Exploring The Double Pedal Register Contents • Introduction • Explanation of terminology • The basics of the Trumpet Yoga system • General comments for exercises • How to play with the Einsetzen embouchure and photographs • Exercises Part One: Finding and playing double pedal tones • Moving from Ansetzen to Einsetzen • Exercises Part Two: Ansetzen/Einsetzen • Moving from Einsetzen to Ansetzen • Exercises Part Three: Einsetzen/Ansetzen • Appendix I: The origin of the TCE • Appendix II: Similarity to other embouchure systems Introduction Pedal tones are notes that do not naturally fall in the harmonic series of notes available to a brass instrument. Under normal circumstances they are practised and performed by bending a note farther and farther from its pitch centre until you reach the pitch of another note. They tonal quality of pedal tones is poor because you are forcing a sound from the instrument that is contrary to the way that it is designed to function. In physical terms one would be forcing the instrument to behave as a megaphone rather than a resonator1. Different schools of trumpet playing will either discourage the practice of pedal tones or swear by the merits of their use, often without sufficient description about why. Many trumpeters devote a lot of time to learning to play “Pedal C”, the note sounding one octave lower that the second harmonic of the trumpet 2. Due to the bore profile and bell size of a modern trumpet the fundamental harmonic is not available and instead there is a tone that sounds a diminished fifth lower (F#2) that eager players will practise bending upwards to the pitch of C3 believing that the hard work will uncover the secrets of easy playing and the ability to play in the extreme high register. If only those players were to buy a flugel horn, which with its larger conical bore and bell have the fundamental note C3 available in the harmonic series, all of those hours of hard work could be saved (they would also learn that it does not help their upper register). Sometimes understanding physics is more important than how much you believe in practising a technique. “Double Pedal Tones” are those that fall more than an octave lower than the illusive C3. Those available on a standard three-valve trumpet range from C2 to F#1. How to correctly perform them with the Einsetzen embouchure is a technique uncovered by the research of Jerome Callet, which he first published in his book titled Trumpet Yoga Volume 1: The Ultimate Modern Trumpet Embouchure. Callet’s work has since developed to include another six books and two video tutorials as well as inspiring exercises in books by Pierre Thibaud3 and Jeff Smiley4. Through the use of double pedal tones and exercises in which the player seamlessly slides into the normal playing register one can develop the ability to play the world’s most challenging music and unleash the full five-octave range of the instrument. Evidence of this can be found on the recordings of American baroque trumpeter Bahb Civiletti as well as YouTube videos of Callet’s other pupils and myself. Although there are traces of these exercises to be found, at the time of writing there is no publication available that specifically shares the knowledge from Trumpet Yoga and internet forums show that people want access to this information. In his 1986 book Trumpet Yoga Second Edition: A Revolutionary Approach To Embouchure Development Callet states “I vowed to myself if I could achieve this dream of mine, I would share it with all brass players”. And so the intention of this e-book: to to reunite the trumpet community with a series of Einsetzen/Ansetzen exercises to aid the develop of The Ultimate Modern Trumpet Embouchure. Richard Colquhoun. 1 The terminology “resonator” and “megaphone” are quoted from Kristian Steenstrup’s description of The Laws of Physics and Brass Players as described in his book Teaching Brass 2nd Revised Edition, 2007. 2 This note is generally defined and will from here be referred to as C3 due to “Middle C” on a piano being defined as C4 and descriptions being in transposed pitch. 3 Thibaud, Pierre: Exercices d’échauffement et vocalises pour trompettiste avancé, 2002. 