Push up/pull down to help in leaps

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imsevimse
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Joined: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:43 am
Location: Sweden

Push up/pull down to help in leaps

Post by imsevimse »

Hi!

I want to greet the forum for making me aware of this. I guess I have done some of this without being aware of it, because I cant remember any teacher I had ever mentioned it. If I remember correctly it was in a discussion concerning different emboushuretypes that this came up, that some "push up" to ascend and "pull down" to descend (on the lips) and some do the opposite. I know my embouschuretype got diagnosed by Doug also at that time. I haven't thought much of this "push up/pull down" since until recently when I had some cracked notes. I questioned myself why I sometimes missed a large leap and another day had no problem with the same leap. I started to think more about whether it would be a difference if I actively did that "push-up" or "pull-down" on the lips to help the leap. Now I'm happy I did. It does help. For me it is "push-up" to ascend and "pull-down" to descend that works.

Just wanted to share that if you dig you can find knowledge here that may help and that includes both beginners and professionals. :good:

/Tom
Last edited by imsevimse on Wed Dec 27, 2023 7:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sungfw
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Joined: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:15 am

Re: Push up/pull down to help in leaps

Post by sungfw »

For me, it depends on the direction of the leap and the lateral direction of the push or pull.

When I had a consultation with Doug at the US Army Band Tuba and Euphonium Conference back around 2010-2011, he recommended that I push up and to the left to ascend and pull down and to the right to descend, which did indeed fix a number of issues with range, crossing range breaks, and accuracy. Since then, experimentation with other motions (pushing up and to the right to ascend and pulling down and to the left to descend, pushing straight up to ascend and pulling straight down to descend, and pulling down in any direction to ascend or pushing up in any direction to descend, has demonstrated to my satisfaction that, for me, anything other than the prescribed direction is a recipe for disaster.
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Doug Elliott
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Location: Maryand

Re: Push up/pull down to help in leaps

Post by Doug Elliott »

You can't successfully fight the way your face needs to work.
"I know a thing or two because I've seen a thing or two."
musicofnote
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Re: Push up/pull down to help in leaps

Post by musicofnote »

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Last edited by musicofnote on Sun Jun 30, 2024 1:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
baileyman
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Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 11:33 pm

Re: Push up/pull down to help in leaps

Post by baileyman »

Somewhere Dave has a video of himself doing octaves with lots of similar movement.
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