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TRUM?!
FOR THE MO
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LAURIE FRINK
JOHN MCNEIL 2.
INTRODUCTION
‘As an improvising trumpet player, you face unique physical challenges:
+ You are more often than not opetating at the limits of your technical ability.
+The mouthpiece is on the lips for Jong periods of time, creating endurance
problems.
+ Emotion can take over, making you play louder and with more intensity.
+ In an improvised solo there is often a dizzying array of articulations,
dynamics, register changes and tone vatiations.
All of these conditions are difficult to duplicate when practicing,
Jn preparing a written piece, even a very difficult one, your body learns to
accomplish the consecutive muscular demands of the piece through repeti-
tion. The improvising musician docsn’t have this luxury. By definition,
improvisation is spontancous and unrehearsed.Such unrchearsed, unplanned
movements can leave the body scrambling to coordinate itself, which invites
éxtraneous motion and can exacerbate existing bad habits.
It’s a fact that the content of your improvisation is determined in large part
by your technique. You tend not to conceive ideas that are physically beyond
you. Therefore, to expand your vocabulary, you must improve your instru:
mental skill
Although you can't practice inspiration, you can prepare your body to
execute what you ate inspired to play. Therefore, to improvise music with a
wide variety of elements, you have to practice a wide variety of techniques.
As in all things musical, consistent practice is necessary for consistent
performance.
FLEXUS contains a wide range of technique- and endurance-huilding exercises
that address all of the fundamental elements necessary to play the trumpet
freely and easily. It is designed to help improvisors in all musical idioms—jazz,
classical and any others, FLEXUS synthesizes the teaching techniques of
Laurie Frinke, John McNeil and Carmine Caruso, and represents an evolution
in trumpet practice that combines time-honored exercises with new and
unique concepts to create a technical approach for the 21st century.
6 FLEXUS
