Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 07:43:27 -0500
From: “Kurt Schulenburg”
Subject: My Lesson with Pops

Hey all!

Well, I’d love to post the story of the ultimate trumpet lesson here on the list, complete with all sordid details, but the trip has left my brain more than a little dead. (Too many hours in Memorial Day traffic…) With that in mind, I’m going to give an overview–chock full of opinions and impressions–and one that is certainly all my spin on a reality designed to help ME with MY particular problems. Once my head clears a bit, I’ll be posting a more detailed story on my Web Page–no need to clutter the list with all of my subjective points of view. So, if you’re curious, check it out more towards Friday or Saturday…

I should start with the “why” of this idea–“Why did I travel hundreds of miles to take a six-hour lesson from a complete stranger?” Well, this list has given me some insight to the teachers available out there–I have already written of my lesson with Nick Drozdoff back in December–and Clint Mclaughlin’s name was one that kept recurring in many areas where I was interested. Specifically, air, lips, set-up, range and sound. I’m sure Pops’ name has appeared in threads discussing technique, tonguing, etc., but these were not my areas of interest. A few threads had me nodding in complete agreement–the “Air,air,air not Lips, lips, lips” thread had us in an adversarial position. In short, he had opinions that sparked me.

A few e-mails, some calls to my wife, and then the travel agent, a few more e-mails and I’m suddenly booked from Chicago to Denver to Tulsa to rental car to Farmington, Arkansas. (I now live in Dallas Texas. Pops) Whew! I left at 3:00 PM Sunday and returned 1:30 AM Tuesday early morning. (There were several more direct routes, but none that fit the budget and time-table.)

Clint McLaughlin surprised me right away–he’s 41 years old (same as me–I don’t turn 42 ’til August…), much younger than I expected. He welcomed me into his home and proceeded to show me his world, boxes of trumpet material, several horns and cases, books and computers, and his Renaissance horns. All very cool, very homey. I was comfortable from the start. His family was exiting as I arrived, heading to a Memorial Day family bar-b-cue. They were, like Clint, very friendly and welcoming.
I won’t go into a blow-by-blow description (sorry…) but rather try to put into my words what I learned. I apologize if this steers anyone the wrong way–it is my interpretation of advice given to me to fix MY problems and may not be applicable to anyone else’s. Let’s hope that’s not entirely true.

First off, I have played for several years with both a high and low embouchure–they share some overlap of range, but it takes a second or two to switch between them. The overlap is around high C. The low embouchure can take me up to a G above that while the upper embouchure has a range from about G in the staff to a Double C, D or higher depending on generous you are feeling! I wanted to combine the embouchures, or perhaps lose one and extend the other. The upper embouchure, being very bright and difficult to control (both pitch wise and dynamically) was the candidate for extermination.

Pops thought that my lower embouchure was fine, only it needed a little tweaking to extend it to the range that I enjoy with the upper embouchure. I have been able to do three octave G scales with the low embouchure, but that high G always felt forced, too much arm pressure, no endurance or articulation, no ability to trill at the top of my range. Pops told me that Mendez said that a three octave G scale was only being played by about 1% of trumpet players. And I have to admit that wanting a larger range is mostly for my own fun–it certainly isn’t something that I am called upon to play. But, I really considered my usable range with the low embouchure to be about high A-C somewhere. (Useable range=a range where I can do it all, tongue, pp, ff, sixteenth notes–the whole gamut…at the end of the night. NOT squeaking out a half note Q# during my warm-up…) I did not have that.

I learned several things–although I had been pushing air from “the bottom” (and quite a bit of it) I was not “squeezing” the air from all sides. Also, I was taking a full breath every time–and blowing out all sorts of extra air at the end of a phrase or note. It truly scared me to take a big breath, blow half of it out, and then squeeze the h*ll out of it. But it does make a difference. I recommend trying it.

I also found out that what I considered to be corners were waaay too wide. I knew that they were supposed to be firm, but I was envisioning corners as being way out at the edges of my lips. In this regard, I think corners is a misnomer. While those muscles at the actual corners ARE flexed, the muscles to the inside (toward the center of the lips) are also flexed and firm. The “relaxed center” I kept hearing about is the part at the rim or even inside of the rim. Everything outside of the rim is considered “corners” or at least should be flexed. (Keep in mind this may vary with your mouth and mouthpiece setup.) Where my embouchure was probably as wide as the center of my eyes when I arrived at Pops’, I now am trying to line up the “corners” with my nostrils or eye teeth. This involved a sort of pucker, everything moving forward, “corners” squeezing in. I am not actually puckering the lips, that is, I am not turning them “inside out” as you might do in a “cartoon” kiss. The lips are more towards a puckered curl–although I am not actually rolling the lips in, it sort of feels like I am because I have to counter-balance the pucker. Once everything is firm (relax the center) you are free to pinch the center (the lips inside of the rim) independently of the corners (everything outside) that stay firm. Notice I am saying “firm” and “flexed” and not “tight”. By pinching the center, I am referring to a vertical movement of upper and lower lip, pressing together. Sort of like chewing, only no jaw movement at all. One of my problems: I pinch too much. Try this.

