Hi Val, Well for many years I could not do a lip trill. Until I discovered!!! that lip trills are just very fast slurs. We all have a tendency to lip up as we are about to slur upwards and let the lip relax and bend the note down just as we are slurring down. This works fine for 99% of slurs, but when you are trying to do a lip trill.... which I think??? are just very fast up and down slurs.... that tiny little bit of bending of the note makes everything just run together.
I forget who pointed that out to me, but I am sure it was one of the many many friends and colleagues I have learned from over the years. Maybe in a lesson or just maybe in a conversation!! Amazing how much one can learn just by "tuning" in to what is going on and what is being said by others. Anyway, when I started practicing my slurs very slow and got in touch with the lip not bending the note up or down, then the trill just started to happen. I do remember many years ago talking with a horn picker that had studied with Jimmy Chambers, and he did an exercise where he would consciously try to bend the note down at the last second before slurring up. And bend it up just before slurring down. I also tried that.... well for awhile anyway... I was a little to lazy to work at it to long. BUT it really did improve my slurs. Just a thought. Milton Milton Kicklighter 4th Horn Buffalo Philharmonic Retired ________________________________ From: valerie wells <[email protected]> To: horn list 2 memphis <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, March 29, 2011 3:50:53 PM Subject: [Hornlist] Lip trills I know a horn player who insist he can't do lip trills. However, he does great sounding valve trills and otherwise has well functioning, flexible chops. My current mode of thinking on this is: whether you move the valves or not, the embouchure movement is about the same in both kinds of trills -- that is, the lips move in sync with the trill to accommodate the pitch changes. So I believe my friend CAN do lip trills, but he's just mentally convinced he can't. Perhaps he's afraid to try. Any thoughts on this idea? Any teachers out there have experience helping a student overcome a fear of trilling? Please share. -- Valerie Wells The Balanced Embouchure Method http://bebabe.wordpress.com/ http://www.beforhorn.blogspot.com/ _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/kicklighgter%40yahoo.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
