Posted by: Tim
Email:
Date Posted: March 25, 2008
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lip Buzzing (good or bad?)
This may seem 'lazy' to some, but this seems to work for me. I have tried larger rims for periods of time, and they also worked. And this is a bit difficult to explain for me (English is not my native language), but I'll try. I started out on an AN rim, but to play through all the ranges in the way I wanted to sound, I had to do heavy embouchure shifting. Tony H was kind enough to let me try out some rims he had around. I ended up buying a couple just to have around. I started playing on one of the 18mm rims and was doing better, I did have to work harder to get the sound centered enough. Then when that was working out, I went to an even bigger 18.5mm rim. I played that one for 4 months I believe with good results. I was at this point back to the endurance where I started, but with a much improved lower register. Now I have no clue why, but one day I decided to try the AN rim again. All of sudden I had a low register on it too! I've been playing it ever since (both a gold plated and an old black acetal one). But with much more endurance, comfort and sense of security than on all of the previous rims.
So for me at least, using a rim as a security tool is not a bad thing.
Now, the resistance and how it effects 'hitting your notes'. Let's assume that by resistance we mean the back-pressure of a horn, and not stuffiness or anything like that. I'd like to divide this into two parts if you don't mind. Those being how easy the notes speak, and how slotted they are. I find that with more resistance, the horn doesn't speak as easy, but locks in (or slots) better. e.g. comparing the B-flat to the low F-horn, which does exactly that. So the answer would be, more resistance is not more accurate, but it may be a bit easier sustaining the note.
Now is resistance a crutch or a good tool. Imo a good tool, but moderation is the key.
The other kind of resistance is when you mute or stop the bell. I use that to practise my low register these days. You really need to focus to make the notes speak good and control them after. Slightly dampening the bell can work well in the higher register, especially when playing pp. They seem to speak well that way and can be sustained easier, but when playing MF or more the sound can get a bit thin (from close up at least).
So it basically comes down to how you use these things..
Cheers
Tim