Help on baritone

[DCguy2002]

I see your switching from sax to baritone. best of luck to you with it . I did the same thing about 3 years ago and it has worked out great for me. one thing i would recomend is to make sure your paying with an open throat and mouth. when i started playing I didnt know anything about this and wheni got to corp the first thing they made me do was learn how to play open. i still have trouble form time to time with it but my tone has improved imensily just by making that little change.

later

[idontwan2know]

Two big things to remember making the transition from woodwind to brass:

1) Tight corners, but the center of the embochure needs to be relaxed to vibrate freely. You will find yourself subconsciously trying to form a reed embochure, which will put *way* too much pressure on the aperture. More pressure = less tissue vibrating(and what is vibrating isn't doing so freely) = thin, ugly sound.

2) You have to play every pitch. You cannot simply press a button and have the note come out. You have to know how buzzing each pitch feels and sounds. There's no way to know without seeing you play, but I suspect this is the source of your double buzzing problem. You are either not setting your embochure properly for the pitch you are trying to play, or are "leaning on the horn"...ie. just hitting the right valves and moving the embochure in the general direction and hoping the horn will slot in on the right pitch.

Lots of lip slurs and just generally being very conscious of proper pitches will help. Mouthpiece buzzing helps with this as well.

[huskerman15]

Hey thanks guys so far...just for a quick update, I have pretty much solved my double buzzing problem, and my control and tone is getting a lot better.

Thanks a lot! :)

PS - Any more help would be great.

[johnric]

Ok so now that your learning... where are you gonna march???

well the railmen are gone ( I lived in Omaha for 4 years) so where are you thinking about marching??

[Browniebrick]

It sounds like you are making progress on your double buzz and tone issues.

The advice given so far will be very useful.

I would add two additional items that you should be aware of. In addition to lip slurs (For Flexibility), and Long Tones (For overall Tone development, embouchure muscle memory and embouchure strength development) you will need to do the following:

1) Scales - You should be playing scales on a daily basis once you have completed the long tones and lip slurs. By playing scales at slow medium and eventually fast rates (I.E. Whole notes, Half notes, Quarter notes, Eight notes, Sixteenth notes, etc ...) you will develop muscles memory, air flow velocity (and volume), improve your overall flexibility as well as range, develop/improve your overall tone quality in all ranges, and develop your sense of pitch in context to the overall scale(s) being played. When I say that you should be playing scales everyday, I don't mean that you need to play all of the Major or the three forms of minor scales each day. You need to play a couple of Major scales and a couple of Minor Scales each day to begin with and add more as you become more comfortable/advanced. A good way to vary the scales that you play each day is to either set up a rotating schedule of scales to play each day (I.E. Day One (1) - C (Major), F (Major), C (Minor - Natural Form), F (Minor - Natural Form)), or simply write the various Major & Minor scales on small pieces of paper and select two Major & two Minor scales to play per day (You might want to keep the Major scales in one pile and the Minor Scales in another pile). Put the scales that you have played in a secondary pile and once all of the scales have been played from the primary pile start again. I would suggest playing only the Natural Form of the Minor scales to start. This will give you 12 Major and 12 Minor scales to circulate through every six days. Also, for overall range development, I would highly recommend that you play any given scale up to the highest note that you can after completing the scale on a complete scale basis. What I am saying is that you should take the "C" Major scale and do the following:

Example Exercise:

Play it as a long tone scale (I.E. Whole & /or Half notes duration) for just one Octave (I.E. Lower Octave, then Upper Octave). You mentioned that you had a specific range that you are able to play. I will assume that you can play the "C" Major scale in the Lower Octave. I will assume that you cannot play the full "C" Major scale in the upper Octave. However, you should play the lower Octave (Stop) and then play the upper Octave as far as you can without applying pressure to your embouchure. As mentioned previously, proper air support is what should be used to produce the lower, middle, and upper register of any wind instrument. Keeping in mind that the rate of air flow roughly doubles for every Octave of range increase (I.E. Low "C" versus Middle "C" versus High "C"). Over time, you will slowly build up your embouchure so that you will be able to play an ever greater range of notes. You will also build up your diaphragm muscles which will allow you to properly support the air demands of all ranges (I.E. Low, Middle, and High).

