Changing the fingering from long to short often feels like the ground has disappeared from under your feet.
It’s as if you run on a solid ground, and all of the sudden you loose the support, aptly illustrated by Looney Tunes characters.
Once your body realises it cannot lean against instrument’s resistance, it triggers a compensatory tightening of some muscles (throat or chest).
After a few times, this compensatory response becomes a normal way of playing: slightly tighter than necessary. Only because the body sometimes freaks out that resistance is gone. I call this habit “The Fear of Falling”.
The Fear of Falling
- Absence of trust (in resistance; in support)
- Leaning requires trust
Shock absorber (Støtdempere)
- Being glued to resistance
- Underblowing
- Overblowing
Anticipate the changes and prepare for new resistance level, like you prepare for a new pitch.
Coming to terms with the resistance
The fear of falling (and trusting the resistance)
Leaning
Blind blowing
Topology of the resistance
Blowing blindly Loosing contact with the resistance and the ricochet.
Even air stream??? Air column, air stream
Respecting the tube
Fear of falling
Leaning. Trust the horn!
Like a wall
Literature and other sources
Notice how the instrument responds what you are doing - A feedback system
Respecting the tube
Blind Blowing
Leaning
Expanding instrument’s walls, blowing to the end of the instrument
The different levels of resistance feel like different “depths of the instrument”
Resistance and leaning
Elastic resistance Softening resistance Getting acquainted with the resistence
Vertical geografi/topografi/examination of the depths
“dybde” av motstand Og kjennskap til dybde/topografi
Senstivity to the instrument’s resistance
Myk kontakt med motstanden. We don’t want to overblow or underblow and it’s important to be playing the instrument that you have and be sensitive to the resistance. Playing your own horn
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Evening out resistance
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“Carrying air”
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Not overblowing: Nudging air intensity
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Overblowing and under-blowing. And their coexistance. Different fingerings, different blowing requirements