Fundamental Problems In Young Euphonium Students by Daniel J. Steiger It has occurred to me over the last several years that most young euphonium students come t@ me with problems in basic skills, These basic skills are what 1 call (and many other brass clinicians) “the fundamentals.” These include breathing, fembouchure, and tonguing. As we think bout these three areas, we realize they fare very co-dependent upon each other: for without one, the success of the other two will be impaired. At a beginaing level, we ean impeave these skills to set & lifelong foundation for our playing. The very first thing TT ask a student to play at hishher first lesson is a scale; any scale, even their favorite (if they so choose). With the performance of this scale I will be able to detect problems with theie breathing. embouchure, and tonguing. Upon completion of their “scale performance” we will usually begin a discussion about the number one reason ‘ve play; to produce a good sound for an audience, It is the sound that comes out the end of our horn that is always most important. Almost every student presently or in the future, becomes too involved with the physical and mechanical aspects of playing. Our sound; how we listen to it And how se describe its characteristics. is 50 critical in improving its total quality. ‘As wind instrumentalists, we already realize our much desired “beautiful sound” is generated from our wind or breath, We must ensure we take a full breath to produce a full sound. In order t© do this, we must have good posture. You ‘must stand “proud” with your instrument. ‘When you play and itis necessary for you to sit (@s in concert band), you should sit a if you were standing, only bent at the ‘waist: Be sensitive to the way you sit with ‘your instrument to ensure you bring the instrament to you and not you to it. Many times I must correct students who let their euphonium rest on their leg instead of bringing the horn to them. Let your 42 Winter, 1991 shoulders relax naturally, not pushed forward or back. Keep them in a position fs if your arms were restfully at your sides. When you inhale: do so quickly and fully, Don’t think about where the air is ‘going; whether or not your chest is supposed to expand, your belly is 10 move, or your shoulders should rise. In addition, donot purposely push your belly ‘outward your shoulders upward, or your cchest outward with your muscles. Let all the movement in your belly, shoulders, and chest occur naturally as a direct result ‘of the inhale, Its helpful to try to produce 1 visual image of your lungs filling with ai, causing the expansion of your upper body to take place. “The throal/mouth eavity is very impor- tant as we breathe. A very open throat and 2a lowered jaw is necessary. Say the vowel “0”, as in the word toe, hold your mouthijaw/ongue where they now are: ‘now inhale in this position. Feel the free flow of air as you inhale and exhale. A ‘great physical aid to even better illustrate this feeling is a piece of 3/4” PYC pipe about $" in length. Put an end of it in your ‘mouth and breathe in and out through the pipe. (A word of caution—do not do this for too long; you might pass out and find yourself on the floor with a pipe down ‘your throat), Try to re-ereate the same feeling of expansion” you get breathing with the pipe or the “o” focus exercise, when you play. There are many “breath tenhaneer” type devices on the market as ‘well as inthe creative minds of many fine brass instructors and musicians. Ask your teacher about them and/or get creative yourself as you work on your breathing. “The next fundamental is the embou- chure. The embouehure must always remain in a relaxed, controlled, and cfficient state. This is achieved through proper use of the breath. Without a good ‘stream of air exiting the body, the lips have no vehicle in which to vibrate, Producing a good embouchure is easy. To produce a strong embouchure takes ‘careful and consistent practice. ‘The key to producing a good, strong cembouchure is to not become obsessed ‘with the mechanics. Let's begin by forming a good embouchure. As you read these word you probably have a good tembouchure formed with your lips. Say “hum” and hold it for $ seconds and take note of how your lips feel. You now have ‘1 good, relaxed embouchure. Say “hum” ‘again, and this time make the comers of your lips firm by pretending to bite insides of your cheeks with your teeth. Do this without pulling your lips and comers back against the teeth. (In other words, don’t form a smile as you make the corners firm). You now have a well formed embouchuce. As you practice, the fir must move across the lips smoothly and consistently Now thatthe embouchure is formed, we ‘ust learn how to strengthen it. We do this most effectively through the practice of lip slurs and long tone exercises. A commonly used text for this is the Warmup Exercises for Trombone by Emory Remington. As we work 0 strengthen our embouchure, it mist remain relaxed, Relaxed in a way that the lips do not become pinched topether, 02 puckered (rolled outward away from the teeth, feeling loose and flabby) or 100 recessed (rolled inward, to the point where you have tightened both lips against your teeth). What any of these conditions will produce is a surface aa too restricted (0F tight) for a good, consi- tent, and even vibration to occur on the surface of the lips. An exercise I call ti tonguing” is used to help focus the em Dbouchure and to make the lips form iio the most natural position to play a specifi piteh with a good, full tone quality Say “ha very loud Gust as a large person with a low voice would) several times, You should move a lot of ai a you do this. Now pick up your hom and playa ‘concert Bp with a quarter note m.m. ‘on your metronome, at a fortssitno level ‘You should not use any tongue to start th piteh; you should start and stop the it {quickly just as you did when you sa “ha” very loudly earlier. Again, you should be moving a large volume of ai starting and stopping it quickly. At point, you will probably fee! your liout of control” or you may be having trouble “centering” on the note. Try to “focus” them as you did when the “hum” concept was introduced earlier. Remem ber to listen to your sound, Now. go back to the beginning of this paragraph and go through the exercise again. When you get tothe point when its time to start playing, listen to how your sound changes as you ‘ain beter focus and control of your lips fs you “ha-tongue.” Then try the following exercise and how posture is relative to breathing. Now we must examine the relationship between the breath and tonguing. One common mis conception in tonguing is the role of the tongue itself. The tongue does not articulate notes; the air and tongue articulate together. What the tongue actually does for brass players is the same as what it does for woodwind players (especially double reed. players). The tongue releases the air and therefore you articulate “on the air simile. 234 Let your bottom lip and jaw drop and move outward as you play lower, Practice this exercise always at fori ssimo: (I) ha tongue (2) slurred (3) with ‘normal tongue played marcato After you have worked this a bit. you will hecome more aware of how elosely the air and embouchure work together. You will also become aware of focusing problems. As you expand your range higher and lower, the surface area of the lip (in which the air passes over) will change. As you descend, the lips roll ‘outward and as you ascend the lips roll inward. The ratio of the roll, as you play higher or lower, is not equa. Stating with ‘small “I, dropping your lower lip downward and jaw outward (to play lower), far more than you will roll both lips inward (to play higher). Always remember to listen to your sound as you ‘work through these exercises. Your embouchure will soon have a very focused and fresh feeling and you will also notice an improved core to your sound, So far, we have discussed how the breath and embouchure work as partners 134 1234 column.” When you tongue, the air should always be moving; just as it does when you slur. Let's do an exercise to illustrate this concept. Say “tha” several times: say “tha” and hold it out several times to see what it feels like, Now say just the “th” par of “tha” letting very Title air escape between your teeth and tongue. Holding the tongue against the teeth, say the “th” and try to push the air out as your tongue pushes even harder against the teeth. The harder you push the air, the harder you should push the tongue against the teeth. ‘You should have very little or no air coming from your mouth and you should fee! the pressure of the air in your gut. Do this again, but this time add the “a” part of ‘tha’ after the back-pressure in your gut is present and the air is significantly buil- up; then release the air. You should feel how your tongue actually releases the ai. ‘When we tongue on our instruments we ‘don t feel this back-pressure as we did in ‘our exercise. However, what we should realize is thatthe tongue articulates on the air column, dictating exactly how we want the air released. The manner io which we release the air dictates the articulation: staccato, legato, slurred, accent (all kinds), ete., and at different ‘dynamic levels, depending on the volume of air being released. Of course, the position of the tongue in the mouth and how much tongue we use, are both important factors in gaining super ‘control in our tonguing abilities. There have been many fine books and articles published on tongue placement and encourage you to read them. A list of further reading materials can be found at the end of this article. In conclusion, itis a great concern of mine that today's young euphonium students are more aware (at the early stages of development) that playing a ‘wind instrument doesn’t require special muscles or bodily contortions. We must continue to function naturally as God ere ‘ated us as we build our awareness of the muscles we use 10 play. and then exercise tem in order to strengthen our skills. We must also remember that we are all ‘students of the art” every time we pick up our instruments; regardless of our age or occupation. In addition, we must never forget that we are musicians first. Then, we must apply our musicianship to our euphonium performance (or practice), our conducting, our composing, our teaching, etc, $0 many of my students come to me cager to learn to be great euphoniumists bbut become enthusiastically surprised ‘when I teach them it is through one's own, ‘musicianship that we grow to become fine ceuphoniumists Further Reading Material Bowman, Bian Le Practical Hints on Paving te artone, Movile NY: Beiin-Mills Publishing Cop, 1983 Farkas, Philip. The Art of Musicianship. Bloomington, IN Musial Publications, 1976. Gren, Bary and W. Tinoshy Gallwey. The lener ‘Game of Music. New Vor, NY: Doble, 1985. Klcinamme, Edward. The Art of Trombone Play ing. Princeton, NI: Sumay-Birchard Mose, 1963, Lehman, Arthur W, The Brass Musicion. Now London, CT: Wrsting Misc Paistrs, 1986 Vernon, Chats. Daily Routines for Trombone Ed, Dam Saterwite, Pladlphs, PA: Cares G ‘Vernon, 1983 Denil Sige te curry Paphonino nsracsior 1 the Armed Forces School of Musi, US. Army ‘lement Navel Amplubious Here, LCRK, Noel VA He is also Director of Choirs at West End United Methodist Church, Portsouth, VA and a {reclanceconducerWoughow te Tidewater are, TUBA Journal 43