British Sound

[Jasonium]

Hi, I want to develop the British tone and vibrato. I know practicing lip trills help because the British vibrato is faster. Can I have some advise on who to listen to and other ways to develop this sound? My favorite sound I have found so far has been Glyn William's.

[ghmerrill]

I see that no one has responded to this, so I'll jump in allthough I am nothing like an expert on euphonium. I know that Brian Bowman strongly prefers a "jaw vibrato"and I think this may be covered in one or another of his books.

However, I can tell you this from almost two decades of playing saxophone (and flute) where vibrato is virtually a requirement: I think it is going in the wrong direction if you think you will get acceptable vibrato through lip or jaw techniques. Certainly Bowman does it, but I'm not sure that's what you want to emulate. As my son has remarked in another context, "You shouldn't attempt to play precisely as Roger Federer does. He can do it. You can't." There are a lot of ideosyncracies in playing anything.

With saxophone there are two approaches to vibrato: (1) vibrato through rhythm manipulation of the jaw (embouchure vibrato), and (2) diaphragm vibrato. Either will work -- on a sax -- but the diaphragm method is universally considered the better approach for sound and control. It is EASIER initially to learn a jaw vibrato, but it is not the better choice in the long term. Learning diaphragm vibrato takes more work. With a flute, of course, you have no choice. Diaphragm. And with voice (singing): diaphragm. (Diaphragm vibrato also has the advantage that once you've got it down, it works for ANY wind instrument, including voice.)

So I think that diaphragm is the way to go, and while lip trills are a great thing to practice, I don't think they'll take you in the direction of a good vibrato. Also, from what I can see in a brief search of the web, diaphragm vibrato for euphonium is seems generally recommended/preferred as well. Whenever I've used vibrato on tuba or euph, I've used the diaphragm. I just can't imagine using any jaw-oriented alternative. Contrary to Bowman, I find it MUCH more difficult to control and MUCH more fatiguing to employ for any length of time.

Just my own experience.

[davewerden]

I missed the original post here, so I'm late jumping in.

First, you need to ask yourself if you really want a British sound. If you are going to be playing in a typical American wind band, that sound may not fit well with those around you.

Certainly the vibrato is a huge factor. From observation, I think most British players use lip vibrato. However, I often use a combination of lip and diaphragm, but it could be hard to tell from looking at me if I'm using anything besides lip. Therefore it may be that Brits are using some diaphragm as well. Regardless, the British vibrato is wide and fast. And in the "old school" I think it sounded wider and faster. Modern British players have show flexibility in this.

The core tone color is also somewhat different. Equipment is a consideration. If you are playing on a Schilke 51D mouthpiece, for example, it can be harder to emulate the sound a British player might get on a Wick 4AL or similar. Also, through observation of many Brits over several decades, I believe they typically have a more open jaw behind the chops that most American players. So the end result is often a broader sound. For whatever reason, players who produce the sound we usually mean when we say "British" can fill a room with sound without a forced-sounding tone. They can sound like they are playing mf but the sound carries to every corner of the hall.

I would mention the shape of the notes. They often play a strong tone on the beginning of the note and then back off. Sort of like this:

>=====

The effective sound remains strong throughout the note because the vibrato comes in where you see the "=" in my simple example.

And lastly I would mention that folks who grew up in the U.K. and especially within the brass band world have a much more facile dynamic range than Americans typically use.

The answer I have heard from a Brit when he was asked the same question is "I don't know. I just grew up with that sound around me."

So your best bet is to listen to as many British players as you can. Then for any recordings where you can get the sheet music, play along. Perhaps play the recording for 4 bars and pause it. The try to emulate that 4-bar phrase. Then play the next 4 bars of the recording, ... etc.

[pam]

Just to throw a monkey wrench into the discussion of vibrato technique, there's also finger vibrato, hand (aka, horn) vibrato, and throat vibrato.

I'm not sure that jaw vibrato is necessarily more difficult to control or more fatiguing than "diaphragm" vibrato. I think that, for the most part, people prefer--and therefore practice--the technique they're most familiar/comfortable with, which, for many, if not most, means the technique they learned first.

Personally, I find diaphragm vibrato more fatiguing and difficult to control than jaw vibrato, and both much more fatiguing and difficult to control than finger/hand vibrato (which is easy to master and can be extremely effective) because I played violin for 4 years before picking up a wind instrument, so for me finger/hand vibrato comes "naturally."