In my business being too busy to do much blogging is a good thing. So in lieu of something more interesting today, here is a rundown of some of the various happenings around here.
The most exciting news for me is that I have taken on administrative duties with MusicWorks! Asheville, now serving both as a teaching artist and site administrator for the program. MusicWorks! is a El Sistema inspired program of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra. I like to describe El Sistema as social activism through music education. We are a free, after-school music program that specifically targets at-risk children. Our goal is to teach them important life skills through teaching them music.
Tonight, Monday August 31, 2015, is the final night of the weekly Speakeasy Mondays series that have been held at the Dirty South Lounge in Asheville, NC. I’ve been performing there with the Low-Down Sires from 9 to midnight almost every Monday for the past three months. It’s been neat to see the event get built up from just a handful of swing dancing friends of the band into a pretty well-attended party. Andrew, the bartender who has managed the night, is moving on to bigger and better things so the Speakeasy Mondays will end after tonight. That said, it looks like the whole party may be moving to another venue and when it becomes official I’ll try to announce it here.
Lastly, some of you may have noticed the recent comments section here have been frequently in Japanese. That’s because Basil, an American horn player living in Japan, came across Wilktone and asked if it would be OK with me to translate some of my embouchure posts into Japanese for his readers. I, of course, said yes and he has been translating a storm. I’m excited about this because my main goal has been to make the information I’ve come across more accessible to more brass players and having my articles available in another language is a great way to introduce this research to a whole new population. I’ve gotten requests over the years to translate my articles and videos into Spanish and Portuguese especially, so if you speak one of those languages, or another, please let me know if you’re interested in taking on some translation.
Hi David,
Thanks for mentioning me in your post.
After you kindly gave me a short analysis of my embouchure motion and tendencies, I’ve considered and adopted your advice.
It’s been 5days since I started practicing according to your advice, and the results are fantastic.
I’ve noticed that I was switching air direction at a certain area in the low register because I wasn’t allowing the mouthpiece to be pulled down with the embouchure.
This I noticed after repeating sentences of articles in my mind that embouchure motion is “pulling down (or pushing up) the embouchoure TOGETHER WITH the mouthpiece “. I wasn’t allowing the mouthpiece to move together downwards with the embouchure, I literally was actively blocking that movement.
As I realized that and intended to move the mouthpiece TOGETHER WITH the embouchure, than suddenly I was able to play all the registers in a downstream way.
I’m still not used to this, so if I’m not thinking I revert back to the more familiar way, but in general the new way functions better, sounds better and feels like I have better control.
It’s making my high registers more firm and solid too. I also now can identify certain playing sensations lots of horn players talk about, which I couldn’t really believe until now.
You’re work is so valuable in it’s effectivity and simplicity. Thank you !
Basil
Hi, Basil.
Glad you found my comments helpful.
It’s counterintuitive, but often inconsistencies in how we play in one register will actually work against playing in an other.
Good luck!
Dave