HICKMAN CLINIC

Supporting the Tone

Professor Hickman stated that there are numerous physical factors involved in making a tone on the trumpet. The main ones include the muscles of the face and neck, lips, lower jaw position, arching of the tongue, and mouthpiece pressure. Using the analogy of an older-style camera needing individual adjustments for distance, focus, shutter speed, etc., all of the factors needed to produce a particular pitch on the trumpet with the desired volume level and color of sound will require a somewhat unique balance of settings.

Best control and consistency is obtained when the performer maintains a narrow range of physical firmness. The embouchure should not be too relaxed or too firm. Changes in firmness should be made with very little notice. Only then, will the performer feel that playing is easy and consistent.

The overall feel for the correct firmness of the muscles and flow of the air can best be realized by slurring a simple outline of the main notes in a phrase. Once these notes can be played easily in the desired manner, gradually add more of the previously excluded notes until the full musical phrases are complete.

Hickman recommended a great deal of soft playing each day in order to maintain a pure and efficient tone and embouchure response. He noted that many players neglect softer playing and soon develop an overly-large aperture which results in an airy or blatty tone quality because a large proportion of air is not being vibrated when passing through the lips. The net result is usually a loss of range and projection due to inefficiency.

Articulation

Mr. Hickman demonstrated what he terms as “pop” tones — extremely soft notes with a very quick and clean articulation. This type of articulation requires a light but very fast tongue motion. Any sluggishness of the tongue will result in a “thew” attack which has no sparkle (popping tone in the bell).

Flutter tonguing (with the front of the tongue) can be a marvelous guide to finding the ideal tongue movement. By assimilating the feel and action of the flutter tongue, single tonguing can be greatly enhanced. In other words, the body is demonstrating to the player what is their most efficient, easy, and fastest manner of articulating. By alternating flutter tonguing with single tonguing, the single tongue will soon copy the flutter tongue action, resulting in faster and cleaner attacks.

Hickman mentioned that some players are unable to flutter tongue, likely due to a large “web” of tissue at the base of the underside of the tongue. This web may restrict the vertical range of motion of the tongue and make flutter tonguing impossible.

When delivering a baby, most obstetricians check the base of the tongue and clip a “v” out of the web if it appears large or pronounced. This is routinely done to help prevent speech impediments as the child grows older. Hickman speculated that a small number of performers naturally develop “anchor,” or “dorsal, tonguing,” (tip of tongue always lightly pressed against the back of the lower, front teeth and articulating with the middle of the tongue) because they are physically not capable of articulating on the hard palette just behind the top teeth. While anchor tonguing was or is used by many top players including Herbert Clarke, Armando Ghitalla, Charles Schlueter, Claude Gordon, Timothy Morrison, and Raymond Mase, it is a less common method of articulation.

Perfecting Consistency

Many times, it is not easy to determine why a difficult passage does not improve after playing it many times. It is imperative that the player not become discouraged or develop a mental “hang-up” when playing the passage.

If a passage is not reasonably perfected within a few attempts, Professor Hickman advises breaking the passage into smaller segments, playing only two or three notes in succession, and adding more notes as the tiny segments are perfected. Play the notes in various rhythms, making sure to keep the articulations as originally marked. Allow one note in each segment to be long, but play the other notes as rapidly as possible. This way, the lips, air, fingers, and tongue are forced to coordinate in nano-second bursts. So, even though the tempo may be slow, the coordination is being developed at extremely fast speeds. This will quickly identify the troubling intervals and focus on the coordination problems. Hickman also suggests practicing the difficult passages left-handed, and even backwards, so that the brain can analyze and comprehend the passage fully. Some passages may take weeks to develop consistent perfection.

You Can’t Teach A Horse To Talk

Mr. Hickman expressed concerns about teachers who only know one way of playing the trumpet and insist that all students conform to one embouchure, one way of articulating, etc. because not all players are physically capable of playing the same way. It is necessary for the teacher and student to understand basic embouchure types and various systems of development. For instance, Hickman feels that there are two very common embouchure types: forward and flat (his own terminology).

A forward embouchure is ideal and is used by players with a perfect or near-perfect dental occlusion (upper and lower teeth lining up evenly when lower jaw is totally at ease) and focuses muscle firmness at the corners of the lips. Thus, the correct “pucker” for this type of player would allow the corners to firm and push towards the center of the lips, causing the lip area under the mouthpiece to move slightly forward. This is described in the Louis Maggio system. Well-known performers such as Timofei Dokshitzer, Herb Alpert, Vincent DiMartino, Raymond Crisara, Doc Severinsen, and Raymond Mase use this type of embouchure.

The flat embouchure is used by the large majority of players and is described in Philip Farkas’ The Art of Brass Playing. It is for players with non-perfect occlusions (moderate to extreme overbite) and requires the player to un-hinge their lower jaw and move it forward to some degree in order to form a somewhat even dental occlusion, thus allowing the top and bottom lips to align vertically. This type of embouchure requires the larger facial muscles, especially in the lower jaw area, to support the lower jaw and to brace against the pressure of the mouthpiece since the jaw is no longer in its socket. Players with this type of embouchure are required to form the embouchure by firming the muscles below the corners, creating a slight frown, or even “bulldog” appearance, when playing. Players of this type include Maynard Ferguson, Adolph Herseth, Philip Smith, Jens Lindemann, Armando Ghitalla, Bill Chase, Arturo Sandoval, and Wynton Marsalis, just to name a few.

Although the exercises used to build embouchure strength can work for each embouchure type, the approach will need to vary dramatically As a general rule, long tones work very well for forward embouchure players, but often have negative results when worked fully by flat embouchure players. Also, while a forward player may tilt the bell down slightly when playing pedal tones, the flat player may only be able to play pedal tones loudly if tilting the bell upwards a little and assuming an exaggerated “bulldog” embouchure. Attempting to play pedal tones loudly with the wrong pucker type is like trying to teach a horse to talk.......it is a waste of time!

Daily Practice Routine

Professor Hickman recommended breaking the daily practice into six basic sessions:

1. WARM-UP (15-30 mins., early or mid morning) — to loosen up and remove swelling

2. FUNDAMENTALS (30-45 mins., late morning) — to maintain and develop techniques)

3. LISTENING (60 mins., early afternoon) — to concerts and recordings to develop musical

concepts and ideas

4. WOOD SHEDDING (60 mins, mid-afternoon) — to perfect difficult passages

5. STUDYING (60 mins., late afternoon) — to understand scores, styles, historical settings

6. PRACTICE PERFORMANCES (60+ mins., evening) — to develop mental imagery and

confidence

Other Helpful Suggestions

1. Identify the most difficult measures and photocopy them onto “flashcards.” Learn

to play each flashcard at any time. (Each flashcard may have 1 - 4 meas.)

2. After the flashcards are learned, play them often and assign a score to each attempt.

Average the scores to see which passages need the most attention.

3. If a specific habit needs to be broken, take a piece of neon-colored paper and

write a key word on it which will be used as a “trigger” to remind the player

to do something. Tape the sign to the lip of the music stand so it can be seen

as a subconscious visual reminder.

4. Always think positively. Remove phrases such as “I can’t do this,” “don’t do that,”

or “this is difficult,” and replace them with “I can do this if I keep working,”

“do this,” and “this is merely unfamiliar.”

There were several other points about practicing that Professor Hickman had hoped to address, but time did not permit.