one quick low note blog

Before I race off to see our high school intern Ty Yamaoka star in Pecos Bill at the high school, I must post about my experience with the low notes tonight. I just practiced a tiny bit because I did not have much time.

My notes from last night's lesson on the low notes read:

Low notes more full

• low is sounding sharp so my lips need to be more relaxed
• want fuller sound low
• almost no tongue, air, tube of air

Again, me paraphrasing from my lesson.

What I did tonight:

• Right off the bat, I noticed myself tonguing the first low B flat. And it came in funky, not true to the note at first.
• I stopped tonguing it.
  
• Then, right next, I noticed that when I shifted from the B flat an octave above, after playing a long tone there but before playing a long tone on my B flat an octave down, I lifted my mouth off the mouthpiece to get air! No wonder my attack on the low B flat is so bad!
• So, I very deliberately kept my mouth glued to that mouthpiece and took in air around the corners of my mouth, and did not tongue, and those low notes came easier, came in more clean. Not perfect, but way more clean.

I also focused in my little tiny window of time before racing off to my social obligation, on playing my low notes more full, louder, more volume, but not just volume, more full. I am very eager to continue my experimentation tomorrow. I have a lesson in two weeks and I will be gone for a week of those two weeks (sans trombone - gasp), so I want to work hard on these things. I want to get better.