Monday, April 02, 2007

A new bullseye

Happy Trombone Week everyone.

Here's a new concept I've thought up. I (and other teachers) have often noticed that students tend to hit notes on the high side, causing the tone to be more pinched and less resonant than it could be. Ever notice that students almost always clam on the high side of a note.

Think of each note as a bullseye..









If you are consistently aiming a little high, your tone would be a lot less resonant.

But that's not that new part.

Since we are thinking about the notion of aiming lower to fatten the sound, perhaps a better shape might be an egg shape...












I like this image because it gets across that idea of relaxing down into the fat part of the note.
I tried a google image search for "egg bullseye." This is the best I could find but I think you can get the idea...




















Anyway, don't bend the notes down but DO think of finding that fat, resonant, lower part of the tone.