That being said, a lot of people I know would think "How can you be serious but also constantly want things to be louder? That's like the key sign of an immature trumpet player." Well, I've thought a lot about that, and I've come to the following conclusion:
Most music students don't actually understand how dynamics work
As a graduate-level trumpet student (and I've only allowed myself to refer to myself as such recently; I've been feeling a lot more comfortable with my playing ever since having a lesson with Yoda, and taking a day off to fly back to Hyrule), it's really important that I understand dynamics, since on one hand, I could bury the orchestra (save perhaps a few low brassers I know) if I wanted to, and on the other, being told to play louder is a matter of the greatest shame for a non-horn brass player. Now, before I continue, I'm gonna protect myself here: I stand by what I said above, most music students don't actually understand how dynamics work. I have complete confidence in that statement. I am, also, a music student. Therefore, I'm going to give you my understanding of the topic, but I'll let you know that it could very well be subject to the music student clause above. Odds are I might change my mind after a few more years of experience, and if this blog is still up and running, I'll do another post like this where we can laugh at how silly and immature I was back now. I'm also not saying I get what I preach right every time. I am, after all, still a student, and the difference between a student and professional can often be nothing more than consistency (though I still have a ways to go on way more fronts than that). I just aim to follow this approach as closely as I can in my playing.
Now, I've heard a lot of advice on dynamic from different brass professors, and interestingly enough, my favourite advice has always come from horn players. This is probably due to the fact that the horn points backwards, and therefore horn players need to play with more power relative to the rest of the brass section. Brass students know that, if you stand directly next to the bell of a professional horn player, they often sound like a steamroller, in a non-flattering way. However, stand in the middle of a concert hall while they play the same thing, and it's as if the heavens opened up and the most beautiful sound in the world echoes through the building. Same guy, doing the same thing, but that's the nature of the horn, and what really matters is what the audience hears, not what the guy beside you hears.
So now, I'm going to give you my two "rules" of dynamics, and explain how each one makes sense to me, as a trumpet player (I'm thinking from a brass perspective, but I'm sure other instruments can make it apply to them as well). And they are:
Rule #1: "Piano" means "soft," and "soft" means "not prickly."
Rule #2: "Forte" means "strong." Vegeta is strong, Nappa is not.
These might sound odd right off the bat, so let's go into more detail.
First, consider piano. What's the mistake you expect a beginning brass student to make when they play a passage softly? Easy, not enough air, support, or "body" to the sound, and it fizzles and dies. I've even heard this happen to string students, they try so hard to be soft that the sound crackles like a bad microphone. The horn professor back in Hyrule had my favourite way of getting students to get over this: have them play it mezzo-forte or louder, and then play it "the same intensity and direction and support, just less volume." And it worked. Here in Termina, Obi-Wan had an idea that "piano is a colour," which was essentially a way to get his students to use a "forte" amount of air, but sweeten the sound out so that it comes across to the listener as being softer than it is.
Both of these approaches are true, and both are very good ways to conceptualize "softness." My way of conceptualizing it is to think of soft as a texture, as opposed to prickly. When the player isn't adequately supporting, their sound becomes full of bubbles and holes and burrs and shit... basically, it becomes "prickly." Playing with a soft, velvety texture allows a full use of air. Look at freshly-dyed velvet; it's not faded, it's full of vibrant, solid, pure ink. That is soft. Of course, the decibel level IS physically lower, but that ends up being a by-product of having the proper texture of tone. It will have less volume, but more importantly, it will actually be a softer note.
Now, for the controversial one... forte. What does forte mean to a trumpet player... the bane of strings and woodwinds everywhere. Well, it's along the same lines, but it's actually quite a bit deeper than piano.
Take a look at these two fine gentlemen. For those of you who missed the 1990s, the one on the left is Nappa, and the one on the right is Vegeta, the primary antagonists (and in Vegeta's case, eventual triagonist) of the first story arc of Dragon Ball Z. And they also present an excellent example of what inexperienced players think loud is, versus what I believe a correct loud to actually be.
When these two Saiyans land on Earth, the heroes instantly single out Nappa as their primary concern, and he actually fights them by himself for the first little while, with Vegeta throwing in comments and barking out orders on occasion. What the Earth's finest didn't realize is that size ≠ strength. So, inexperienced players, with their often shrill or bland tone, play louder by filling the room with MORE of a shrill or bland tone, and this really does nothing but hurt peoples' ears.
