I meant to post this earlier, but I totally forgot until now. At this years SDSMI, we got to work with Dr. Brian Bowman, one of the world’s best euphonium players. One evening we had a lecture and masterclass with him where he talked primarily about tone. I thought I’d share some of his lecture with you guys, since it was sort of a game changer for a lot of us in the audience, and it’s applicable to any wind instrument. Dr. Bowman defines tone quality exclusively by these elements: 1. Center/Core: Is the tone solid, stable, and focused, or is it blasty/out of control or too pinched? 2. Pitch/Intonation: Self-explanatory. 3. Shape: Is the tone “round” or “sharp”? 4. Clarity: Is the tone always clear, or is it muddy/fuzzy? 5. Consistency: Can the same tone be replicated every time? 6. Air Support: Is breathing in as efficient as possible, taking advantage of the lungs’ entire volume? (More on this.) 7. Air Flow: Is air flow even and steady? Does the sound lift, or does it fall flat? (Mr. Wuertz has often described this as aiming your sound at a spot on the far wall and projecting it all the way there.) Dr. Bowman argued that if a student is having difficulties with tone, one of these categories is lacking, and once it has been improved upon, the student’s tone improves noticeably. He proved his point by transforming a SDSU euphonium student’s tone from stuffy and muddy to clear and singing, right in front of the audience. Many of the aspects that we assign to good tone (such as full, big, sonorous, etc) can be achieved by improving on one of those 7 categories. All the points Dr. Bowman addressed were important, but the biggest game-changer for me was his advice on air support. Rather than focusing the majority of his lecture on better ways to breathe out into the instrument (breathe with a steady, fast air flow, etc), Dr. Bowman focused on better ways to breathe in so that breathing out is not a challenge. Joey, one of the tuba players who many of us SDSMI-ers are friends with, volunteered to demonstrate. Brian Bowman put his hands around the bottom of Joey’s ribcage and asked him to take a breath as though he were about to play. He took a quick breath, and his shoulders shrugged up. Nothing in his lower ribcage moved. Mr. Bowman then asked him to take a 3-second-long breath and to breathe in as though he were yawning. When Joey breathed in this way, his lower ribs expanded all around, and Dr. Bowman explained that Joey was now using the full capacity of his lungs. Dr. Bowman explained that when the ideal breath is taken, the shoulders should not shrug up, the throat should be open as though yawning (you can even practice breathing in efficiently just by yawning), and the ribcage/abdomen should be felt expanding out in the front and backwards in the back. When you can feel both your back and your stomach expanding, that is a sign of a good, full breath of air. He also explained that it helps to take longer (3+ second) breaths when possible because it trains you to take in an entire breath instead of a short, cut-off breath. Once youve taken a full breath, sustaining a steady, fast airstream is so much easier. As for expanding lung capacity, Dr. Bowman explained an exercise called the “drowning man exercise.” Take a breath as described previously, so you can feel your entire ribcage expand. Once it feels like you’ve taken a full breath, start taking extra little “sips” of air. You’ll find that you can always add a couple of smaller breaths after your primary inhalation. If you keep doing this regularly, you will eventually increase the overall capacity of your lungs. He emphasized the point, Music is 90% human, 10% instrument. If the human end of the equation isnt working to its fullest extent, it doesnt matter how good your instrument is. Dr. Bowman also emphasized the importance of warming up. He said (not quoting exactly), Often times when I go and work with student ensembles, Ill see one of the students sit down, take out his horn, and immediately start playing loud, high pitched, technical stuff, with little regard for tone. His advice for a good warm-up that will improve your playing for the rest of the day (this is an exact quote): The first *note* you make today should be the best *sound* you made yesterday.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 03:27:24 +0000
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