q&a

Trumpet embouchure development methods have always been a numbers game. Certain systems work for some students but not for others, for unknown reasons. This mysterious voodoo, which I consider to be a fundamental lack of understanding regarding teaching (and basic mechanics), has lead to common beliefs that either everyone is different (different strokes for different folks) or that only a few gifted (lucky) players have the right kind of lips to successfully play trumpet.

This mindset is so ingrained that when you bring up the possibility of having a particular methodology that works for everyone, players and teachers react with extreme skepticism.

I understand this doubt, having shared it for many years. Even when the complete system became clear to me, I still thought to myself, "Can this really help everyone?"

Those doubts faded long ago. After thousands of real world trumpet lessons, I can predict with certainty that any player who practices these easy-to-learn exercises will significantly improve - and in some cases dramatically transform - their trumpet playing ability.

Hey, Albert Einstein was a janitor and he did OK!

Seriously, a better question is, what are anybody's qualifications to write a trumpet method? Isn't the overall effectiveness of the method more important than who wrote it? For many, the answer is no. All too often, a method is judged by the playing ability of the author. In other words, if the author is a great player, then he must know what he's talking about, right?

But history tells otherwise. The great players, almost without exception, perform unconsciously, unaware of how they do it. And they've always done it that way, from early in their careers.

Still, great players get asked over and over again their secret, so they start trying to figure it out. Eventually they come up with a method, which is typically strewn with misinformation and a lack of understanding between cause and effect.

For example, suppose a great player has a shot of whiskey before each performance, and proceeds to play brilliantly. In his method he proclaims that a daily shot of whiskey was "the secret" to his development. Under any other circumstances, the reader would laugh, recognizing the foolishness of it all, and move on. However, in the trumpet community, because the man is a great player, anything that he says, however ridiculous, is pondered over with the seriousness of a Supreme Court decision.

Great players sound wonderful. Some of them are even great human beings. But they almost never make great teachers!

In spite of all the evidence, students cannot grasp this obvious, simple fact. Playing and teaching require different skills. Look at professional sports coaches. With few exceptions, most coaches were bit players at best. Many never even played the game on a professional level.

Even music educators don't get it. I once interviewed to teach privately at a nationally recognized Dallas high school. The band director shook my hand, and asked me how many big bands I had been on the road with. When I replied that I had never been on the road with a big band, the interview was suddenly over! Never mind that his trumpet players were weak (and continue to be so). Never mind that I had a track record for developing trumpeters with powerful embouchures, including players in all-state organizations. Never mind that I knew anything about teaching. If I didn't have road experience, I wasn't good enough.

Perhaps it would be easier to promote this method if I was a great player. Then again, perhaps this book would have never been written if I spent all of my time working on playing ability. I am merely an average player, but my students never complain. I can still get up to a high G, and demonstrate virtually everything in the book. My passion is not playing, Rather, it's teaching. For those with a player's mentality, this is hard to understand.

I no longer worry about "my qualifications" to teach trumpet, or write a book, or anything else. There is a lot of irrational bias in this world, which is beyond my ability to change. What I choose to focus on is the end result, which is helping students become successful, irrespective of their physical attributes. Everything else is just excess baggage.

If you buy an instrument at a music store, the odds are good that you can also get repairs at the store. But, if you buy a music instruction book, such as the Balanced Embouchure, you are on your own. The store only distributes the information. There is no follow-up to help those who may struggle. Instead, you would probably be told to contact the author (me). That's fine, except that I have limited time resources.

The BE book, I believe, is well written, and designed to be easily understood by the average user. But, questions can still arise. If the music stores do their typical great job of distribution, I can easily be swamped. That's not good for anybody. I don't want to be the limiting factor in helping players learn BE.

Since I am more interested in success than sales, I decided to alter the ways that the BE book is marketed, channeling all sales through dealers who are experts in the method. That way, the end user has a source for email (and sometimes phone) support that is beyond just myself.

So far, this model has worked well. Most music dealers have been understanding, even though they would still like to distribute the book.

There was one music store in Europe, however, who was incensed that I wouldn't sell to them. They tried to go around me and get the book from my European dealer. When that didn't work, they decided to "get even" by attempting to twist the BE distribution model into something negative. They claimed that I told them that BE would not work without email support from dealers, that it was too hard to learn from just the book.

Of course, that was an outright lie. Fortunately, very few players listened to this music store (which is actually large and fairly well-known, sad to say).

I like music stores (most of them, anyway). In the future, if the distribution model changes, I will be happy if music stores want to market the book.