# of Students Taught: 6
Ages: 2 frosh, 2 soph, 1 junior, 1 college senior
Instrument: 2 baritones, 3 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone
Materials: scales, tunes, & ear training; jazz, etudes, jury repertoire
Fundamentals covered: airflow & breath control (intention through the phrase), tone production
Memorable moment: One of my freshman students is a dedicated kid with a great ear, but his tone is still in need of development. It’s quiet and airy. Today I thought, ‘why not go over why the Bernoulli Effect is important again’, and did a demo of the paper magic trick.
the principle holds true for balloons too!
I used this as a way to remind him that our aural cavity and lips need to be OPEN in order for our embouchure to form when we put the horn on our face and blow through it. I had him try again, thinking about leaving space for the air to move through, and lo and behold, his tone was much improved! He noticed it too, describing it as ‘louder, more efficient’.
Takeaways: If I could put myself in every trombone fundamentals seminar and every beginner band classroom from now until the end of time I would undo this faulty notion that we need to physically set our lips together in order to ‘form an embouchure.’ In truth, we need to trust the science- by moving air past our open lips, the low pressure inside the horn creates suction moving backward that then pulls our lips together and allows them to vibrate and produce sound. It’s easy!
Lauren Husting, trombone 