Cracking notes

[DrTbone43]

I crack too many notes. Anyone out there have some suggestions about solving this problem?

[AndrewMeronek]

I crack too many notes, too.

But - I do have opinions.

I've gotten a lot better over the years. I think that a big part of solving "cracking" is having a stable physical embouchure. We have to rely on muscle memory to be able to play consistently, and if the embouchure isn't very stable and repeatable, it makes that consistent muscle memory and "crackless" playing pretty much impossible to achieve. Just what "stable and repeatable" means is going to very from person to person, depending on your anatomy, placement, and actions.

[robcat2075]

I crack too many notes.

I interpret that to mean... momentarily hitting a note other than the one that was aimed for?

I think this is essentially from not being prepared to play the note.

First, you have mentally imagine the pitch you want.

Then you have to be set to play the note at the outset rather than find it experimentally after it has started.

There are numerous aspects to "accuracy" but I'll refer you to one that has become my continuing fascination... using the correct vowel for the range the note is in, and point you to my post on that in "HIGH NOTES"

[harrisonreed]

Brad Edwards "Lip Slurs", slowly, cleanly, and deliberately.

[Kbiggs]

The horn in your hand has to match the horn in your head and the horn in your lips.

I crack fewer notes when I learn slowly, and when I can sing the intervals. Sometimes I will buzz the passage, either free buzzing or with the mouthpiece. Sometimes I’ll use a BERP or a ShortCut thing.

+1 for Andrew’s suggestion, too. A lot of trombonists (and euphonium and baritone players) have lazy embouchures, particularly the corners and the bottom lip. They need to be stable to develop consistency.

[Doug Elliott]

All good answers but one common reason is using a mouthpiece that's too small. It makes you constantly overshoot notes and destroys consistency and predictability.

[hyperbolica]

As an example of what everyone is saying, I also cracked a lot of notes. First, Doug straightened out my mouthpiece - I wound up on roughly the same mouthpiece with a bigger rim. Then I found that I was actually buzzing a full step higher than the note I was trying to play. And yes, hearing the note in your head first is crucial.

[JTeagarden]

Part of my cracking notes is how my embouchure is set when I begin a passage: If it's in the low range, it only works really well up to a certain point, and then a slightly different position on the lips in kind of optimal, most chipped notes for me arise out of this.

I think Doug has A LOT to say in this regard, I recall he and Sam Burtis described embouchure positioning in somewhat different terms, Sam in terms of "natural breaks," Doug I recall views MP position as being more on a kind of continuum, based on "pivoting" the MP on the lips (I'm sure I don't have the nomenclature quite right here) based on your natural tendencies (no one-size-fits-all).

[JohnL]

One thing that causes me to crack notes is when I'm trying to play a note outside of the horn's "slot" - usually because (silly me) I have the slide in the wrong spot.

[Savio]

Basics are very important. I mean really basics where you can pay attention to very few aspect at once. Scales are ok because we all know the next note. Familiar melodies are OK because we know what to aim for. Have a good posture, hold the trombone with the left hand, the right hand should feel free. Don't do any amazing things with air or lips. Some think they have to do a lot to make it work. Especially kids. Make it comfortable.

Listen to your sound, listen a lot of trombone players and singers. Then we get ideas to aim for.

I would wait with equipment exploring unless you have some very bad trombone.

Anyway, I still crack some notes, but are good to hide it.

Leif

[slidesix]

I think key is learning to heard the note in your head. Then put the horn and mouthpiece up to your mouth and play it confidently. That and making sure your embouchure mechanics are sound, mouthpiece and its size fitted to you, and lots and lots of practice over time including slip slurs.

[WGWTR180]

All good answers but one common reason is using a mouthpiece that's too small. It makes you constantly overshoot notes and destroys consistency and predictability.

Hmmm. You have me thinking...

[JTeagarden]

All good answers but one common reason is using a mouthpiece that's too small. It makes you constantly overshoot notes and destroys consistency and predictability.

Doug proved this to be true with me, your standard MPs that felt comfortable were flat in the high range, but he got me dialed in to pieces that worked.

I use a DE 109(!) with my Edwards .547" bore, it works great, even if it is supposedly a bass trombone mouthpiece, and a DE 112 for bass trombone, these two are super compatible with one another, going between the two horns is easy (or at least the MP is not an impediment...)