2) Develop a warm/dark air column - To do this you will need to practice blowing air both with and without your mouthpiece for a few minutes each day until you develop a warm/dark air column. It was mentioned earlier that you can and should practice building up your diaphragm by doing various exercises (I.E. breathing in for 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, etc. counts, and then ex-haling out for a similar number of counts). This will expand your ability to take in large quantities of air without experiencing light headedness, dizziness, or tension in your throat, neck, shoulders, or body in general. It will also develop your ability to ex-hale the air in an efficient and effective manner (I.E. A Consistent/controlled velocity air column). However, you do not want the air being ex-haled to be slow, medium, or fast cold air. For example, if you were outside on a cold day and wanted to warm up your hands with your breath, you would not want to blow cold air into your cupped hands. Instead, you would want to blow a constintent column of warm/dark air into your hands. The same principle applies to the air being blown through a Brass instrument. You can achieve this by starting each practice session by blowing warm/dark air into your cupped hands for a thirty second period. Next, blow the same warm/dark air through your mouthpiece while warming up your hand that is not holding the mouthpiece. This will ensure that you are monitoring both the quality and the temperature of air that you are putting through your mouthpiece. Warm/Dark air will result in a warm/dark tone quality Finally, insert your mouthpiece into your Brass instrument and slowly play some middle range long tones while maintaining the same warm/dark column of air. It might also be a good idea to buy a small six to eight inch piece of clear rubber tubing that fits snuggly to the end of your mouthpiece. This will allow you to consistently practice blowing warm/dark columns of air while getting a closer feeling of the back pressure that occurrs when your mouthpiece is in the instrument. Additionally, the clear tubing allows you to blow through the mouthpiece while using your other hand to verify the warm/dark air column. The clear tubing also allows you to see the condensation that forms from a warm/dark air column versus a cold/light air column.

As I was told long ago: Always strive for beauty of sound and accurate pitch (Technique will come with extensive practice).

Hope this helps you in your future endeavours.

[huskerman15]

well the railmen are gone ( I lived in Omaha for 4 years) so where are you thinking about marching??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm auditioning for the Colts this upcoming December and some other corps. A risk that I am seriously considering is Phantom Regiment, because it is their 50th anniversary, I would love to be a part of that history, and I love the Regiment to death. Would that be worth it? My dream is to make the Santa Clara Vanguard, because they are my favorite corps ever, but I'm giving that time (they're all the way in Santa Clara anyways).

Other corps condidering (considering area and interest in corps): Blue Stars, Bluecoats, Capital Regiment, and Madison Scouts.

[BorisTS]

I'm auditioning for the Colts this upcoming December

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well, I was going to say the best advice on playing baritone is to:

1) Put down the baritone.

2) Pick up the euphonium.

However, I don't think Colts have euphs, unless they just got them recently.

[Willard]

Well, I was going to say the best advice on playing baritone is to:

1) Put down the baritone.

2) Pick up the euphonium.

However, I don't think Colts have euphs, unless they just got them recently.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lots of good advice in this thread! This last one is one of my favorites! Playing euph works all the same muscles as bari (air, chops, shoulders, etc)! Play euph awhile, and when you go back to bari, it feels TINY! You've got gobs of air!

Good luck!

Edited May 24, 2005 by Willard

[JimF-LowBari]

Lots of good advice in this thread!  This last one is one of my favorites!  Playing euph works all the same muscles as bari (air, chops, shoulders, etc)!  Play euph awhile, and when you go back to bari, it feels TINY!  You've got gobs of air!

  Good luck!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh man good point. Who makes Colts Baris? Asking because the size of the horns could vary by manufacturer. I'm not up on current horns but the upright valve Baris I have played (2v DEG, 2v King, 3v Khanstul) all took differing amounts of air to get a good tone. If you can play the biggest horn, then the smaller ones will be easier to push air thru. If you practice on the smallest and then try to play a biggesr horn it's a struggle.

PS - The old DEG maked the older King feel like a kiddie horn.....

[BorisTS]

Lots of good advice in this thread!  This last one is one of my favorites!  Playing euph works all the same muscles as bari (air, chops, shoulders, etc)!  Play euph awhile, and when you go back to bari, it feels TINY!  You've got gobs of air!

  Good luck!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You misunderstand me-- I meant put down that baritone for good and play the euph. :)