How Much Improvement Have We Made in Our First Week?

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Now that we have our material, downloaded our practice sheet, marked our highest note with the date and have begun to play and improve our pedal tones, it’s time now to see if we have made any improvement.

I posted a recording which took us down from C, third space to some very low pedal tones. By playing the recording and repeating the note in the spaces provided, you should now have some control of these notes. Some of you may have been able to reach the second level of pedal tones which is more easily played and some of you might be far past where I ended. Where you are now and where I was last week means nothing. What is important is the fact that you have improved from what you were able to do last week when you started.

Today’s post illustrates how much of an improvement was possible for ME during this first week. Today I recorded myself in the silent sections as you were to do this past week. I needed to do this in order to illustrate how much was gained and as you listen to the recording below, notice that last week’s recording is in your right channel and today’s recording is coming from your left channel.

Improvements after one week-

• Tone- notice that the center of each note is more stable.

• Pitch- last week’s recording tended to go sharp and flat more than today’s recording.

• Breath control- several times the notes from last week were ended early because of a lack of air.

• Increase in number of low notes- I was able to add three or four lower notes this week.

• Steadiness- This week’s notes were more secure and there was less bouncing around on each note.

The advantage of recording yourself as in this instance is a great way to find out if you are improving.

“IF YOU ARE NOT IMPROVING EACH WEEK, WHAT IS THE USE OF PRACTICING?

Listen to recording here- HI-R-By-A-Third- End of Second Week

Bruce was a member of the faculty at the University of Northern Iowa, School of Music in Cedar Falls from 1969 until his retirement in 1999. He has performed with many well-known entertainers such as Bob Hope, Jim Nabors, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Anita Bryant, Carman Cavalara, Victor Borgie, the Four Freshman, Blackstone the Magician, Bobby Vinton and John Davidson.

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2 thoughts on “How Much Improvement Have We Made in Our First Week?”

  1. Krossi

    Down to pedal F#. Much easier using 123 and lipping down than using CG’s fingering (for me on my horn). Then able to skip to G below that and play down to 2x pedal C,B,Bb using normal fingerings. Can lip that G up to Bb below pedal C but first pedal C,B are not there yet.

    • Bruce Chidester

      Great work and thanks for your update. Some have said that the lower you go, the higher you go. It may be true.

      I totally agree with your choice of fingerings. I can’t use the listed fingering but many of my friends can. I don’t know what the difference is but the fingering is not the important thing. The important issue is to get your lips flapping around so that the lip is relaxed and the lips are pumped.

      In clarinet playing we call this transitional area “crossing the break” and in trumpet we must work to connect the two pedal registers.

      Thanks for your update and we should see some high range improvement in about two weeks. Be patient.

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