On Feb 27, 2010, at 10:00 AM, [email protected] wrote: > > Message: 4 > Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:04:30 +0100 > From: Ralph Hall <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Colour Blind > To: The Horn List <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes > > HI Wendell, > > Wow, this is interesting. And to find out why, I've got to purchase a > book, a DVD or a live video From Wendell Rider - wow again! > > It's nice to have a thesis, extant and published for over twenty years > without criticism, rubbished in public without any evidence to the > contrary. > I thought this was a chivalrous site! > > Give me something to refute, ridicule or ignore with contempt - come > out from behind the parapet, Wendell! > > Ralph R. hall > > > On 26 Feb 2010, at 19:46, Wendell Rider wrote: > >> >> On Feb 26, 2010, at 10:00 AM, [email protected] wrote: >> >>> From: Ralph Hall <[email protected]> >>> To: The Horn List <[email protected]> >>> Sent: Thu, February 25, 2010 5:19:22 AM >>> Subject: Re: [Hornlist] Is Colour Blind? >>> >>> Hi Neeraj, >>> >>> Interesting points you make but I take exception to one comment in >>> your first mail which is very misleading: >>> >>> "Almost all of the result in almost all aspects of playing comes >>> from the lip including tone and tuning." >>> >>> Leaving the tuning side of things for the moment, the lips have >>> practically NO direct bearing on the tone. Or, do you imply that if >>> you have bigs lips you make a big sound and vice versa ?(!) >> >> >> Wow, this is interesting. With all due respect, this is just not >> true. >> In fact it is so not true that it overwhelms me to try and name all >> the things about it that are not true, so i won't. >> Honestly, this has to be all time over-analysis that fails because >> of .under-analysis. >> I'm speechless. >> Wendell >> For info about my book, DVDs and live video chat horn lessons, see my >> web site at www.wendellworld.com >
Hi Ralph, If you want to say that the cavities in our head and body have a big part in our basic sound i would totally agree. To say the lips have "practically NO direct bearing on the tone" is simplistic at best. Why does it have to be one thing or another? Horns, mouthpieces, they all play a part as well. You talk about oboe reeds. Oboe players spend a lot of time fashioning reeds for the sound that they want. That has to do with shaping the reed by scraping material off of various parts of the basic "lips," if you will. So we can't just equate lips with oboe reeds, but we can find similarities between what they do with their reeds and what we do with our lips in a more real time mode. Of course their work also has to do with the response and other factors, but to say the lips are basically the same as an oboe reed is at the same time truer than you want it to be and significantly less because of the ability of oboe players to get different timbres from them as they play, as well. Lip size, density and shape also plays a role. Our lips are our vocal chords, but they are much more consciously and sub consciously controllable than vocal chords, which have been permanently installed in our bodies without any choice of "model," by nature. You give an extreme example of a smiling embouchure and some advice about playing big and small, but you neglect the fact that any of us who want to change our sound or timbre can do so in an instant by using subtle changes in lip tension and exposure of soft tissue without changing the pitch one bit. I work with people all the time on tone issues. Most people who come to me wanting a "better tone" can achieve it by proper breathing and finding the perfect balance of lip relaxation with the air appropriate to range. It is not a scientific formula, it comes from listening and letting the sub conscious process adjust to what we want. I do find that when people do find their best resonance, it will reflect their body cavities. It has to. But getting there is a process that definitely includes finding the best resonance of the lips as well. Then we can start talking about edge control and a "floating" tone and how to make a "heroic" forte sound. All these have to do with the lip/air balance as well as whatever effect the body cavities may impart. If, in all this, I have somehow missed your point, or thesis, then i am sorry. If what i have said so far doesn't satisfy you, then I am here, as always to continue the discussion. Parapet indeed. Sincerely, Wendell For info about my book, DVDs and live video chat horn lessons, see my web site at www.wendellworld.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
