high notes

Consider stringed instruments. Oh yeah, they have it easy! Guitars, cellos, etc., they play notes by making the string vibrate.

What do they do to play high(er) on the same string? They shorten the length of the vibrating part of the string by moving their hand up the fingerboard/fretboard.

Can’t string players also alter pitch by tightening or loosening the tension on the string? Sure, they do this all the time during tuning, and yes, they can produce higher frequencies by applying more tension. But what happens to that length of string when too much tension is applied…? Catastrophic failure! Snapped strings!

(By the way, I know of no guitar model or method designed to allow a musician to play higher and lower notes using this “tension” method.)

Is there an analog for us as brass players here? Absolutely!

Our lips are the “string”, right? We blow air through a space between our lips to make them vibrate. Depending on airspeed and muscle tension, we control the frequency, which is how we achieve pitches.

Some players achieve higher pitches by stretching or thinning their lips (the “smiling” technique), and this would be like how a guitar tunes into pitch by adjusting tension on the same length of string. For brass players, using this technique to play higher is ineffective and dangerous. There’s a real risk we’ll either damage or break the “string”!

If you stretch a muscle out, it causes more strain to apply the required force. For example, pick up a chair, and lift it over your head. Then, stretch your arms out perpendicular to your body, and repeat, trying to lift the same chair to the same height. Not as easy, is it? What’s different? How you’re using your muscle.

Things to consider:

   * Snakes coil for strength. They don’t attack from a stretched position!

   * How do you make a small area for your lip vibration?

   * How can  you make your lips buzz faster without changing airspeed?

   * What could you do to blow slow(-ish) air, and yet make your lips vibrate faster?
* If you blow pure air, how do you make a larger or smaller aperture through which air passes?
* What does all this look like in the mirror?

See what happens if you apply these considerations in your practice!