Exercise 1 is our most basic exercise. We do it daily no matter our ability level. It is the equivalent of a chef sharpening his knives to get ready for the day's work, or a flower arranger cutting and laying out the flowers before arranging them.
The main goal of the exercise is to produce three totally brick shaped notes. That means that it starts with a clean T tongue and blow through all three notes as if they were one note. The air flow should not increase or decrease during the note.
This is most important at the ends of the first two notes. Do not go flat or get quieter at the ends of the notes.
Let your fingers do as much of the work as possible. We want the lowest note at the end of the exercise to sound and feel as much like the first note as possible.
You will find of course that some notes do not speak as well or have the same tone color as the others. While this may be cause by numerous factors it is most often because of intonation. When you hit a note that doesn't speak well try moving your right wrist to adjust the intonation.
Go as low as possible every day. For many students the lowest notes will be out of your range. That's ok, just play as low as possible every day. If you can play all of the notes here just try to go lower every day.
This is a wonderfully extensible and leveragable exercise. Sometimes we alternate between hard accent on the first note and sneaking in as quietly as possible. You can play the middle of the three notes stopped. Sometimes we tongue all three notes, the first one very hard, the middle one normally and the last note legato tongued.
But whatever variation you are working on do it the same way every day for at least a week.
A great way to learn to control the air from Place #6 is to put a decrescendo on the last note, dying away without letting the tone color change. If you move the control up from Place #6 while you are playing your tone color will get dull and thin. You want to hear a bright shiny sound all the way down.
If you control the air from too high up your throat and the thick part of your tongue in the back will move, changing the sound of the note. Try to keep the note as boring and simple as possible. You will see that the only way to do it is to control the air from Place #6 through the entire note.
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The main goal of the exercise is to produce three totally brick shaped notes. That means that it starts with a clean T tongue and blow through all three notes as if they were one note. The air flow should not increase or decrease during the note.
This is most important at the ends of the first two notes. Do not go flat or get quieter at the ends of the notes.
Let your fingers do as much of the work as possible. We want the lowest note at the end of the exercise to sound and feel as much like the first note as possible.
You will find of course that some notes do not speak as well or have the same tone color as the others. While this may be cause by numerous factors it is most often because of intonation. When you hit a note that doesn't speak well try moving your right wrist to adjust the intonation.
Go as low as possible every day. For many students the lowest notes will be out of your range. That's ok, just play as low as possible every day. If you can play all of the notes here just try to go lower every day.
This is a wonderfully extensible and leveragable exercise. Sometimes we alternate between hard accent on the first note and sneaking in as quietly as possible. You can play the middle of the three notes stopped. Sometimes we tongue all three notes, the first one very hard, the middle one normally and the last note legato tongued.
But whatever variation you are working on do it the same way every day for at least a week.
A great way to learn to control the air from Place #6 is to put a decrescendo on the last note, dying away without letting the tone color change. If you move the control up from Place #6 while you are playing your tone color will get dull and thin. You want to hear a bright shiny sound all the way down.
If you control the air from too high up your throat and the thick part of your tongue in the back will move, changing the sound of the note. Try to keep the note as boring and simple as possible. You will see that the only way to do it is to control the air from Place #6 through the entire note.
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