TromboneChat

How to make it sound better, not how to add more notes

Play it with the same approach and embouchure as middle F, in the staff. Alter the air speed and aperture to lock the note in.

In other words, practice the Brad Edwards lip slur book.

Quote from: trb420 on Jul 28, 2017, 04:28PMHow to make it sound better, not how to add more notes

How to make a MORE beautiful sound?

Take a deaper breath and let the air do the work for you.

If I would give only one advice, knowing absolutely nothing about you, based on my experience with students. This would be that advicertain.

/Tom

When I have lines that go from typical registers to way up in the ledger lines I try to imagine how it feels to play it an octave down. The approach is similar. Open and full, tons of air and embouchure support. I don't want to feel like I have to shove the notes up so I can make it. Same thing for lines that just start high and stay there. I'm not trying to hold the notes up from underneath I'm gliding up in the clouds.

That's the mental part for me. Physically I do my best to keep pressure the same as in the middle register and make sure my chops aren't straining. The back and core have to be relaxed and supported, too. No tension anywhere. I don't even wrap my feet around the leg of my chair like I see some people do on stage. Keep practicing the highest you can play where you still think you sound good. Find out why it starts to sound bad and if you have a teacher have them see if you're going those Brad Edwards slurs with the correct form

Listen, listen and listen. Work, play with others, take lessons....and try everything. Never give up! Said the man with a loosy high register, but I dont give up 

Leif

Also, rewrite in tenor or treble clef -- it makes the notes lower looking.

Without knowing your exact situation, I suspect the thinness of the upper register comes from  the lack of comfort (physically and/or mentally).  In order to be able to relaxe and center the note while properly maintaining the embechure, you have to have the physical strength and endurance as well as the muscle memory to form the correct aperature.  In other words, to find the best tone you need to be able to hang out up there and experiment with the best tone.

In the development of the upper register, I found it most helpful to play a melody (by ear).  Move up half a step and do it again.  If you're doing it by ear rather than sight reading, you have to "hear" the note before you play it.  That helps tremendously to play the right notes.  You can't center the tone if you don't know what it's supposed to be!

Thinness could be not having the chops prepared to vibrate at that pitch. 

I mean, you can force them up by blowing hard.  The sound is recognizable.  "Belting it", etc.  Maybe "thin" does not apply there. 

But "thin" may apply to contracting the aperture mostly to get high.  The air is reduced.  Strain increases.  Air pressure increases.  It's really hard to get any volume. 

Then there's the approach to trying to tune your chops to the pitch.  A mouthpiece buzz or a free buzz is a good start.  Then explore how the tongue controls mouth volumes to match the pitch.  You can hear the whoosh of the air out of your aperture change (off the horn) as the tongue changes the volumes.  Match the pitch and then explore how it works. 

All these things will work together to make it happen.  It's the third thing that seems less commonly practiced.  When a pitch and your system are in tune, though, low volume, high volume, it all can be practiced and improved. 

Quote from: harrison.t.reed on Yesterday at 01:53 PMAlso, rewrite in tenor or treble clef -- it makes the notes lower looking.

Wow! My high range is suddenly beautiful and effortless!

 

Worked for Lindberg on alto, except he transposed down a 4th and wrote it in tenor clef. Don't knock it until you actually tried it.

"Thin" sounding high range is a long NECESSARY step in range development.
If you want solid sounding high range, don't push it too soon or you'll hit a range cap that you can't break through.

To Doug Elliot: What is going on while the thin sound is transitioning to a more usable, fuller sound?

Does the transition just happen with consistent playing in that range or is there something to gradually try to do?

Wayne

What's going on is you're fine tuning the control it takes to play and hold those notes before you destroy it trying to do too much.

What's going on is you're fine tuning the control it takes to play and hold those notes before you destroy it trying to do too much.