Nice example of low placement player

[aasavickas]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AFa1L7 ... criptions

I havnt watched this closley but his placement is very low.

Solid playing.

[AndrewMeronek]

Call me contrary, but I noticed that dude has a really nice tone and jaw vibrato.

He's also playing on a Wick Heritage mouthpiece.

[aasavickas]

Don't get me wrong.

Nothing wrong with a low placement. Just kind of rare to see. Especially, out of a strong player. Everyone should do whatever they need to to play with the sound they want with their anatomy.

Also, just a good youtube channel that does cool transcriptions of solos.

[Doug Elliott]

Nice example, and great solo!
And pretty accurate transcription.

[Vegasbound]

Don't get me wrong.

Nothing wrong with a low placement. Just kind of rare to see. Especially, out of a strong player. Everyone should do whatever they need to to play with the sound they want with their anatomy.

Also, just a good youtube channel that does cool transcriptions of solos.

Dick Nash, Kai Winding, Don Lusher just to name players you may have heard of with low placement.

[aasavickas]

Naming three things is an anecdote not data.

Out of how many players?

I'd suspect it is low 10's maybe high single digits as a percentage of total players. Thats how statistics work. You need a germaine denominator to create a useful statistic.

Doug and other experts please correct me if this seems off to you.

[harrisonreed]

Kind of a belligerent response to someone just listing other low placement players. He wasn't event making a point other than listing names.

In my experience, good low placement players are very rare indeed -- you're absolutely right. But when they are good they stick out. The urge to slap them and "correct" their malformed embouchures is great but must be resisted.

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[Doug Elliott]

Probably low single digits on a percentage scale. But they certainly do exist, and if you're one of them the statistics are meaningless to you.

Blair Bollinger (another one, who happens to have a decent gig) told me he learned early on to ignore everything his teachers told him.

And if you're not familiar with Rita Payes, check her out - a fantastic musician who also happens to be low placement... here's something fairly recent

[jthomas105]

For those don't know the guitar player is Rita's mom.

Rita is a student of the Saint Andreu Jazz in Barcelona, Spain. The school is lead by Joan Chamorro. He has taught many young people that are great vocalist and instrumentalist. Andrea Motis, a trumpet player and vocalist, is a young lady that was going through the school at the same time as Rita. I know Andrea has performed with the WDR big band and think Rita has as well.

Check the school and Joan Chamorro out on YouTube.

[Wilktone]

I havnt watched this closley but his placement is very low.

Solid playing.

That's a nice find. I've been following Rob Egerton's YouTube channel for a while now, so I saw that recently too. I agree, great playing and an obvious example of a low placement/upstream trombonist.

And if you're not familiar with Rita Payes, check her out - a fantastic musician who also happens to be low placement

Another nice find. I wasn't familiar with her before, I need to check more out of her music. Nice singing, too.

Nothing wrong with a low placement. Just kind of rare to see. Especially, out of a strong player.

I agree with Doug, maybe 10% of brass players. I actually tend to think a little more than that, but I'm biased, belonging to this embouchure type myself. But if you're a band director with 20 brass students you probably have at least one or two upstream players in your band.

As far as them being "especially" rare out of strong players, I don't think that is the case. On the one hand, you could argue that because this embouchure type has some differences that require some knowledge to teach effectively that it is rarer to find more upstream players who are successful. They end up frustrated and quit when they're well-intentioned, but ignorant, teachers can't help them. Or, they figure it out in spite of what they are taught...

Blair Bollinger (another one, who happens to have a decent gig) told me he learned early on to ignore everything his teachers told him.

To my knowledge no one has looked at a large enough random sample of brass musicians to see what percentage belong to what embouchure types. But I don't think it's hard to find many examples of strong brass players with upstream embouchures. In addition to the ones named above, here's another one. I think I may have posted this a while back when I first saw it.

[tbdana]

Interesting. But I don't find his playing to be what I'd call "solid." Best I can say is that he has a good feel for improvising on a Bb blues scale. But he has the sound of someone who overplays volume on a regular basis. I like Rafael Rocha, the guy in Wilktone's video, much better. Better sound, better chops, and better improvisation with some weaknesses.

I've seen some low placement players who are very good. We all just need to do what works for us. If the placement isn't limiting you, then it ain't broke and don't need fixin'.

[aasavickas]

Good point tbdana.

He seems to play with that Trombone Shorty overblown style. Which is cool if not limited.