Getting a loud sound

[TRtrumpet]

So whats the best way to have a nice solid sound that projects well to the audience without blasting or overplaying?

[Dynasty]

1. Completely Relax
   
2. Use lots of Air
   
3. Practice loud individually
   
4. Practice Playing loud as an ensemble
   
5. Learn what is 'too much'.
   

To learn to play loud, you have to practice playing loud. It's that simple.

[Xukaniz]

I have recently discovered that if you dont play loud, you are not comfortable enough with the notes. Take a note and do all types of things to it. Bend it as sharp as possible, as flat as possible, flutter tongue it, do whatever, just get more comfortable with it.

[arundo]

1. RELAX

2. Do some breathing exercises for 5 minutes- make sure you are breathing low and not shallow

3. start at a mezzo-forte and play around with the dynamics.

4. when going higher, make sure you dont squinch up, but stay centered.

 

It takes time to play loud with a good sound, but if you control your breathing and have a firm embouchre, youll be ok. When you start to go out of tune, then your breathing or mouth has changed....RELAX.

[wilson07]

if you want to play really loud, you need to practice breathing, and like dynasty said, practice playing loud... while staying completely relaxed.

[FrontierVP]

Everything that's already been posted here is, in my experience, good advice. I can maybe elaborate on some of the things that have helped me and some other Frontier brass players.

 

Individual volume--quality, durable volume--cannot be achieved without powerful air support. And, just like any other physical strength or capacity, the only way to build air support is to excercise it.

 

Breathing excercises should do two things: 1.) strengthen and tone your diaphragm and supporting muscles 2.) increase your usable lung capicity and air control.

 

The two things that made me a very loud (quality, round sound loud) bugle player this year:

-Build your diaphragm muscle and air capacity and control through breathing excercises. The diaphragm is the biceps *and* the quadriceps of the brass instrument.

-Buzz your mouthpiece without your horn. This may sound useless. Believe me when I say that it is quite the opposite. It gives your air system, your embouchure, and your ears more of a work out than playing with the horn attached. The horn is just an amplifier anyway. It's not the real instrument. Buzzing just 5 to 15 minutes a day improved my endurance and (good) volume range. Long tones at the beginning increase your endurance for the session.

 

Also:

-Develop your ability to both take in and exhale more air than you think is humanly possible (but don't over do it all at once!). Your stomach should protrude when breathing in. If it doesn't, you are not using your diaphragm and you're practically not breathing.

-Always, always, always play with full air support--this must become a habit that you don't need to think about. Your shoulders are not air support. You should never use your shoulders to breath--raising your shoulders will only constrict your resonance chamber (throat and mouth) and that has a...bad effect on your sound. Think of your lungs as a bucked of air--you fill a bucket from the bottom up, not the top down.

 

And, the other part of good tone quality is having a nice and open throat and mouth. Dont' constrict your throat or block your air with the bulk of your tongue--keep the tongue out of the way of your air. Remember, your diaphragm does all the work. Use only the tip of your tongue for tonguing. Another bad habit of mine was mashing the whole front side of my tongue against my teeth in order to tongue. Not necessary. Just the tip hitting where the teeth meet the gum is all you need.

 

I hope this helps.

[AustinMello]

  FrontierVP said:

Everything that's already been posted here is, in my experience, good advice. I can maybe elaborate on some of the things that have helped me and some other Frontier brass players.

 

Individual volume--quality, durable volume--cannot be achieved without powerful air support. And, just like any other physical strength or capacity, the only way to build air support is to excercise it.

 

Breathing excercises should do two things: 1.) strengthen and tone your diaphragm and supporting muscles 2.) increase your usable lung capicity and air control.

 

The two things that made me a very loud (quality, round sound loud) bugle player this year:

-Build your diaphragm muscle and air capacity and control through breathing excercises. The diaphragm is the biceps *and* the quadriceps of the brass instrument.

-Buzz your mouthpiece without your horn. This may sound useless. Believe me when I say that it is quite the opposite. It gives your air system, your embouchure, and your ears more of a work out than playing with the horn attached. The horn is just an amplifier anyway. It's not the real instrument. Buzzing just 5 to 15 minutes a day improved my endurance and (good) volume range. Long tones at the beginning increase your endurance for the session.

 

Also:

-Develop your ability to both take in and exhale more air than you think is humanly possible (but don't over do it all at once!). Your stomach should protrude when breathing in. If it doesn't, you are not using your diaphragm and you're practically not breathing.

-Always, always, always play with full air support--this must become a habit that you don't need to think about. Your shoulders are not air support. You should never use your shoulders to breath--raising your shoulders will only constrict your resonance chamber (throat and mouth) and that has a...bad effect on your sound. Think of your lungs as a bucked of air--you fill a bucket from the bottom up, not the top down.

