My lesson with Jim Manley
S.Hager
Wed. night I had a lesson with Jim Manley & in a nutshell it was
fantastic. I learned more about what it takes to play trumpet in a
couple of hours than what I learned over the past 15 month's. With the
permission of Jim Manley I post his e-mail address to everyone in this
group & encourage you to contact him for a lesson when/if you are
passing through St. Louis. Get ahold of him you won't be sorry! Jim's
e-mail address is: lip...@swbell.net
Note: Give the gentleman a few days after you send off the e-mail & he
will get in contact with you & make arrangements. Beginners & comeback
players I encourage to also contact him, he will save you many hours of
practice by helping clear up the confusion that comes with learning to
play the trumpet. His knowledge of how the trumpet & player meld
(interface) to produce music is IMHO unique & will put a whole new twist
on everything you ever thought you knew about playing the trumpet. The
following description of my lesson will be as short as I can make it
without losing any of the essence of the experience
I arrived at his home a little after 3 in the afternoon as nervous
as I've been in a long time. Immediately upon meeting Jim all anxiety
went away. The man is very much a regular guy & he is so cool to talk to
that I felt at home & ready to learn. We sat down and had a discussion
about what I've done so far in my playing & he then asked me what I came
to him to learn. I told him I wanted to have a rich full tone & I wanted
to develop to my potential as a player. Jim then went on to explain his
past as a player & what made him realize that he could find an easier
way to play the trumpet. He explained that we all make playing the
trumpet too hard & create alot of internal tension & resistance that
limits our playing abilities. He talked about many players & teachers &
went on to explain how the masters could play as well as they do even
with health limitations & at an older stage in their life because they
know how to play efficiently. He talked about playing at Bobby Shews
house & his amazement that Bobby with his lung problems could play with
more volume & better tone than he could no matter how hard he tried &
how he looked at Maynard at 60+ years old (at the time) could still be
playing so well. Maynard 70+ now.
Jim then pulled out his horn while telling me that he hadn't played
today yet & how many times a pro can't practice between gigs due to time
constraints & how sometimes you get to a gig & can't even warm up & how
that wasn't a problem if you played properly. He then said that what he
wanted to teach me was a simple concept but, difficult to learn due to
prior conditioning. There would be no way of telling how long it would
take to get the concept down but when I did everything would come
together very quickly. Jim then pulled his horn up & popped the end of
his MP with his palm & said thats a note isn't it? I answered that yes
that is a peddle c! He explained that it doesn't take much air to make a
note it just sound waves travelling through the horn that makes a
sound. I won't get into that aspect much more because I'm sure I won't
explain what he told me correctly & you are much better off getting the
full explaination from Jim. What happened next was shocking to me. I
watched and listened VERY intently to everything going on as Jim raised
his horn to his lips (no big breath ... just a little breath) &
proceeded to play producing the fattest richest tone I've ever heard. I
didn't know a trumpet could sound so fine! Jim played from peddle C to
double high C over the staff in intervals so wide I simply couldn't
believe what I was hearing. Everything sounded so even & sweet & fluid
like it was nothing to it. What really freaked me out is with that
little breath he played for what seemed like forever & ended up on a
double c that ripped my eardrums out & the whole time there was no
apparent external effort being applied. It looked like no work at all!
Jim played some lyrical high stuff & some low, sweet fat jazz licks (low
G is unreal sounding) & finishes of with a triple C (I had to ask what
note it was). The really high stuff was so fat & clear that I didn't
know what note they were. At this point I knew that my high notes were
squeels & not notes. Again, no outward sign of effort. Jim then popped
the end of his MP & made that peddle C note again & said remember this
is that answer.
Jim then had me play a low C & then a C major scale up to high G &
said I had a good sound but my registers were uneven & he then said I
had a choice. He could help me play better by working with what I had or
I could start all over at the most basic level (air & proper breathing)
& basically start over learning his breathing-playing technique & go
from there. Advantages & disadvatages of my options was discussed & I
chose to start all over. So here I am after a 15 month comeback starting
over with the basics & damn happy to do it! What Jim is teaching me is
to breath from the knees as he said Maynard tell it (all Maynard told
him about air). He said that he is not a natural player & wasn't even
first chair when he played in high school. He figured out his breathing
method after sitting on his couch for 7 months all day long just
praticing what he was going to ask me to do & one day it hit him what
breathing from the knee's is & he hasn't looked back since.
