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bloke wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 8:14 am I probably “trigger“ some people by discounting the thought-by-some-to-be-overwhelming importance of airflow, and - instead - emphasizing the importance of vibration, as well as the importance of the quality/beauty of the vibration.
My observations over the years have shown me that some of the things that are changed in instruments to “improve air flow” don’t always (though different) make things better, and players simply accommodate/alter what they have to do – in order to make a beautiful sound – to those instrument “airflow“ changes.

Playing brass instruments, air is the only way that we can make a vibration with our lips that vibrates sympathetically with a column of air, but air flowing through that column of air - and being displaced with new air - is not “the main thing”. Rather, it’s a means. Again, we really don’t have a way to vibrate our lips without blowing air between them, but – if we did – I submit that the air column would still vibrate sympathetically with the vibration of the lips.

THIS:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 0728284429
(Peter Bond - Metropolitan Opera Orchestra trumpet player.)

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observation:
It’s interesting some how players - who seem to be hung up on “air” - often end up sounding “airy”.

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It makes perfect sense to encourage some beginners - who are hardly blowing any air at all – to blow enough air to cause their untrained lips to vibrate, but – once that obstacle has been conquered, it seems to me that brass players should concentrate on the beauty and efficiency of the vibration, and maybe even work towards making as little air as possible do as much as possible…particularly with our instruments - which feature a 50 square millimeters hole - through which we are blowing.
I know for certain that there are long sustained pitches in certain passages that - at age 65 – I can hold out much longer than I could decades ago. I cannot be made to believe that my physiological lung capacity has increased with age. I can believe that - somehow - I’ve taught myself how to vibrate more efficiently - to render more vibration and better quality vibrations with less air flow.

peterbas wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 2:14 pm

iiipopes wrote: ↑Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:02 pm It's all called, "Application of Bernoulli's Principle."

https://www.teachengineering.org/lesson ... i_lesson01
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/file ... le_k-4.pdf

So why does the embouchure vibrate: the airflow over the embouchure is increased in velocity due to the narrowing of the aperture by the lips from the throat and oral cavity providing the breath support. The increase of velocity causes decrease in pressure, and the lip aperture further closes. At a point, the closure impedes the air flow, and the embouchure with the increased pressure from the lungs, throat and oral cavity behind the embouchure opens the aperture again. And the cycle repeats. When this is done as a regular periodic motion, controlled by the muscles of the embouchure with proper support of the breath, the result is what we perceive as a particular pitch.

The rest of it is all about making the periodic cycle of the embouchure vibrate in a manner which we have subjectively designated a preferred, or "good" tone.

This only applies to the start of the note and later on to keep injecting extra energy into the standing wave inside the tuba by energising the lips. It is perfectly possible to play with a mouthpiece that is closed off with a vibrating shield and an air outlet to the side off the mouthpiece. Videos with trumpet and trombone mouthpieces on the net.
Or on this excellent site.
https://wilktone.com/?p=5582

bloke wrote: ↑Tue Jul 13, 2021 7:14 pm A recording engineer in a control booth has all sorts of tricks and tools at his disposal to change the sonority of what is coming in from the microphone. Via experience, he has some ideas of what will probably work, but he still going to “mess around“ (experiment) with different tools at his disposal to find the most pleasing resultant signal to record. This is how we come up with the best lip shape, best balance of all of the lip tension muscles, interior mouth shape, and tongue placement. If someone never seriously messes around with this (while wearing their most critical ears), they may not end up sounding as nice as they otherwise could.
This is why listening to really great players - that produce beautiful sounds - is more useful than dogma and other verbiage. I was lucky in grade school just sit next to a so-called natural player“, and that’s when I became less serious with the guitar and more serious with the tuba, I found a few recordings, even though back in the early 1970s such things were rare…and sure: I discriminated between recordings which featured so-so sonority and those that offered beautiful sonority.