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DCI messes up embouchre?


heyboiay

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I have heard from several people that marching in DCI, will ruin your lips if you wish to pursue a career in a professional orchestra? Is this true? I play horn, (mello for marching) and was just curious if this is true or not.

Okay, those "several people".....

Are they professional musicians? Have they ever experienced - first hand - the rehearsal regimen and technique taught by DCI and DCA? Are they high school musicians who, for whatever reason, are not interested in DCI or DCA?

There are some very accomplished professional musicians who at one time or another performed with DCI and DCA corps. Some have been mentioned here, and there are a host of others.

As a horn (as in french) player, you will experience a bit different embouchure when playing mellophone. Will it hurt you? Not if you have a solid foundation. Will it help you? In the long run it could lead to trumpet gigs. Let's face it, there is not a lot of work for hornists.

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I have heard from several people that marching in DCI, will ruin your lips if you wish to pursue a career in a professional orchestra? Is this true? I play horn, (mello for marching) and was just curious if this is true or not.

Maybe I can help you out. I'm a horn player who just finished a summer marching mellophone. My chops are fine, if not a little better. According to my teachers, my pitch accuracy and tuning have improved. I managed to keep my chops in good shape because I brought my horn mouthpiece with me on tour, and would spend a few minutes buzzing on it at least every other day. Because I did that, my transfer back to the horn was, for the most part, fine. The only thing that's causing me lots of trouble right now is that my endurance is basically shot (on horn). I can't play for nearly as long as I was able to before tour (I don't know why, either...can someone help me out on that?). But, that's something that can be fixed with time.

Hope this helps. :thumbup:

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If you're one who's religious about a certain routine and have grown accustomed to playing in controlled circumstances. You will probably notice that you don't play as well after a camp as you do after a two hour warmup/routine. But given enough rest and recovery time, it's not a long term ailment. I suppose it could be long term if you're not a very good marcher and end up put a tooth through your lip more than once. But for most people it's not an issue.

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Oh, and one more question :thumbup: , if I were wanting to play trumpet in marching, but continue to play french horn during concert season, would that interfere with anything? I have also heard from the same people that this will affect the way you play horn...was just wondering if that's true as well.

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Just to play devil's advocate, horn does have a different embouchure than mellophone (2/3 and 1/3 split vs. 1/2 and 1/2). So yes, if you're not practicing on horn all summer, you'll probably have some issues when you come back home from tour. Your finger dexterity on horn will suffer a bit too because mellophone is obviously a right-handed instrument. What should be better after tour is your ability to hear intervals, blowing through phrases, playing with more musicality, etc. ("insert other general musicianship and brass pedagogy here")

If I were a horn performance major in college, I would honestly not march drum corps. It wouldn't be because I think drum corps isn't a worthwhile activity for people, but I think an entire summer for a performance major can be spent doing other great things like Aspen, Tanglewood, and other notable music festivals. If I'm dead serious about becoming a better horn player, why would I spend my summer playing a different instrument? Perhaps this viewpoint is something I picked up from my horn professor, but I just don't think drum corps as viable for someone committed to making a career out of performing on horn as opposed to someone who wants to be a music educator.

Added a little bit later:

I also suppose that I think this way because when I'm in college, I have a certain practice routine on horn. It begins with the warm up in the morning, practicing sometime during the midday, and going to band in the afternoon. Drum corps takes you out of that element for 2 1/2 months, so you come back from tour and will likely have a bit of a rough start getting back into the swing of things. The long term effects of this could be chair placement audition results for the fall semester. If you're in a somewhat competitive studio, I know personally what it's like to come back to see an audition excerpt list with several things not even in the key of F. It took me a couple years to know what to expect when I get back to school.

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This is one of the many things a lot of music profs throw out to discourage their students from marching. The thing is, it can mess you up a little--but so can anything else you can spend time doing. Taking lessons from another professor can mess up your embouchere. Playing different styles can do the job. Sitting on your butt for three months watching TV will definitely do a job on it, much worse than playing every day. The thing is, if you are really worried about it, find a way to take along your normal horn and technique books and such, and practice on your own time. More than anything else DCI reinforces the basics of brass playing: air, articulation, intonation, and timing all come out much more solid than when you went in.

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Just to play devil's advocate, horn does have a different embouchure than mellophone (2/3 and 1/3 split vs. 1/2 and 1/2). So yes, if you're not practicing on horn all summer, you'll probably have some issues when you come back home from tour. Your finger dexterity on horn will suffer a bit too because mellophone is obviously a right-handed instrument. What should be better after tour is your ability to hear intervals, blowing through phrases, playing with more musicality, etc. ("insert other general musicianship and brass pedagogy here")

I also suppose that I think this way because when I'm in college, I have a certain practice routine on horn. It begins with the warm up in the morning, practicing sometime during the midday, and going to band in the afternoon. Drum corps takes you out of that element for 2 1/2 months, so you come back from tour and will likely have a bit of a rough start getting back into the swing of things. The long term effects of this could be chair placement audition results for the fall semester. If you're in a somewhat competitive studio, I know personally what it's like to come back to see an audition excerpt list with several things not even in the key of F. It took me a couple years to know what to expect when I get back to school.

Found this interesting as only horn I played outside of DC was trombone so basically used the same mouthpiece. Also was a Computer Science major so had no real idea what the Music Majors faced.

My only thought was if you played different band instrument(s) you would be rusty from not touching them during the tour weeks. Again nothing I experienced as I was a "Weekend Warrior" in a Senior corps so I could practice the trombone almost whenever I wanted. My Senior year I had band camp in the morning and afternoon, then corps practice at night. :thumbup:

Anyway thanks for the perspective....

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