Vegeta is the real strength of this operation. Sure, he may look smaller, but to Saiyans, size really means nothing. Size is secondary. Vegeta has a higher level of chi, or power/energy, depending on whether you go by the manga or the anime.
And that's really what it's about. Forte, strong, loudness, is about filling the room with a FULL, VIBRANT, BRILLIANT sound, not just a "loud and no other quality but loud" tone. Nappa is big, and just big, and he was easily dispatched by Goku. Vegeta was powerful, and gave the Earth's heroes a huge run for their money. From this, we discover that there are two errors often made by inexperienced trumpet players. The first, of course, is what I said before: making more of a sub-par tone colour, and calling that loud. True, the decibel level goes up, but it's not STRONG, which is the literal translation of the Italian word forte. It's like, having a whole keg of a weak beer, rather than just a pint, doesn't make the beer stronger.
The second mistake, and this is an odd but common one (especially for players who were often told "you're too loud, stop smacking the audience in the face!"), is to attempt to bring up the volume, but do so with a soft, piano tone. Even a mezzo-forte tone. Notice what I said above: "forte is filling the room with a full, vibrant, brilliant tone." The trumpet is a naturally brilliant instrument. That's why we play it, rather than cornet, or some odd kind of soprano Bb or C horn that probably exists but I'm too lazy to look it up (or a descant horn, I guess). Players who have fallen to the trap of the first error, loud in an unpleasant way, often try to remedy it with this. The answer is not to take anything away from what the player was doing, it's to FILL THE TONE until it matches the dynamic level. If your playing is crass and therefore incorrectly loud, the answer isn't necessarily to play softer, it's to add beauty until your volume makes sense. And as a bonus, this will actually sound easier on the ear, and BLENDS! A proper, full sound will fit in an ensemble, even when the player is nearing the top of their dynamic register (though, this probably never happens in actual orchestra playing).
I should just throw in: THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU LICENSE TO PLAY YOUR LOUDEST AT EVERY FORTISSIMO. There's still the matter of being tasteful. This does, however, give you the license to not be AFRAID to play the trumpet in a full way. A real orchestral trumpet player rarely needs to strain for a dynamic, no matter how many f's are on the page, because they can ride the wave of the rest of the brass section. And when they do need to put more power behind it, keeping it beautiful, vibrant, colourful, and brilliant will also keep it pleasant to the ear, and balance better with the rest of the ensemble, meaning you won't APPEAR to be "loud for the sake of being loud" like so many non-brassers assume us trumpets are (especially those, like me, who like to goof around and play up the stereotype in a non-serious way outside of rehearsals).
Here's a case study for you: go out and listen to Bud Herseth. Listen to basically anything the CSO released between 1948-2001. It's my firm belief that, from what I've heard of them so far, Bud has never played an incorrect dynamic caught on tape. In fact, let me give you a recording.
I'll even help you out more, here's the first trumpet part. Don't mind the minor blip at nine after rehearsal 10, it gets back on track. Listen to the pianissimo at rehearsal 13 in the first movement. Sure, it's actually fairly high in decibels, but he plays with such a velvet, "precious" tone colour, that we hear it as having a "solo soft" quality. Same thing at six before 19. Then, compare that to the fortissimo back at rehearsal 9. He's not overtly trying to blast, because he's filling the room with his radiating, vibrant, colourful sound. This man knows how to make a dynamic happen. It's worth listening to him in their Solti recording of Beethoven 5, the fourth movement is balanced wonderfully, I would say even better than the Mahler above. It's not that he's not doing extremes in dynamics, it's that the WAY he does them is by using tone colour to his advantage, and that makes it happen SO MUCH more effectively than mindless blasting or holding back to the point of not properly sustaining the tone. That's part of why this guy is my trumpet idol, he knows just what to do to get the job done in an orchestra.
So, that's my rant, and I hope you guys either learned something, or at the very least, don't think I'm a delusional, misguided fool who'll never succeed with that attitude. Next time... well, maybe a little Christmas surprise if I remember/have time, but if I don't... MOAR MUSIC.
...this post was just an excuse to make us listen to Mahler, right?
ReplyDeleteI also resent your comments about music students not understanding dynamics. Hmph.
You shouldn't need an EXCUSE to listen to Mahler! I resent THAT comment! :P
DeleteAnd yeah, I changed the comment to make it slightly more diplomatic, but no less ballsy. And note how I said "most," not "all." I feel like, since "student" is not just university, and goes all the way back to elementary school, most is a fair statement.