Playing angle

[sirisobhakya]

I sold my main horn, a Yamaha YBL-830 double rotor bass, almost 2 months ago to finance a new horn, arriving this Christmas. Since that time I have been using my spare horn, a Yamaha YBL-321, and more recently my former school’s horn a Bach 50B. I didn’t sell the mouthpiece, though.

I notice I miss many notes on the 321. Granted, I am not a pro, and I missed notes on the 830 too. But that happened rarely. On the 321 it happens in almost every PHRASES. I thought that this is because the 321 is so vastly different from the 830, but man it’s frustrating. The 50B that was recently repaired, while a bit closer to the 830 in term of resistance, still does not solve this problem. It annoys me to the point that I don’t want to pick up the horn, and I worried that maybe I am losing my skill.

Today it just occured to me that I seem to miss the note “upward” (I have to lower my lips and pucker it a bit more that I used to to not miss the note). Other notes speak better as well if I do so. I also realize that both of the alternate horns (321 and 50B), are more front-heavy than the 830. So maybe the horns are tilted too much to the front?

So I tried tilting the 50B back just a bit more, and that’s when the Eureka moment hit me. Every note speak much better without having to modify my embouchure, and I don’t miss the notes that often anymore. This is something I totally overlooked, and I find quite interesting, especially for thise who have to use horn supplied to them with no opportunity to test-play or choose the horn before being assigned, such as in school settings.

Now the problem is that the posture is hard on my left hand because of the imbalance, but at least that can be solved quite easily, not on the school horn though!

[AndrewMeronek]

Yeah, that is easy to overlook.

Another trick: play on a euphonium or a baritone and look in the mirror and compare that horn angle to your trombone. Should be pretty similar, but often it's not and when it's not it should invite investigation.

You can also play both left and right handed and see if your angles change.

[atopper333]

A counterweight might help…

[Wilktone]

Probably the different balance of the horn has altered your playing angle. Donald Reinhardt, who was well known for helping brass musicians on their embouchure technique, got interested in the topic when he damaged his trombone. When it came back from the shot, the counterweight wasn't put back on and the horn was front heavy. He ended up playing with a different horn angle than he was used to and discovered the lower angle improved his playing dramatically. He ended up studying other players to see why they were different.

Finding a student's most efficient horn angle, and the adjustments to the horn angle that can happen as the musician plays in different registers, is an important part of a lot of my teaching. It's something I picked up from Doug Elliott, who picked it up from Reinhardt. Catch a lesson with Doug to learn more.

Dave