Breathe-Dah

[shorty]

Yep, judging from your description of "breath dah" I'm pretty sure you're the one. ;). I'm thinking of the Shorty known around Star of Indiana (ie Donnie Vandoren protege)...your reputation proceeds you and stories about you were legend by the time I got to Star.

Legend? Wow. I am honored. I am just a guy who has fun teaching kids to do things they did not know the could do.

[supersop]

Legend? Wow. I am honored. I am just a guy who has fun teaching kids to do things they did not know the could do.

you should have been in the hall of fame a long time ago

it was great sitting with and talking to you at Div 2 finals last year .. keep up the great work out there!!! no holes!

Edited March 20, 2007 by supersop

[Elmo Blatch]

You see, the Brookville approach is not quite "breath-dah," its considered more like, "breath-explode," or "breath-avalanche."

Deafening is good.

Elmo Blatch

[JayM]

Once you get to a certain level, the last thing you're thinking about is the breath. If you practice correctly and have been taught the right things, if you aren't taking good breaths, you're probably just stupid.

Anyway, as far as breath-dah, it's a pretty important facet when it comes to an ensemble such as drum corps hornlines who NEED to be very tight and uniform. But really, it's just an extension of proper brass playing. Infact, very elementary techniques as far as brass playing.

Taking fundamentals for granted is probably the worst thing I think one could do. If you're not constantly practicing and thinking about how you are approaching your instrument, what good are you doing? Look at Star. General Blunt mentions the novice brass players....how do you think they got good?

It may sound simple and too easy to worry about but it was the whole center of our approach and what we spent all winter and summer trying to perfect each and every year.

Even finals week we were working on the technique so I guess we were a bunch of novice brass players that could not think for ourselves.

I liked our results though.

Working on technique every day will do profound things for your ensemble. I think the problems begin when the brass players start to think for themselves. A uniform approach is only possible if everyone is thinking the exact same things at the exact same time. Brass playing should not be completely muscle memory. Think! By the way, Jim Prime complimented a certain green corps after a show in 03 or 04, saying he loved their approach to the instruments.

Actually, more vibration by a group doesn't mean better sound either. The concept of playing as a whole unit means elminiating all inconsistencies of sound out of each individual (extraneous vibrations) so that the group can blend as a homogenous unit.

A quick read through any of the Arnold Jacob's materials will present these ideas in a clearer fashion.

Elmo Blatch

Smart man, that Arnold.

[ravedodger]

Ravedodger, I love you.

Ehh, I'm sure we'll have another disagreement soon enough. :P

I feel that I should clarify my statements about breathe-dah, drum corps, and absolutism.

Breathe-dah is great. There is nothing wrong with it. As someone already said, it's a way to get people all focused on an attack (won't somebody find a better word for attack, please?--it has to be the worst word in musical terminology). I think the brass staff talked about breathe-dah at the last VK last camp. Didn't we, Chris?

Absolutism:

All I was saying there is that you won't always have to think about things. The better you become, the less focused you have to be. When all I ever did was practice for hours, I got to where I could walk around the house and not think about what I was playing, except listen for intonation from note-to-note. One day while doing this, I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I fracked a note. If I had fracked a note I most certainly would have remembered it. The same thing goes for bad attacks and releases.

Edit: Subconscious memory does wonders. We know this from thousands of years of experience. The reason we practice things is to improve. Once something is improved, it takes less effort to maintain. Then of course, there's always something else that needs improvement; so there's another thing to work on. The job of the musician is to entertain obviously. So why is it that senior recitals don't attract crowds? Because, students are still hashing out technique and haven't yet begun to work on entertainment value. A case in point would be Ronnie Romm of the Canadian Brass. Do does anyone here think he's dancing around making hilarious expressions and thinking about breathing and articulations? I think he just plays with the style a piece requires and has fun with the audience. That should be our goal also, but the practice before reaching that goal is important and can't be slighted. So yes; for a while a musician does have to conscious about everything--and eventually, good practice becomes good habit.

Drum Corps and absolutism:

Drum corps is not bad. It is actually one of the best things a student brass player can do. Constant re-enforcement pretty much around the clock for two months straight is great! How many college students have that kind of opportunity? But with this opportunity somehow it gets drilled into our heads that we must to do certain things certain ways. The funny thing is that there are quite a few drum corps out there using different techniques. So when someone who marched in corps A says that a particular something isn't correct, I have to laugh because I know that corps B, C, D are doing it and doing it well--Corps E, F and G may be doing something entirely different and they are doing their own thing very well also. Music is not a science because it is all theory and method. There are many theories and methods. When there are many theories and methods for one subject, we call it art. Therefore, music is art. The important thing for the student is to stick with one method as much as possible. A student will have a difficult time trying to improve if he changes things all the time. Also, as must of us should know by now, some methods may not work at all for some people, but most methods will work for most people. Can anyone count the number of different methods out there for brass alone? It seems that everyone has written a book or two. I know I've worked Clarke, Gordon, Arban, Vizutti (sp?), Vacciano, Farkas, and that one guy that wrote the Advanced Lip Flexibilities for Trumpet. I even stumbled across Remington.

I didn't mean to pick at DCImaniac if it seems that I did. I just noticed the absolutism in the post content. I also had to laugh about the metaphor he used. That particular metaphor is probably the one thing that actually runs through all methods, theories and/or techniques. It is probably also the most perfect phrase for getting that exact point across. So if you're out there, I really apologize if I offended you.

Edited March 20, 2007 by ravedodger

[idontwan2know]

Producing a great drum corps hornline requires three ingredients:

1) A clear approach to the instrument defined and agreed upon by the staff.

2) The ability to communicate that approach effectively to the line.

3) Willingness of the members to accept and adopt that approach fully.

If you've got those three things, you can pick any "method" or "system" you like and the results will be great. Not identical, but all good. Breathe dah is not a revolutionary way of playing...it's just basic good brass playing reduced down to its core elements and rehearsed and reinforced over and over and over.

[CrunchyTenor]

Is this kinda like drumline "dhuts", for attack timing?

Just curious.

Garry in Vegas

[supersop]

Is this kinda like drumline "dhuts", for attack timing?

Just curious.

Garry in Vegas

I think it's more comparable to bringing the sticks out from close on 3, followed by the breakdown of the upstroke before the attack for drummers. Do you only bend the wrist on the And of 4? is it 1/3 finger, 1/3 wrist, 1/3 forearm? etc etc etc. But the prep to open and then the upstroke are about as close I think we'll get to the breathe-dah concept.

[Medeabrass]

Producing a great drum corps hornline requires three ingredients:

1) A clear approach to the instrument defined and agreed upon by the staff.

2) The ability to communicate that approach effectively to the line.

3) Willingness of the members to accept and adopt that approach fully.

If you've got those three things, you can pick any "method" or "system" you like and the results will be great. Not identical, but all good. Breathe dah is not a revolutionary way of playing...it's just basic good brass playing reduced down to its core elements and rehearsed and reinforced over and over and over.

That's it! Debate over...not sure there's much else that can be said about this topic.

[StarContra4-85]

Wow Donnie Van Doren must be like Casanova then! :P

It only helped me come in on time.... my feet were the road though

I heard he told Sting how to use Breathe/Dah to enhance his tantric sex...