Mystery to Mastery › Forums › WindWorks › Leadpipe Slots
I was screwing around the other day playing the leadpipe and noticed that there appear to be certain harmonic “slots” to the leadpipe just as there are when the tuning slide is inserted and the trumpet is complete (but far fewer).
I didn’t spend too much time doing it, but for me it seeemed that there were about 3 slots–a low, a middle and a high, which was a bit tough to reach for me, even though I had a good day and was able to chromatically ascend up to E or F above high C that day.
It seems as though it would make sense that being able to reduce the aperture size / change shape to hit these different “slots” would correspond to achieving certain range levels on the trumpet–with the tuning slide inserted.
Are there any direct correlations between these 3, or however many there are, slots and the harmonic series on the trumpet that would be meaningful to know?
Or is it best to just keep it simple and play the trumpet with the tuning slide inserted?
I went back and watched 1 or 2 of the leadpipe videos, but they didn’t seem to cover this specifically.
Thanks,
John
Hey John, there are definitely slots as you say hence it getting quite diffcult to play above the e on the leadpipe without clicking up to the next harmonic.
There can be benefits to learning to hit the higher slots and bending through the slots to refine SHAPE so keep exploring, just make sure you are not squeezing and manipulating.
Cheers,
Greg
Hi !
Let me add my comment on this.
In my case, it just seems that when I try to play on the higher slot (after the one you show in the video), and I try exploring, in the end, a day after or the same day, I have my lips quite wrong… like swollen lip (not the chops) and then I have a bad/weird vibration that occurs at some note…
Maybe it’s because I didn’t had a proper warm-up.
Sometimes I just take the leadpipe to warm-up, get this free and easy feeling. But definitely, going one slot up seems that it makes me doing something wrong… and then makes my lips wrong… So I’d better stick on the 2 lower slot for now…
Hi!
I often think that playing relaxed in the upper register might be similar to singing in falsetto mode. Am I right, and are there a technique for this??
Hey Bo, this topic came up earlier and to my (unresearched at this stage) understanding of falsetto, it is a vibration of a thinner part of the vocal cords. I have a stupidy loud and high falsetto voice. I feel in the upper regsiter there is a couple of ways of approaching it. Re-shaping the lips to find a thinner bit of lip tissue to vibrate – NOT DESIREABLE, THIN SOUND – or regular setup with thicker lip tissue, possible slightly more work required as there is more lip tissue vibrating BUT the sound of the full voice in upper register.
I will keep this in mind as I begin filming the Emerald and Diamond Master Series videos.
Best Wishes,
Greg
Hi. Thanks for the reply. I have another “behavior”: when I climb up hills, my jaw automatically move backwards, which make the upper lip go slightly forward and down. By making this realignment it is much easier to reach the top notes without too much force. I think I remember you (?) saying that this is a dangerous and wrong set up. Whats your comment on that?
Best regards