Blow a relaxed mp second line G. Your abs should be relaxed, you don’t need them for this register. The blowing is very small, just enough for the G to drop out of the bell and fall on the floor. Now, WITHOUT pushing more air, play louder. Yes, about a forte to double forte. No fair tightening the stomach muscles or squeezing the chest. Keep the air the same. How? Most likely you were able to do this–you accomplished it by dropping your jaw a bit, creating a larger aperture, ALLOWING the air to move through. This is an exercise that Pops showed me to help me relax my pinch, to control my jaw opening, to be aware of the aperture and it’s effect on volume and range. Try it on a 3rd space C. Play with it.

Another thing that we discussed was tongue placement for articulation. Pops’ told me that, at least for basic articulation, that it didn’t matter–it’s going to move around (and should) depending on your mouth and the register you are playing in. To some degree, the tongue arch will limit some options in articulation (at least as far as WHERE your tongue goes), but mostly you tongue the note where it is comfortable and rapid. The anchor tongue (Pops felt) might create difficulties in double tonguing. (I didn’t agree, but, hey, I can’t double tongue worth a squat, so who am I to argue?)

I also discovered that when I could relax and play high C with all of this going (squeeze air, firm corners, press center of lips together gently, jaw open slightly more than I’m comfortable with–currently) that high F was available by arching up the center front of the tongue (not the center back as I have done for years, often forcing air up into my sinuses for some really marvelous headaches…) I suspect that I was sort of blowing the whole wad with this movement–not keeping anything for high G or even double C–but it was sort of interesting that it felt like the tongue arch was the ONLY change I was making between the two notes. More practice research needed here.

Pops is allowing me more arm pressure at this stage than I am comfortable with. I detest pressure ’cause I’m a wimp and it hurts! (Oh, yeah, it screws up your playing in the long run, too.) He does make it very clear that if I must use pressure, to transfer it to the bottom lip (rather than the top one) by pivoting the horn. I can do this, but one of my goals is to get rid of this pressure entirely. Not there yet, but Pops certainly is.

Oh yeah, majorly important. It’s time to put pressure on this guy. WE NEED TO HEAR POPS! Trust me on this–the man can PLAY. And I heard very little, mostly just demonstrations that rattled my teeth and turned my head around! I have never sat in front of a trumpet bell putting out as effortless and as loud an F above double C as I did yesterday. It’s one thing to hear that MVC wave file, another to hear essentially the same range (with more power) tossed off like it was nothing. (No offense to MVC–I want to hear more of him, too!) So, a call to arms! Let’s request tunes! Let’s donate studio time! Let’s order some CDs! Seriously–the man is phenomenal. I know that there are other players with similar abilities, but this man is a fine teacher, one of the best. I think he needs to understand the sort of enthusiasm that his playing can generate in his students. It is important for all teachers to realize that much of their teaching abilities will be wasted without reinforcement–and short of another odyssey to Arkansas, there is no audio record of this particular teacher. IT CAN MEAN SO MUCH TO THE STUDENT, 5 YEARS, 10 YEARS FROM NOW. “I studied with the guy who recorded this.” “Hey man, listen to my teacher. I know that I’ll be able to do that someday!”.

I know I am forgetting things–got up for work 3 1/2 hours after going to bed last night. I’ll run through my notes and get something on the web site by the weekend. The address is there, after my signature. (Enjoy the Duke Levels while you’re at it!) What a great experience–well worth every minute! I encourage you to do it, too. There are several great teachers on this list who do similar lessons–seek them out. I have found them generous, warm, giving. Do I now have a continuous range from Double Pedal C to the Quad C? No. My range has not really extended itself yet–but what I am doing feels like the start of a new path–one that a Great Player has already trodden. I don’t expect it to be easy, but it does seem fairly simple. There is much work in front of me.

That’s it for now–gotta knock off the 10 pages of Arban’s each day. One more thing about Pops: he’s merciless! ; )

Kurt Schulenburg

Pops

The post My Lesson With Pops – Kurt Schulenburg appeared first on BBTrumpet.

