Best Exercises/Books to work your "Pivot" "Shift" "Embouchure"

[VJOFan]

I like my Charles Colin book to set up or to confirm my embouchure setting works well through the registers. The large majority of the exercises start near the top of the staff and expand up and down as the line moves along. I feel, in terms of getting up and down the horn, very facile after doing a page of Colin. On scale days I also work from the middle up then down. I'll arpeggiate scales and occasionally do octave jumps. All this seems to make my shift-pivot-setting and pitch playing more connected, secure and consistent.

What else could I do to maintain my embouchure facility? What are some of our favourite books or exercises that help get or keep settings connected? I enjoy things that work a very wide range, but maybe that isn't as important as I think.

[Matt K]

I find the Norman Bolter high range stuff to work really well:
https://air-ev.com/catalogue.cfm?productid=3

My typical routine now is a combination of some of the 5-10 minute routine Doug Elliott made for me, about 5 minutes from Jim Nova's routine, and then 5 minutes from the Norman Bolter high range stuff. It only takes me ~10 minutes and that is enough to keep me in good shape if I do it mostly every day and to enforce small shifts.

[Wilktone]

For those not already familiar with Reinhardt's definition of "pivot," we're talking about how the mouthpiece and lips together are pushed/pulled along the teeth and gums underneath. Some players push up to ascend, others pull down. There's usually a little bit of side to side direction to this track and there's also usually some horn angle changes to help keep the foundation of the mouthpiece rim/lips against the teeth/gums underneath. All of this is personal to the individual player and is based on anatomy.

Octave slurs are great. As you play from middle Bb to high Bb, for example, note how much motion you make. Then playing from middle Bb to low Bb make the same amount of motion, just in the opposite direction. Keep the track of the pivot moving in a straight line, don't allow it to hook off in a different direction at one point of the range.

Reinhardt's Spiderweb Routine also works pretty well. The central hub of the "web" is your starting point, say middle Bb. You slur from Bb up a half step, then down a half step. Then up and down a whole step. Increase the intervals by half steps (or whatever) until you're playing up and octave and down an octave. Again, as you make the pivot (probably not very noticeable until you get to an interval of about a P4 or so) and slur up, notice the amount and direction of pivot. To slur down the same interval make the same change, just in the opposite direction.

Watching yourself in a mirror can be helpful. That provides immediate visual feedback on what it looks like when it's working well (and when somethings wrong). Video recording yourself might be better, because you don't need to split your attention while playing and can evaluate later.

It's more about how you practice than what you practice, though. Anything that changes registers can be used to practice your pivot, as long as you're aware of what's correct for you.

Dave

[MStarke]

It may not be the same exact approach, but I really like the Urbie Green one hour book for covering and connecting the tenor range. I only very rarely would do the whole book and if I do it takes me longer than an hour, but it goes across 2 octaves in many exercises and generally supports connecting high and low. I would say it's relatively playable on small tenor, a good stretch on large and maybe too much on bass. You can logically extend it up or down depending on your preferences.

Also the Phil Teele book offers a good and very simple approach for developing and maintaining also the upper range. But it's a very different way of doing it.

I personally cannot stand the Colin's stuff, but that's due to some "history" that I have with it

[Wilktone]

A couple of others, from Donald Reinhardt.

Pivot Stabilizer (

Track Routine (

I've taken the Pivot Stabilizer and sort of flipped it upside down to accommodate how I personally want to practice. I find it helps me to start off the day higher and practice connecting the upper register to the lower register. You can see my rational and download copies of that here.

[Doug Elliott]

Anything that changes registers can be used to practice your pivot, as long as you're aware of what's correct for you.

...as long as you're aware of what's correct for you.

What many players do "naturally" is NOT what's correct for them. That's why so many players run into limitations, slumps, injuries, or end up with chop problems later in life.

[VJOFan]

I’m pretty comfortable with the setting I’ve arrived at. I made a big change while I was still in a job during a sabbatical year because my range above F was a completely reversed set up to that below and the sound was not good nor was it a reliable register. It took some faith and six months to get things to work automatically the new way, but by the end of a year of work I finally had a Bolero I could do any time I picked up the horn and not just on a lucky day. Fast forward to about a year ago, I was coming back to the horn after about three years of really not playing much at all. The work I had done 25 years earlier was about forcing myself NOT to do certain things combined with a giant amount of practice hours. I never really knew the details of why things were working back then. Time on the horn and playing good material got things going. A year ago I no longer could just get up to a super Bb or feel confident above the staff. I had lost the setting. And I didn’t have 5 hours a day over a year to find it. That’s where this place came in. Reading this page and all the available resources flagged here, I did some careful looking at what I was doing and some careful experimenting. I found the placement and movement pattern that provided the sound I wanted and made the ranges as easy to go through as possible. When I have a session where things start to crack it takes a few seconds to realize what has changed: the mouthpiece has slipped down my face, I’m trying to pull straight down instead of letting things track where they need to, I’m reversing my horn angle through a certain register (like the bad old days) or I’m doing something stupid with my tongue. I’m not assuming the above caution was necessarily directed at me as much as raising the idea that just playing certain things won’t be the single solution. But for me it hasn’t been. I think I love the practice room more than the stage so picking apart this puzzle has been fun.

[heldenbone]

P. 28 in Ben's Basics has helped me concentrate on connecting low notes, trigger low notes, double trigger low notes, and pedals with a bit more fluidity.

[BPBasso]

I've got less time in the saddle than most folk around here, but I'll put in my pennies.

Reinhardt's (I use Willey's) various spiderweb exercises have provided positive results moving between ranges in the past few months I've used them. Some are quite taxing on my face for the day, but my range, note centering, and embouchure confidence has been improving. I always have a mirror around during these - I want to secure that what I see and feel are the same.

David Vining's Daily Routines has various exercises that have exposed my inefficiencies moving between partials/ranges, especially around the 2nd partial for me right now. I've been enjoying these due to the variety exercise-to-exercise and day-to-day if you follow the plan. I feel these routines catch-all in a nice package. Not as much page turning or book/file changing to get through a well rounded warm up in efficient time.

I've had great results from Brian Hecht's daily warm up that's on his website. The glissed/tenuto scale pattern has been fantastic for me at connecting the pedal to trigger to middle range, coordinating trigger use, and requiring adequate air flow to play smoothly. The two octave tenuto quarter note scale pattern has tested my embouchure stability, sip breathing, and centering of notes - it kicks my ass for how "easy" it looks. These really activate my air support and require relaxation in all areas for me to play cleanly .. that relaxed, unimpeded air flow makes my sound shine across the entire horn.

Brad Edwards and Charlie Vernon both have no-tongue exercises that I've found quite demanding to play smoothly, in both air and embouchure. I've worked on some of these for a few weeks/months now, and still haven't recorded one I feel I've played cleanly/correctly.

[VJOFan]

Thanks for the input here. The last week's practice has been fun. The most interesting new thing to me I came across as a result of this question was the "spider" organization system. That is, playing an exercise from a starting center pitch and then sequencing it chromatically up and down. Basically two diverging chromatic scales serve as the starting point for each repeat of an exercise. It tested my concentration and patience to go through things this way but left me feeling quite agile and fresh. (The system I was following called for a lot of rest which was very helpful.)

[AndrewMeronek]

Trumpeter and Reinhardt student Rich Willey has written some great method books.

https://boptism.com/product-category/bo ... zone-pdfs/