Until now I thought I was playing relaxed, especially when compared
to a year ago. Jim took a toilet paper roll & lots of other things to
show me that I wasn't relaxed when playing. There is all kinds of
internal resistance in my body & tension not required to play the
trumpet & my tone was suffering. This incorrect breathing has me playing
terribly inefficient. He played some more & had me feel his face, neck,
back & stomach & I felt nothing tighten up on him from peddle C to
triple high C (the third high C above the staff). INCREDIBLE! After
about an hour & a half of me playing low C & ATTEMPTING to lip bend
smoothly & slowly to a peddle C with no valves I started to get an idea
of what he is trying to teach me (I can't fully explain it ... you have
to see him). A few times I actually heard the sound in my head come out
the end of the horn. A sweet, rich & fat low C! That glimpse of what I
can sound like is enough to make my future effort worth while. The high
notes will come when they come. I want that sound something terrible!
Jim explained why some players need to do peddles to get their air &
embouchure working right & some folks like Maynard & Pops don't. He had
lots of kind words to say about Pops & said a student of his took a
lesson from Pops & was very impressed with Pops playing. I throw that in
because Jim explained to me why some of the different opinions about the
use of peddle tones & many other things concerning trumpet playing are
out there. I was then given an exercise to work on until we get together
again. That is all I am praticing to get my air embouchure working
right. He said I could play other stuff if I had to for my sanity but,
just working the exercise would get me there fastest. I have chose to
work on this tedious & & difficult exercise until I master it. I will
then return to Jim & proceed on with other stuff. Jim played my Wild
Thing & played with all kinds of MP's & demonstrated that if you
mastered matching the resistance of your equipment it don't matter what
you play. Jim is playing an older Yamaha Z horn with Reeves MP's with
screw rims (#42 dia. ring I think). He even went back & forth between a
valve trombone & trumpet with amazing playing skill. He showed me some
old Maynard MP's (where's the cup?) & explained that the air is the KEY
to that fat sound. Not the horn or MP! We play the horn! We make the
sound of music!
We were done playing & Jim talked about Maynard in his younger days
& how fat his low range was & asked if I heard him when he was 30 years
old. I hadn't. Jim then played me all kinds of late 50's & early 60's
Maynard stuff & we sat around & talked trumpet awhile & the lesson was
over (6:15 p.m.). Seemed like a half hour!
So there you have it, my lesson with Jim Manley. Well worth the
time & I'm on a new track in my playing in an attempt to start off
right. Jim has promised that if I dedicate my practice to mastering his
breathing & playing concept that a whole new door will open up in my
playing. No dead end street ... If anyone here in this NG gets a chance
to get with Jim Manley you won't regret it!!!! Go for it ... I waited
way too long myself!
Thanks for reading this rather long post,
Spencer Hager Jr.
Lonnie Edwards
St. Louis is a good walk from Chattanooga, but maybe I can hook up with
Jim sometime in the future. Sounds like a really nice and interesting
fellow. Thanks again.
Lonnie
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Horace E Gordon
Thanks for posting it.
--
Racey
> Wed. night I had a lesson with Jim Manley & in a nutshell it was
> fantastic>
dlwi...@my-deja.com
"S.Hager" <zon...@yahoo.com> wrote:
I was then given an exercise to work on until we get
together again.
Spencer,
Thanks for this great post. Could you describe the exercise he gave
you to work on? You have convinced me that it would be well to try to
schedule a lesson with Manley the next time I come through St. Louis.
Some work on the exercise might give me a bit of a headstart.
Thanks, Don Winters
>
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
S.Hager
The exercise itself is very simple. Doing it correctly now there is
the problem! I have LOTS of tension in my breathing & playing that I
didn't know existed. This internal tension is created by my body as a
means to create resistance. The resistance should be created by my lips
only & should match up to the particular equipment I am playing & NO
resistance should exist in the path between my air (lungs) & lips (sound
generater). The concept that Jim wants me to understand is that it
doesn't take any air to carry sound waves in a trumpet. The sole purpose
of the air is to make the lips produce the sound waves & that is the
sound we hear coming out of the horn. Whether the lips vibrate or not to
produce the sound is a subject of debate & Jim took me back to air
management & control when I sidetracked our lesson to the lips. His
concept seems to be that if you are using your air correctly & are in
harmony with your horn then the lips will do what they should be doing as
long as you are focused on the sound. He further went on to make a point
of telling me that a large bore horn actually has a higher resistance
than a small bore horn because the standing wave in the larger bore horn
actually has a higher amplitude (larger dia. tubing) & therefore you are
controlling a stronger standing wave. Also, because of the inefficient
way that I use my air & lips my registers are uneven & I am working way
too hard to produce a sound let alone control my tone. I threw in a
little background information because this exercise is designed to get me
on the right track with my problems & I'm not quite sure he would have
you doing the same thing as me to improve. This might have not been
stated clearly by my previous post & I want to make sure I'm not steering
anyone down the wrong path here.
