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Clinic
to promote communications among trumpet players around the world and to improve the artistic level of performance, teaching,
and literature associated with the trumpet
CliniC
Frank G. Campos
http://www.trumpetguild.org
Please retain this cover sheet with printed document.
CliniC
Clinic addresses a wide variety of teaching and playing issues. Ideas and suggestions should be directed to: Frank G. Campos,
Clinic Editor, Whalen Center for Music, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA; [email protected]
Frank G. Campos
mouth and hold the plank long enough that you are finally
brought to the point of fatigue. At some point your body will
automatically begin using paradoxical/reverse breathing.
Inhale powerfully through the nose and exhale with vigor
through the mouth. Do not lock the breath or break your
form. When the breath becomes labored and the body has
reached its limit is when the greatest reward is found; the
breath work you are doing is the most valuable at the end of
your endurance. Even when greatly fatigued, elite athletes and
dancers are still in control of the breath. We must maintain
our good form and keep the breath unlocked to the endthis
is the most important part of the exercise. Try using reverse
breathing with other exercises such as sit-ups, walking, running, light calisthenics, or stretching exercises. Always breathe
in through the nose and out through the mouth.
One of the best things about long tones is usually overlooked: they require us to blow an absolutely steady air stream
until the air is exhausted from the lungs. Long tones are breath
control exercises. Cat Anderson, Duke Ellingtons lead trumpet and one of the physically strongest lead players of all time,
said that the secret to playing high notes was to play a second
line G like a whisper for twenty minutes every day. Many
have heard about Cat Andersons twenty-minute G exercise
but few have tried it. Play one or two extremely soft long tones
to the very end of the breath every day for a month and you
will know the value it has for you. Time yourself to see how
long you can hold a second line G like a whisper. Most of
my students can barely hold it for thirty seconds initially.
More than two minutes may seem impossible, but it is quite
possible if you strive to improve your best time every day and
keep at it.
It takes dogged persistence to replace established habits with
better ones. This is because when you hold the instrument in
your hands, it is very difficult to deviate from your learned skill
path. Doing breath work, especially combined with light physical exercise, can initiate changes that will move you toward
more efficient performance without having to think much
about it. With minimal effort, it can have the effect of turbocharging your trumpet playing.
About the author: Frank G. Campos is professor of trumpet
at Ithaca Colleges Whalen Center of Music. For many years
he served as a member of the ITG Board of Directors. Campos is the author of Trumpet Technique (2005) published by
Oxford University Press.
Endnotes
1. Feldenkrais, Moshe. Awareness Through Movement. New
York: Harper Collins, 1972, 1977. 162, 164.
2. Ibid. 165.
3. Yang, Jwing Ming. The Essence of Shaolin White Crane:
Martial Power and Qigong. Jamaica Plain, Mass: YMAA,
1996. 197.
4. Ibid. 196.
5. Ibid. 196
6. Campos, Frank Gabriel. Trumpet Technique. New York:
Oxford, 2005. 41.
7. http://www.rogeringram.com/clinicalnotes.php
8. http://www.trumpetherald.com/forum/
viewtopic.php?p=1080163
March 2011 / ITG Journal 51