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Wednesday, June 16 - 5:00 pm
Elisa Koehler, Reporter Those attending Dennis Edelbrock’s informative afternoon session were treated to a lecture, a master class, and a recital rolled into one. Edelbrock’s experience includes 28 years with of the United States Army Band and Brass Quintet, and 13 years as the founder and Executive Director of the National Trumpet Competition (based at George Mason University, where Edelbrock is an adjunct professor of trumpet). Edelbrock launched into a dynamic presentation designed to help trumpeters “tame the savage beast [the embouchure] and make it work for you.” Highlighting the credo, “You must be smarter than the trumpet,” he cautioned the audience to remember that changing old habits involves risk and dedicated practice.
One by one, Edelbrock coached the participants with impressive precision, humor, and missionary zeal. For a student struggling to slur between C and D (above middle C), he pointed out that such a “cross grain slur” forces players to go higher while making the trumpet physically longer. To solve this problem he recommended increasing the airflow with a slight crescendo. Buzzing without the mouthpiece while rocking the lips back and forth was also recommended as a way to find the “sweet spot” and train the lips to be equal partners. Edelbrock stressed that slurs are important to practice because “they make the air do all the work.” He further cautioned that downward slurs were the most difficult because it is impossible to eliminate any excessive compression used on the way up. To help, Edelbrock suggested playing exercises on page twelve of the Arban book with slurs and to “slur late and slur quickly.” He also recommended bending notes between partials and the “Pencil Trick” (gripping a pencil with the lips, not the teeth) to build the three rows of muscles behind the corners. To improve breath control, Edelbrock recommended blowing up balloons quickly (smaller ones have more resistance) and using some of the many good breathing devices available (volumizer, spirometer, etc.). He summarized his philosophy with the statement, “the more we train the muscles, the less they will have to do to work.”
Dennis Edelbrock concluded the session with a rousing performance of Clarke’s Carnival of Venice accompanied by his wife, Laura. An eager crowd took advantage of his generous offer to answer more questions after the clinic. |
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Following an outline distributed as a handout, Edelbrock systematically explained and demonstrated the foundations of a good embouchure: vibration, relaxation, and flexibility. He stressed that successful performance is based on a delicate system of counterbalances (14 pairs of interlocking muscles) that work together organically. Mastering these counterbalances creates more strength and control than letting the muscles work independently. To that end, Edelbrock described a catalog of common problems (receding lower lip, insufficient airflow, excessive tension or pressure, sloppy slurs, etc.) and prescribed several cures (buzzing without the mouthpiece and maintaining a consistent embouchure in all registers, to name a few). With the help of a few volunteers from the audience, Edelbrock demonstrated many helpful strategies in an impromptu master class.
