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Source: YouTube automatic captions, formatted for reading. Captions may contain errors; refer to the video for precise wording, sounds and demonstrations. Dates and offers reflect the original recording.
across the world brass instruments have the reputation of being hard work part of the reason for that is people make playing really hard work when they don’t have do in this video I’m going to explain to you how the aperture Corners work and how to make playing almost effortless congratulations I’m wanting to take the shortcut to easier brass playing so let me explain to you why a lot of people find brass playing really hard work and most people have limitations and ceilings in they playing the
bottom line is that we try and use too much muscle to create sound where the sound on a brass instrument is energy vibrating in the body and in the instrument so in order to facilitate that easy sound creation I’d like to introduce you to the aperture Corners now I’m not sure about you but once upon a time people would be talking about corners and they’d be pointing here or down here or out here and it never made sense to me and I’m thinking I feel like
I’m stretching everything outwards have you ever been told to smile to play and when you’re playing higher smile more and blow harder all that does is thin out the the top lip the part that needs to be vibrating real quick and creating way too much tension and energy in the body when you understand the aperture Corners you’ll recognize then rather than pulling these R zorus muscles the smirky smiley muscles out that way we learn to learn to use the obicularis orus the muscles around the the
lips here in a way that facilitates easy pitch change without this overexertion now in fact playing can be effortless at the start here I’d like to just get you to consider that taking a breath is as hard as brass playing needs to be because adding an oscillation over that energy is very very simple if I was to take a breath and add the voice it’s not more physically demanding or difficult to do now the same thing go applies when you’re playing a brass instrument when you
understand the operation of the aperture Corners inside the cup now the aperture is the opening of the lips when you understand how the corners of the aperture here work inside the mouthpiece cup it’s no harder to create a note on the instrument than just relaxing the body and letting air move so if you’re hitting some playing ceilings and you’d like to develop a real effortless playing foundation and start updating that stubborn U 1.0 brain I’d invite you to come along to mystery to Mastery and let
me explain to you what the lips need to do and what they do inside the mouthpiece cup click this next video right here and make sure you come and check out mom mastery.com the best brass players in the world have mastered the art of efficiency in this video I’m going to reveal how to let go of any involuntary or unnecessary muscle activations to get better play results faster welcome to the new world of brass playing come and join us you will feel the difference
Greg Spence introduces the aperture corners and explains why smiling, stretching and forcing can make playing feel harder. This short video focuses on what happens inside the mouthpiece cup.
What are the aperture corners?
The aperture is the opening between the lips. Greg focuses on the corners of that opening inside the mouthpiece rim, rather than the outer corners of the mouth, and demonstrates the coordinated movement he teaches.
This recording is part of Greg Spence’s public teaching archive. References to dates, events and offers reflect the original recording.
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