Cool video - MRI footage while playing a horn

[Sara Hood]

(Dave Werden - Feel free to move this post if somewhere else is a better fit.)

On of the coolest live recordings I have seen in a while! Squeamish alert - If things medical make you uneasy, proceed at your own risk.

This video shows footage recorded by an MRI machine of a French horn player going through some basic brass playing exercises. https://www.cmuse.org/brass-instrume...-sarah-willis/

- Sara

[RickF]

Yes, that’s an interesting video. Interesting how her oral cavity shrinks when she slurs up. I like to watch Sara Willis’ videos, “Horn Hangouts”. A lot of interesting content.

[Sara Hood]

I know that some folks have mentioned that thinking of or enunciating various vowels while playing can help improve tone and range. I think that this video demonstrates how that works. It lets you "see" what is going on inside the mouth when certain sounds are made. That is much easier to reproduce when you have seen it, like in this video. At least, I know it helps me. I also like that it showed the torso for breath support, and the head as a whole.

I wish I could show this to some of the kids at church that we are trying to teach how to play. But it might be a bit too much for them to handle, depending on their own individual maturity level.

Yes, Sarah Willis is both entertaining and educational, in the best of ways. Some of her videos even branch out into the rest of the brass family. Musicians who play trumpet, trombone, and tuba have been among her interviewees. Of interest to the folks here would probably be Gene Pokorny ( https://sarah-willis.com/episodes/gene-pokorny/ ) and Steve Mead ( https://sarah-willis.com/episodes/st...horn-hangouts/ ).

- Sara (Hood, not Willis)