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Rochut - Down an octave
I was going back through old books and came across my old Rochut book. I noticed a marking an old teacher had made to play the etudes down an octave, and it got me wondering - why? Is simply to work the lower range, or is there some magical benefit I never discovered?
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Sometimes when I'm working Vinings' Range Songs, I'll play thru an octave down first, and then as written. I get a double benefit -- working the low range (and I love playing low :D ) and getting a chops break from having been screeching on the previous one. I don't think I've done Rochut an octave down. I can see another benefit from that -- building fingering technique in the low range, because the fingerings there are different from the fingerings an octave higher.
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Along with an octave lower my teacher had me read them as tenor clef as well; works on two things: tenor clef reading and range!
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I'll play them in all 12 keys! It's great transposition and ear training practice because you know them all so well. Octave down is great for developing low register and it also really does amazing things for air flow and control. I always feel like a superhero after I've been playing octave down for a while when I go back to the regular register.
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I really need to work on that transposition thing. It really is a useful skill for a multi-instrumentalist, or any instrumentalist for that matter.