 

And, the other part of good tone quality is having a nice and open throat and mouth. Dont' constrict your throat or block your air with the bulk of your tongue--keep the tongue out of the way of your air. Remember, your diaphragm does all the work. Use only the tip of your tongue for tonguing. Another bad habit of mine was mashing the whole front side of my tongue against my teeth in order to tongue. Not necessary. Just the tip hitting where the teeth meet the gum is all you need.

 

I hope this helps.

Bingo. Took the words right out of my mouth.

[buddylee]

Here is how you play loud.

 

 

[bluebellbrass07]

open up too, more space between ur teeth can help not have such a bright or compact sound

[T is for Tuba]

Blow more air but don't let your lips lose form. If you lose control bad things happen

[artishard]

i dunno..uh..last year i played with a really quiet and blah sound...but then my band director was like HELLO PLAY LOUDER, so i did. then i had air problems because i was playing louder, so i had to take really deep breaths. now in band sometimes we do breathing excercises that help me play louder with great tone. so, just take a breath in more than one count, and make sure you breathe from your stomach, or something like that.

[Aegis Fang]

play a loud nasty sound, just as ugly as you can make it. Then practice playing loud. Every time you hear that ugly sound, figure out what made you do it, then never do that again =)

[artishard]

haha, also a good method. but NEVER EVER EVER DO THAT DURING MARCHING PRACTICE!

[sweet beats]

To get a loud sound, you just have to do it.

[bariphonium]

Everything that FrontierVP said.

[G-DubbMellophone0902]

nothing is worse than a loud blatty brass player... eww. you dont want to sound like that. pretty much do what everyone else here said, dont be that one trumpet player who sticks out of the whole band though.

[Aegis Fang]

  artishard said:

haha, also a good method. but NEVER EVER EVER DO THAT DURING MARCHING PRACTICE!

are you kidding? playing disgustingly loud is what ticks off the directors, thus making marching practices fun =p

[bluebellbrass07]

QUOTE (Aegis Fang @ Jul 25 2006, 09:24 PM)

are you kidding? playing disgustingly loud is what ticks off the directors, thus making marching practices fun =p

You have no idea...

[Aegis Fang]

  bluebellbrass07 said:

You have no idea...

lmao =p

[moeee]

  artishard said:

i dunno..uh..last year i played with a really quiet and blah sound...but then my band director was like HELLO PLAY LOUDER, so i did. then i had air problems because i was playing louder, so i had to take really deep breaths. now in band sometimes we do breathing excercises that help me play louder with great tone. so, just take a breath in more than one count, and make sure you breathe from your stomach, or something like that.

 

 

Yeah same here

i try doing a little bit of breathing excercises before i play during our show and it helps

plus our director has us do concert f for 4 then breath for 4 and it seems to help sometimes occationally you could add 4 counts to how long you play the f while leaving how long you breath at 4 every time it helps a lot with lung capacity, loud crecendoing (spelling?) notes, long tones ect. ...

[takigan]

A lot of these answers were a lot better than I expected.....I think the brass pedagogy trend is changing and a lot more schools are realizing.

 

I agree with pretty much everything......I just want to add that the thing you NEVER want to do (if you can help it....though sometimes you don't have a choice) is tighten your stomach and abdominal muscles to drive the sound when you play. If you ever hear someone say "tighten your diaphragm" they're a moron because the diaphragm is an involuntary muscles that only contracts when you breath in and out....they're actually telling you to flex your stomach muscles, which is a cheap, WRONG method of playing louder. There is a biological reflex that kicks in when you tighten your stomach muscles that automatically tightens (among other muscles) the muscles surrounding your airway, closing up your throat. Try this: tighten up your stomach muscles as hard as you possibly can and then try to talk; it sounds the same as if you just got punched in the gut (because your throat is closed up).....and there's a reason it sounds like you've just got punched in the gut; the constriction of the muscles around your airway created by that stomach flex acts as a solid framework to keep your internal organs from being damaged by external traumas. It's supposed to do that.....but it's just not conducive to do when playing.

 

But you hear people say "But tightening my stomach makes me play louder!". It DOES.....but the only reason it does is because your throat cavity has become narrower by the stomach flex, and the air moves quicker through the smaller space (kind of like putting your thumb over a water hose nozzle). It's "cheating" and you're not getting the best possible sound through this method. It's also limiting because it only lets you play so loud. Why? You can only move so much air at a time through that small space...if you loosen your stomach, open your throat, relac, and teach yourself to pass that same velocity, speed and density of air through it as when your throat was closed, you'll actually be able to play LOUDER because more air is passing through your horn.