Tommy Loy
Born: May 10, 1930 in Denison, Texas
Died: October 17, 2002 in Plano, Texas

During Tommy’s 72 year long life he had many wonderful experiences. While in High School he was a radio personality at KRRV

Tommy Loy served in the Air Force enlisting in 1951 and was assistant to the conductor of the military bands with the 49th Armored Division Band. He also recorded and produced Public Information Radio Series for them in San Marcos, TX.

When Tommy Loy was discharged from the Air Force he finished his education in 1955 at SMU, majoring in music education.

While in college at SMU, Tommy began playing with a Dixieland band called the Cell Block 7 that was booked on the old Ed Sullivan Show. It was with the Cell Block band in 1953 that Loy met Jack Ruby while playing at Ruby’s Vegas Club in Dallas. Ruby would later gain notoriety as the assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Tom played at the Levee jazz nightclub in Dallas from 1961 to 1974. He also led the Upper Dallas Jazz Band, a 6-piece “original traditional” jazz group and played with other groups around Dallas: The Dallas Christian Brass, The Razzmajazz Dixieland Band, and the Richland College Evening Jazz Ensemble.

Tommy was a frequent guest artist at the Landing Jazz Club in San Antonio, leading the Tommy Loy All-Stars and the Landing Quintet on weekend nights whenever the JCJB was out on tour.

Tommy Loy was best known as the National Anthem trumpet soloist for the Dallas Cowboys for 22 years, from Thanksgiving Day 1966 until 1989. He played the National Anthem for Super Bowl V in Miami on January 17, 1971.
He received the BMI Music In Sports Award in 1982.

Tommy worked as a musician and recording engineer for about 35 years both writing and producing musical commercials.

Tommy loved music and often would say “I would rather play than eat.”

In 2002 Tommy learned that he had pancreatic cancer. However, he didn’t let it slow him down. Tommy went to Scotland with Bob Romans, Cell Block 7 Jazz Band; where he played 11 gigs in 13 days on a whirlwind trip through the Scottish countryside. …he passed away just two months later.

I had the pleasure of knowing Tommy for the last 6 years of his life and I also had the pleasure of working with him as his teacher. Tommy was a hard worker, quick student and even contributed a section to my book “The Pros Talk Embouchure”. Tommy loved Dixieland and he made the cornet talk and sing when he was playing.

Tommy had a radio show every Monday night at 7pm on KEZY radio at http://www.KXEZ.com It is our hope that they continue to play some of Tommy’s old recordings.

The following clips are from a CD with Tommy Loy on Cornet and Jon Stutler on Clarinet.

Pops

China Boy – clip

South – clip

I’ve got a crush on you – clip

Lime House Blues – clip

Dallas Blues – clip

The post Tommy Loy And His Trumpet appeared first on BBTrumpet.

For about 100 years we have known that tension at the side of the face (cheek area) inhibits tone production, lessens endurance and impedes range. Using this part of the face creates a “Smile” but sadly most people still do this to some extent when they play. Most never even know it. Many famous teachers have written about it, but people keep doing it. I myself have been trying to educate people about this for 40+ years. (I’ve been writing books about this for 20 years.) So, I decided to use Thermal Imaging and Spectrum Analysis of Trumpet Players to show them which muscles they were using and how much they used those muscles.

I decided that showing the muscles used by players that struggle and showing the muscles used by players with range to spare might help.

I thought that the best way to show this was to do a Thermal Imaging and Spectrum Analysis of Trumpet Players of players while they were playing. This has never been done before. Nobody ever did thermal images while someone was playing and the video aspect means that not only can you see the muscles being used, you can hear the notes being played.

We centered the video starting at the edge of the lips. It shows some of the chin and all of the cheek. The reason is because the cheek is the part where we want no real muscle involvement. I wanted you to see the smallest of changes in color. In a Thermal Image or video, colors show how much heat is being generated and that means the muscle is working.

Dark Blue is Cold and means the muscle is doing nothing.
Blue is cool and the muscle is doing almost nothing.
Green is fairly cool and the muscle is doing a little work.
Yellow is warm and means that the muscle is working constantly.
Pink is hot and means the muscle is starting to strain.
Red is very hot and means the muscle is maxed out. There is nothing left to use.

The process

Although a great 60hz thermal camera will record video very well, it has NO sound recording ability. I thought that to show the thermal pattern without the sound wouldn’t help much. So, to show the thermal images with the players’ sound, I had to use a separate video camera filming the thermal screen while recording the sound.

