BASICS PLUS- STUDIES FOR 1 OR 2 BRASS INSTRUMENTS

An excellent high quality study book from the German publishers Rundel. It’s a highly acclaimed method, in duet format so teachers can play along with their students. Highly recommended.

n.b. BASS CLEF ONLY

Thus our „body awareness” is in our ear: distribution of tension in the body, cramping or relaxation, muscle tone, posture, motor function and fine motor skills are all verified by the ear as regulating organ. One speaks of a cybernetic regulating cycle: mind (command) – muscle (execution) – ear (verification) – mind (correction of the order)

Alfred A. Tomatis from „The Conscious Ear”

The most important sensory organ for you as a musician is your ear. The goal of this book is to put listening to yourself more at the center of your practicing.

Through the routine of „daily exercises” we run the danger of limiting our concentration to mechanical procedures. Learning happens mostly through our senses: seeing, feeling, and hearing. The complex physical processes of playing a musical instrument can, however, only function when the analytical, logical thought of the left brain is in balance with the emotional, pictorial thought of the right brain. It is exactly this balance which is guided by our

capacity for musical imagination.

Every note we play is an expression of our individual personality and has a life of its own. This is the reason for the fascination that the trumpet exudes. We should give the same musical attentiveness to so-called „warm-up exercises” that we give to the study of etudes and concertos. (After all, the E-flat Major concerto of Joseph Haydn begins with a simple scale figure).

The two-part nature of the present exercises „programs” our concentration to focus our thinking on the essential. The fundamental idea is always simplification, given by the 2nd Part or the preliminary exercises, and by the blending of the two parts, into which we are „submerged”.

Embark, therefore, on a new way of thinking in sound, according to the motto Dale Clevenger, solo hornist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, so aptly formulated:

„Your two best friends are your ear and your air!”

Referência: 0272-3009
Autor/ Compositor: Wolfgang Guggenberger
Editor: Rundel