Airspeed Changes
Just watched the Slurs and Trill class from Ben Gunnarson and came away a bit confused. He talks about how playing different pitches and higher is a result of air speed changes that can be made without moving the lips.
So what is changing the air speed then? Our lungs? Shape of our mouths? He did mention moving the tongue can have a part in it but isn't the main variable.
He mentioned volume of sound is related to volume of air which makes sense to me.
Anyone else come away from this class a bit confused or understand what he is talking about?
1 reply
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Hi! It's definitely a little confusing because it is a bit of all of the above. Playing higher requires a lot of small changes, mostly the compression of the air (the air speed change). When Ben is referring to not moving the face, he is saying we don't need to tighten the embouchure or add pressure to get higher. Instead by increasing the air speed (which happens mechanically from the tongue shape which helps creates more compression) and not backing off on the air, we will get higher. Volume and compression are different as we need more air to play louder but faster air to play higher. This comes from the lungs but is shaped by the tongue/mouth shape.