Sadly, tripods were useless because many players move too much to keep a tight cropping on the face and we had to hand hold both the thermal camera and the video camera to follow them. That is why you see the shakiness in the videos but the stills (from the thermal camera itself) are clear.

Every time I do these, I get better and I am now on my 3rd Thermal Camera. (Most thermal cameras are not sensitive enough or don’t refresh often enough per second to be of any use. You learn what will and what won’t work but it can be expensive. LOL)

The box shows where we kept the Thermal Camera lined up.

I have been asked several times who I used for the studies.
I had comeback players who had been back to playing for 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2, 3, 4 years. I had some college players, some College grads with BM and MM degrees. I had a couple of pros who do session gigs on CDs and Movies and I had everything in-between.

I used mostly people who I had never given a lesson to.
I did this because I wanted to see what the general playing population was like when it came to using the facial muscles.
(I already knew what I taught people to do and so I didn’t need many files of my own students.)
I actually bartered time with people that I hadn’t ever worked with before.
I took readings and did a study with the new player in exchange for a free 1-hour lesson (After the study was filmed).
That way I had fresh info from all types of embouchures and groups of players.

I tried really hard to let the study show the results and I didn’t try to lead it one way or another.

Thermal Imaging Videos while playing trumpet

This is the first video study of its kind in the world.
The White and Basmajian study in 1973 put electrodes on 4 muscles but this study doesn’t tell us if the other muscles are involved. (It takes 23 muscles to smile, and they tested only 4 muscles so lots of info is missing.)

The Bertsch study in 1998 took thermal pictures before warming up and 30 seconds after warming up. No pictures were taken during playing. So, we don’t know when the muscles were used, or what notes triggered the muscle use. We don’t even know the range used in the warmup.

I however; decided to take video of players as they play and change pitches. This way we get to see what happens as we play.
We decided to just include the corner of the lip and keep the temperature box in the center of the cheek.

Abstract concerning muscles and embouchure based on full study.

The player with the worst range and endurance was the hottest at the cheek. He was 2.4 degrees C hotter (4.1 F hotter) at the cheek, than the player with the best range. 

The 4 players with the best high range all had their heat buildup under the lips and not on the sides of the lips.

Clips from my Thermal Imaging study of players

1st public thermal film of people playing. The colors can all shift to red if I allow too much of the blue lip into the frame. However, that has no effect on the temperature displayed. It also doesn’t alter other color changing, which is if red goes to white, or green goes to yellow. That shows a general heating up and use of those muscles. Players who concentrated on using muscles of a frown and under the lips had much better range and much better resonance than players who used muscles to the side of the face.

Player 1:

Player with worst range playing 3rd space middle C. Lips and mouthpiece is blue. 

Cheek muscles are red and white (HOT). Cheek temp peaks at one point 36.1C. Lips are the blue on the right side of screen.

You clearly see that too much muscle is involved and you hear the strained result.

Lips are the blue area on the right of the picture.

.

Next subject.

Player with the best range playing Triple High C. (Me) Taken from other side of the face. Lips on lower left are blue and slightly frowned.

Muscles around lip and under them are red while the cheek is blue.. 

So, I was playing 3 octaves higher, but the cheek muscles were cool, and the red muscle usage was tight around the lips and below the lips. It was not to the side of the face. The Max tempin the cheek area was 35.2 C.

Lips on the left side of the screen and pulled down to a frown. So, you see muscle usage under the lips rather than to the side and hear a much different result. The max temp shown in the red area under the lips was 37.5 C.

.

Spectrum Analysis, Decibel Analysis and Thermal Studies of players

This study is a comeback player. He had been playing about a month, and it gave a perfect example of some standard tension problems.

The 1st half of the video I showed the entire face. All of the blue from the lip are made the cheeks glow white as his cheek temps were all above 37.5 C.

The 2nd half I shot tighter to show more colors and allow you to see color shift as he played. His cheek temp (the temp taken by the small red triangle still showed every note above 37 C.

.

Next player

Resonant Pro another UNT Grad.

The same Pro on Thermal Camera.

What does it all mean?

I noticed that every time they played a bad note (much less volume, lost resonance, no pitch center…) all 3 tests showed what we all heard. The decibel meter registered a much smaller sound. The Spectral Analyzer showed that the player had no peaks. And the Thermal Imager showed that the player used and heated up the muscles on the side of the face.

The players with the least muscle activity on the sides of the face had much higher ranges. (1 to 2 octaves higher ranges.)

The players who didn’t use the muscles on the sides of the face also were significantly more resonant.

My 2 books Tension-Less Playing. and The 4 Trumpet Octave Keys. deal with the findings of this study.

Many videos and other files to follow.

Pops

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