do (at least in terms of it's natural function). One the other hand, anyone who's worked with younger or less experienced students has seen some who have difficulty with some aspect of breathing. =============================== It has always appeared to me...and we are getting back to the "nerves" thread here, really...that breathing problems (among young people particularly) are almost always the result of of fear. Think about it. One of the major the symptoms of fear, of real, a-tiger's-going-to-eat-me, this-car's-out-of-control-and-I'm-going-to-die, if-I-have-to-step-out-on-that-stage-in-front-of-all-those-people-I-will-simply-DIE kind of fear, is breathlessness. Rapid, shallow, fear breath. We've all experienced it... Now fear as an chronic state...what-will-he/they-think-if-I-miss-that-note fear...produces similar breathing tendencies. Not so violent or obvious as the fear of imminent pain or death, but somewhere back along the same spectrum. Chronic fear rather than acute fear. This idea began to form up for me yesterday. I am at the International Trombone Festival this week, selling my book while a room full of trombonists of all levels and idioms tries out various high end pieces of equipment. While I'm not doing business, chatting w/folks or trying to noodle around on my horn to keep my chops in some semblance of good shape so I won't sound terrible when I go back to the real world, I listen to and watch the players in the room. The first thing I noticed is that there are two basic physical types that predominate...easily 90%...among the really accomplished players. They are either barrel chested right on down through their waist or they are fairly long and slim. Almost no middle ground, not particularly age related. I also noticed a dichotomy among the various idioms. The orchestral players are much, MUCH "stiffer" physically, especially when they play. Even the very good ones...and there have been any number of successful orchestral players trying instruments in the room over the past several days. They are stiffer when they walk, when they move the slide, and how the play. Not "bad", just different from the players who play in more American idioms. I also noticed that the players who seemed to be having breath issues also had eye problems. That is, their eyes were almost all WIDE open and darting around the room as the played, apparently worried that someone might be judging them. (W/good reason, I might add...the subtext of competition is almost unavoidable in a situation like this. "Mine's bigger than yours is..." Men + women alike.) A number of the better and more experienced players...myself among them... avoid this problem to some degree by playing quite softly and/or either going outside or at least aiming the horn in a neutral direction when really putting some air thorough it, but the others...ones w/something to either prove and/or hide...appear suffer the tortures of the damned while playing in a group of their peers and elders who are also strangers, and it is here that the breathing/fear thing becomes quite obvious. They are almost all too damned scared to breathe. They probably are not aware of it most of the time...like mild chronic pain, chronic fear just becomes part of the background noise...but it's in there; it's in there... Further, the few really good sounding players...players whose sound and approach have snapped my attention around to them while they are trying instruments...do not appear to share this this problem, and their very posture speaks of this freedom from fear. No matter what the idiom...and the orchestral players outnumber the non-orchestral players by about 12 to one here, at least in a room full of Shires, Rath, and Greenhoe equipment...and no matter what the body type, the good sounding players are more relaxed physically than the others, and MOST of the difference is in the air. It flows in more efficiently, and flows out w/more power and control. There is also a difference in how they hold and manipulate the slide, not dealing w/it as if it is were a poisonous reptile about to flick back and bite them. This was particularly noticeable in the playing and general demeanor of a truly amazing trombonist, Bill Reichenbach. He is flowing through the trigger range of the instrument so easily, so apparently effortlessly, that if you have never tried yourself tried to play complicated jazz lines in the lower octave of the horn you might easily miss how damned hard it is to do. Breath, slide, triggers, tongue, and brain (brain particularly...he plays changes IMPECCABLY, like a great pianist), all the while standing like he is waiting for a bus somewhere on a lovely spring afternoon. He is RELAXED, (As relaxed as he can get anyway...it's all show business, in the last analysis...) and thus he can breathe and move. Now of course you might say "Well, YEAH, he's relaxed...he's successful at what he does and has been so for quite a while", but in this particular chicken and egg question I submit that you must kill the chicken (the chickening out part) before you can break the eggs and make