Something occurred to me as I’ve been practicing my lesson material this week, and I want to share what’s happened, in case it might be of use to someone else.
Besides my long tones, lip slurs and Arbans , I’ve been working on Rochut Etude #2. It was quite a thrill for me to get it, and I approached it as a huge bunch of hard notes, some of them high, and played it that way for a couple weeks. I actually REMEMBER as a kid doing exactly the same thing when being given something new.
In my last lesson, we worked on the first 8 measures, and after ignoring the interval between the first and second notes that I thought I’d spent a lot of time perfecting, my teacher said “Now just go ahead and blow through it”. I did, and it sounded like a euphonium!
This week I’ve been “blowing through” the whole etude, and besides sounding like a euphonium, my fingers are no worse than they were when I was focusing on finger technique instead of tone. AN AHA MOMENT!
Having played for about 8 months, I’m glad I rediscovered this sooner than later. I don’t know how many old beginners who are actively encouraged to fill the instrument with air, but I’m really glad I was!