4 Smiley, Jeff: The Balanced Embouchure, 2001. Explanation of terminology The terms Einsetzen and Ansetzen originate in french horn technique. They are not terms that are usually associated with trumpet playing and they do not directly relate to any standard technique of larger brass instruments. Historically the french horn has the largest useable range when compared to other brass instruments. It is common for french horn players to specialise in high playing, typically occupying the first and third horn parts in orchestral music, or in low playing occupying the second and forth parts. Oscar Franz defines Einsetzen as meaning "setting in" and refers to it as an embouchure type ideal for low horn players for which the player has to unfurl the bottom lip and set the mouthpiece "within the inner part of the lower lip"5. In contrast Ansetzen means "setting against" and refers to placing the mouthpiece on the outside of both lips. This how brass embouchure is taught in modern times. Philip Farkas dismisses the use of Einsetzen in modern playing due the demands put upon modern players and claims that there is need for a different kind of mouthpiece for playing in the Einsetzen position6. He goes on to say that modern horn embouchures are a combination of the two older techniques and states that this is exclusively in french horn players as a result of technique having evolved from a dual system to a single system. Whilst this was probably the case at the time Farkas wrote his book it is no-longer the true as it is exactly this idea that forms the basis of Jerome Callet's earliest book Trumpet Yoga. “I was the first man to use the old German french horn method Einsetzen and Ansetzen, and combining the two. Everyone else had either played high horn or low horn.”7 Basics of the Trumpet Yoga system The intention of the Trumpet Yoga system was to train a trumpet player with the use of exercises that include both Einsetzen and Ansetzen embouchures to play freely over the entire extended range of the trumpet. The range of the trumpet as defined by Trumpet Yoga is five and a half octaves from F#1 to C7. It may sound unusual to encourage the use of two different embouchure positions for playing the trumpet. All of the more traditional approaches to trumpet pedagogy insist that one’s embouchure is an unchanging constant defined by the placement of the mouthpiece on the lips. This goes some way to explain faulty logic such as requiring a large mouthpiece to create a so-called “big sound”. Disciples of Callet’s teaching have learnt that in fact a true vibrant trumpet sound is produced by compressing air inside the mouth. As such the embouchure and the mouthpiece are independent of each other and therefore moving the mouthpiece for pedal tones cannot have a negative effect on the normal embouchure. 5 Franz, Oscar: Complete Method For French Horn, as quoted by Farkas, pp. 22 6 Farkas, Philip: The Art of French Horn Playing, 1956, pp. 22 7 Callet, Jerome: Master Superchops, DVD, 2007. When moving from the Einsetzen embouchure (that is used exclusively in the double-pedal register) to the Ansetzen embouchure the player is instructed to maintain the top lip in the unfurled position. This is the reason for the term “Yoga”. “The reason I call my method Trumpet Yoga is this – trying to hold the unrolled lips in a fixed feel is much like a yog[i] holds a posture”8 The bottom lip needs to move from its unfurled position to a more natural setting. Callet described how the bottom lip then feels as though it moves upwards behind the unfurled top lip. The lips interlock with each other, against the teeth, resulting in a firm, closed embouchure setting without the need to pull the corners of the mouth tight. The aperture between the lips is smaller than with a traditional embouchure model and more resistant to the air stream. The aperture is then controlled completely by the compression of air. Air is compressed by taking a deep relaxed breath and then pushing the air up and out with the abdominal muscles. It is important to realise that this will only result in effective compression if the embouchure is providing sufficient resistance to the air stream. “Most trumpet players are taught to think of a large opening in the center of the lips … This concept is wrong because … air compression will control the size of aperture needed for any note. When I blow a loud, free and clear double high C [C7], very little air is actually going into the trumpet yet the blow is of complete freedom.”9 Another key part of the Trumpet Yoga system includes the way that the tongue is used. This takes on two parts. Firstly Callet insists that the tongue’s position in the mouth is not used to control pitch. He states that using vocal sounds such as “Ooo” or “Eee” cause the player to improperly stretch the lips, block the throat with the tongue and close the jaw, all of which are seen as having a negative effect one’s ability to supply air to the lips. Secondly it is instructed that the player should articulate by touching the top lip with the tongue as though “spitting a particle from the tip of the lip”.