a good omelette. And here we are back to "nerves". This is a matter of self mastery. We are all, to a greater or lesser degree, naturally "afraid". Raise your hand to a child, and that child will cower. But raise your hand to a well trained martial artist, even a young one, and the fear has been subsumed in practice, technique, and at the highest point, life itself. Most teachers who concentrate on air are putting the chicken before the cart, in my opinion, breaking eggs but not making the omelette. Fear won't affect the embouchure to any great degree, except perhaps by creating dry mouth and in extreme cases muscular trembling, but it will wreak absolute havoc w/the breathing system. So...now we get to the hard part. How do you stop being afraid? (Uh oh...) Of course this comes to some of us w/maturity and/or repeated success, but I submit that it can also be ACTED, and that the acting of it will in itself actually ameliorate much of he fear. Try this...assume a facial expression that would communicate a specific emotion other than the one you are more or less feeling at the moment. Anger, fear, pleasure, happiness, it makes no difference in terms of this experiment. Now look w/in. You are actually FEELING that emotion, to some degree. Do the same thing w/your face and body both, and this will be even clearer. Now try this same thing (acting only positive emotions) while you are playing, while you are in situations where there are other players or an audience, where there are potential "judges" (including your own inner judge, who is always holding court somewhere...that's the really tricky part). This is actually easy to do. (But very hard to REMEMBER to do.) So, just like "playing well", how do you do this? You practice it. On line at the post office, just walking down the street, when you open your case or walk into the rehearsal hall, when you step on stage in front of 4 or 40 million people...eventually, ALWAYS. (Especially when you feel that first physical twinge of fear or stray thought..."What if I fail?") Consciously relax your body; breathe easily; assume a more confident stance; relax your eyes; relax your hands and arms and face, especially relax your lower abdomen and, not to be indelicate about it, the region below your hips, front AND rear. ("Keep a tight asshole is not necessarily the BEST advice ever the enter the lexicon of American popular wisdom...) If you do this, the "fear" will recede. And when it recedes, you will be able to breathe better. Only then will all that spirometer practice, all the instructions on how to breathe and how to support, have been useful. Until then you are locked in the physical prison of fear, and if the spirit of Arnold Jacobs himself were to inhabit your body, you STILL wouldn't be able to catch a good breath. Gotta go relax...I mean work...now. Hope this makes some sense to some of you... Later... Sam ----__ListProc__NextPart____TROMBONE-L__digest_2401 Date: Sun, 26 May 2002 10:23:06 -0500 From: Craig Parmerlee To: trombone-l@po.missouri.edu Subject: Re: Fear, nerves, posture, build, physicality, personality Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20020526101136.021f6708@acticalc.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed At 09:38 AM 5/26/2002 -0400, sabutin wrote: The first thing I noticed is that there are two basic physical types that predominate...easily 90%...among the really accomplished players. They are either barrel chested right on down through their waist or they are fairly long and slim. Almost no middle ground, not particularly age related. Well, barrel chested in a buff sort of way. :) Now where did I put my beer? This was particularly noticeable in the playing and general demeanor of a truly amazing trombonist, Bill Reichenbach. He is flowing through the trigger range of the instrument so easily, so apparently effortlessly, that if you have never tried yourself tried to play complicated jazz lines in the lower octave of the horn you might easily miss how damned hard it is to do. Breath, slide, triggers, tongue, and brain (brain particularly...he plays changes IMPECCABLY, like a great pianist), all the while standing like he is waiting for a bus somewhere on a lovely spring afternoon. Yes, I think those are some of the most impressive set of skills I have seen in this business. He plays the bass trombone like a trombone -- what a concept. Once I heard some of his playing, I decided to add to my practice routine a period of improvisation practice in the double valve range. Most bass trombonists approach the bass trombone from a fingering chart standpoint. The eye sees a Db, so you push down both valves and put your slide out about 3rd position (or whatever). You never really learn your horn that way. All you have is a series of disconnected notes played mechanically. If one can get to the point of improvising gracefully and fluidly below the staff, using all the available alternates at the subconscious level, one has really learned the instrument then. Reichenbach is an inspiration.. ----__ListProc__NextPart____TROMBONE-L__digest_2401--