Here is my exercise: 1) Stand & get my body really relaxed by
imagining I am a puppet on a strings.
2) Put a toilet paper roll in my
mouth to open my throat & breath like Darth Vader filling only below the
belly button & breath out also like
Darth Vader & do this several
times very slowly. I'm not very full when I do this & Jim tells me that
my body needs to be conditioned to
play that way. The example he
used is how I could sit down & eat a whole pizza when I really only need
three slices. You have to quit eating
a whole pizza and go down to
three slices for awhile before you will feel full with that portion. The
only external expansion that I see is
a VERY VERY SLIGHT expansion
below the belly button & lower back. I'm talking almost no evidence that
air has been taken in.
3) Start on a low C & start my
tone with a HAA sound like the open exhale I use with the toilet paper
roll in my mouth & make that low C
with no tongue used at all &
with as LITTLE air as possible. Stay open & don't push with your gut ...
just sort of let it roll out.
4) Once the low C is singing real
quiet then start a bend down to the low B with no valves & no increase in
pressure from the gut & stay
open. Use very little air &
make the note sing.
5) Continue bending the note down
with no valves until I reach a peddle C. Then back up.
The whole exercise from my understanding revolves around me learning
not to force out the notes & finding the point (technique) for producing
sound with the least amount of air possible & learning how to increase
volume without forcing things. To get that rich fluid tone I must learn
how to let things flow & have that energy (air quality not volume)
reserve needed to play loud & high without loosing any tone or control &
at the same time not working any harder that is needed. By my
observations of Jim playing, it doesn't seem like that much effort is
required if everything is working in harmony correctly with the
equipment. Jim emphasized that when breathing out, my air should be warm
& that if I can get things working right down to the peddle C that
everything will click in place after that. He says that to perform the
exercise & to be able to slide smoothly & slowly with no valves from low
C to peddle C & back up with a rich tone & with no skips or jumps in the
pitch that my air & embouchure will be working right. Jim went so far as
to say that the peddle C embouchure I would develop is the double C
embouchure that Maynard plays with & that Maynard never had to do any of
this to play the way he does because he figured(?) it out himself when he
was young without the use of peddle tone. That is how Jim relates the
popping the MP with his palm & getting the peddle C sound to come out of
the horn is the basis for everthing that he is teaching & doing hinself
when he plays. This breathing & air support concept is what breathing
from the knee's means. He could help me using other ways to improve but
this is the most direct way to getting efficient when playing.
Don, I'm sorry I had to post such a long response but it seemed
necessary to give you a better picture of what is going on with this
exercise. Last night I deviated from playing the exercise for about 20
minutes & played a little music & my sound is definitely improved
dramatically since last week & my effort level to produce the sound was
much reduced. Everything hasn't clicked yet but I'm still working at it.
My expalanation of things here is probably incomplete & I hestated before
posting this out of apprehension of incorrectly describing & stating the
concepts I am in the process of learning myself. Jim warned me not to
over think this exercise & focus on the correct breathing that he taught
me & the sound coming out of the horn The sound will lead me in the right
direction!
One last thing. I videotape all my practices & alternate the telephoto
between my face & torso & review each practice session for external signs
of tension & overfilling & listen to the sound & to gain an objective
insight into what I'm doing & the sound that is produced.
Spencer Hager Jr.
dlwi...@my-deja.com wrote:
> In article <3850FD5A...@yahoo.com>,
> "S.Hager" <zon...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I was then given an exercise to work on until we get
> together again.
>
dlwi...@my-deja.com
> Spencer writes:
>
> The exercise itself is very simple.
Spencer,
Thanks for your thorough and clear response to my post. The tension
problems you describe sound alot like mine. Although I have been able
to reduce the tension in my playing by working on breathing techniques,
I haven't eliminated it. I am going to work on the exercise. I already
see one thing I may be doing wrong. I have worked on breathing deeply,
taking in a lot of air, and expanding my gut. From what you say, this
may be preventing me for reducing the tension further.
I appreciate your help.
Jerry Freedman Jr
early 80s. He teaches playing from a posture of incredible tension -
even when playing soft and low his ribcage, abdomen are incredibly tense
- his analogy was to a charged spray can (deoderant, insect spray etc)
with the tongue high in the mouth almost all the time. He was and is a
great player and he says he got his approach from Walter Smith the great
cornettist so go figure...
J. Freedman,Jr
--
Creation took 6 days because God didn't
have an installed base