Basiscs Plus ( W. Guggenberger) Studies
Innhold:
Thinking in Sound II
How to use BASICS PLUS ! III
Explanation of terms V
01. Mouthpiece-Studies p. 001
02. Long Tone Studies p. 011
03. Flow Studies 1 p. 025
04. Flow Studies 2 p. 037
05. Sound Development p. 047
06. Arpeggio 1 p. 051
07. Arpeggio 2 p. 057
08. Arpeggio 3 p. 065
09. Scales 1 p. 079
10. Scales 2 p. 087
11. Interval Study p. 097
12. Lip Flexibilities p. 103
13. Range Studies 1 p. 123
14. Range Studies 2 p. 133
15. Warming Down 1 p. 139
16. Warming Down 2 (Pedal Tones) p. 145
List of Sources p. 150
How to use:
Specific performance instructions are introduced in every chapter. Follow every practice Step, and also pay attention to the hints containing tips for attentive observation of your playing. With the removable pages you can review these instructions while practicing. Feel free to find your own practice routine and modify the performance instructions to your own individual needs.
Solo
When practicing alone, the 2nd Part serves as a preliminary exercise to the main one. It is always based on the principle of simplification, in order to allow for the most musical and tonally consistent result possible. Transfer these experiences to the 1st Part, and follow the same musical impetus. Make sure that tone quality and ease of playing dont get lost. For a satisfying result when playing as a duo, it is very helpful to practice the exercises in the solo version as well.
Duo
You can use the two-part version together with a friend or a colleague, in a lesson (teacher and student), or in a group.
The advantages of the two-part version are obvious:
Any inconsistencies in your own playing, including purity of tone, intonation, dynamics, and rhythmic accuracy, are revealed immediately in ensemble playing.
You automatically direct your attention more to the music and learn to listen to your duet partner.
Duet partners can motivate each other and give each other tips.
Variation
When you have mastered the fundamental exercises you can increase the difficulty level. The possibilities are limited only by your own imagination!
Note
One important remark, which will lead to a methodical understanding of your technique: the instructions always refer to trumpet technique in general and are not limited to the chapters in which they appear.
Visualization
Analytical thought in our left brain (intellect) often has a crippling effect on our bodys natural functioning. Mental pictures activate the right brain, which is so important for musical imagination, and have an immediate effect on our bodys physical activity. They support intuitive reaction.
Use the power of your thoughts and give your entire mental space over to the mental picture, so that distracting secondary thoughts no longer find a place there. Observe your reaction and decide for yourself how you can integrate this technique into your playing.
Practical exercise
Exercises without the instrument are important in order to create new physical experiences that often, because of the strength of old habits, cannot happen with the trumpet in ones hands. It is important to use the suggested exercises regularly and to transfer the newly acquired physical
feeling immediately to the instrument. Trust the new feeling, even if it seems strange to you!
Thus our body awareness is in our ear: distribution of tension in the body, cramping or relaxation, muscle tone, posture, motor function and fine motor skills are all verified by the ear as regulating organ. One speaks of a cybernetic regulating cycle: mind (command) - muscle (execution) - ear (verification) - mind (correction of the order)
Alfred A. Tomatis from The Conscious Ear
The most important sensory organ for you as a musician is your ear. The goal of this book is to put listening to yourself more at the center of your practicing.
Through the routine of daily exercises we run the danger of limiting our concentration to mechanical procedures. Learning happens mostly through our senses: seeing, feeling, and hearing. The complex physical processes of playing a musical instrument can, however, only function when the analytical, logical thought of the left brain is in balance with the emotional, pictorial thought of the right brain. It is exactly this balance which is guided by our capacity for musical imagination.
Every note we play is an expression of our individual personality and has a life of its own. This is the reason for the fascination that the trumpet exudes. We should give the same musical attentiveness to so-called warm-up exercises that we give to the study of etudes and concertos. (After all, the E-flat Major concerto of Joseph Haydn begins with a simple scale figure).
The two-part nature of the present exercises programs our concentration to focus our thinking on the essential. The fundamental idea is always simplification, given by the 2nd Part or the preliminary exercises, and by the blending of the two parts, into which we are submerged.
Embark, therefore, on a new way of thinking in sound, according to the motto Dale Clevenger, solo hornist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so aptly formulated:
Your two best friends are your ear and your air!
