After being asked to make a video including a short lesson and some exercises for the E-News Letter of the IHS, I considered the options and quickly knew what specific topics I would like to share.
During many years of giving masterclasses all over the world some (in my opinion) consistent shortcomings, repeatedly came along. Two of them I want to show you in this video:
1) The position of the hand in the bell, which is very important to develop a very good sound.
2) The way and timing of breathing before a first note to play.In the second part of the video I will show you my warming up exercises.
Warming up is a very important part of playing the horn. My warming up exercises are based on the basics of playing the horn: legato, scales, low register, high register, lip trills, long notes. But in a way that you never will hurt your embouchure. They take about 25 minutes. Try to do this early in the morning and you will feel fine for the whole day. Important is that you take a rest for at least 15 minutes after the warming up.
You can download the scores of the exercises from my website: www.ab-koster.de. Go to “Teaching“, then you will find them under "Exercises."
Hope you enjoy watching the video.
Best regards,
Ab Koster
