President’s Toolkit:
The start is the hardest part DÁVUR JUUL MAGNUSSEN
In my mind articulation is the most crucial part of a trombonist's technique. Everything else is hard if the start of your notes isn't quite right, and conversely everything else becomes magically easy when your articulation works. There are a million different ways to think about articulation, and thus it should be. Everyone needs to make their own theory and technique. You can create this from ideas you hear from others, as well as your own impressions, hunches and discoveries in your own practise, but key is that you continuously re-evaluate what works for you. Be curious. Also, adopting 100% of what someone else postulates as the absolute truth, is impossible, and won’t work. Because, like Frank Zappa famously once said: Talking about music, is like dancing about architecture! Frank was undoubtedly referring to the artistic side of music making, but I feel it is applicable to the technical side too. Talking and listening to others about technique is necessary if not critical, but ultimately it is only a guide. You have to feel it and create it for yourself. It has to progress from being an intellectual thought, to being a instinctual action. One that is unique to you. The one that you understand the best. I am going to tell you in three short paragraphs how I think about articulation, 100% unfiltered and exactly how I do it. Remember, this is me trying to explain and analyse something that works for me. My system. Not all of it will work for you, but in trying out my examples and my thinking, you might discover something that you can add to your own theory and technique. Accompanying each paragraph there is also a video where I demonstrate and explain further. Click the titles to access each video. These three aspects happen concurrently and automatically when I perform. However, I spend a lot of time practising each aspect separately and slowly to make sure I remember what I am doing. Just like in the videos. One more thing … I would like you to consider this, while watching the video clips. Our brains can 8
be extremely resistant to new information and new impressions, when we think we already know what we are doing. If we don’t concentrate fully and empty our minds of preconceptions when trying new things, then we will immediately fall into what we used to do before, rather than discovering new frontiers. It is important to try what I have demonstrated exactly as I performed it at first. Try it a few times. Try to copy all my movements, sounds and gestures, and not just what I say. Listen to the sound and imagine yourself sounding the same. Try to imagine what the physical sensation is in my whole body while playing, and try to recreate this. Some of it will definitely not work or make sense straight away. So try it again, change it slightly, or even throw it out eventually. But you know what? I bet some of it will work. And if even one thing leads you down a road of self discovery, then it was worth it.
1: Air The shape of the air is paramount. Visualising the shape helps me a lot. The shape of your sound will be the exact shape of the air, so, if you aren’t controlling your air, you can’t control your sound.
2: Aperture The aperture is a part of your embouchure. It is the gap between your lips. My lips never touch when I am playing. They are always kept apart by the airstream, or at least that is what it feels like.
3: Release Simple. I let go! I don’t push or squeeze notes out, no matter how loud or quiet, high or low, short or long. I use control to prepare the note, to “draw my bow.” When I release I actually let go of control, and if I have prepared right, then everything else happens automatically.
