Flugelhorn Playing Tips

(Many people think Gemini needs more non-tech content or more variety, and I agree. Here's some content about a pretty random topic. Is it too random? :D)

I have a concert in June and it's my debut concert as a trumpet+flugelhorn doubler. I think I'm ready, and I think I finally know how to play the flugelhorn well (or at least, well enough) and how to transition between the instruments without losing my tone and my stamina after 1-2 times. The plan is to amaze the audience by playing a slow and emotional Rachmaninoff piece on the flugel, with its velvety and sexy tone, then switch to a fast, bright, sharp and loud Handel concerto on the trumpet.

Tip 1: hold the flugelhorn higher

I always hold the trumpet with my left hand, so my right hand's fingers are free to move. My left shoulder is much stronger than my right shoulder, although I'm right handed. My trumpet is slightly tilted to the right (10-15 degrees) to make the buttons more accessible to the right hand, and slightly (only slightly) tilted towards the floor to match the natural direction of my air stream.

The flugelhorn brings several challenges:

1. It's heavier and bigger, mine especially (it's a large bell model, a relatively tall flugel)

2. The center of the instrument's mass sits at a different spot relative to the player's body

3. If you hold the instrument too tightly, this may affect the tone: the right hand wraps around the bell and can dampen the sound

4. ... but the left hand grips the instrument from the bottom, so you still need a strong grip to keep the instrument 100% stable (especially if you're playing correctly, without pressing against the mouthpiece and pushing the instrument forward)

5. The mouthpiece is very deep and it's harder to develop muscle memory (generally, the flugel is a great fit for large diameter mouthpieces): it's harder to adjust and maintain the position of the mouthpiece on the face

Therefore, I recommend holding the flugel at a much higher angle, parallel to the floor or very close to that:

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This solves all 5 problems:

1. This moves some of the burden from the shoulder to the forearm

2. The center of mass moves away from the body, putting more stress on the shoulder and the forearm, but it's more comfortable for the neck, it's easier to keep the same posture and it's easier to return to the same position if you have a short break

3. The instrument touches the right hand very lightly

4. The left hand can use the tuning slide's handle to stabilize it horizontally

5. The muscle memory of the hands, not the face, puts the instrument right in front of the embochure

(Now I need to find a new white shirt for the concert, because my current one, which is super tight and not great when I need lots of air, is also short and this new posture pulls it out of my pants ... lol)

Tip 2: relax the jaw, relax the cheeks, relax yourself and believe

When the Maggio system finally "clicked" for me in the trumpet and I learned how to apply the same principles to the flugel, I was surprised to see that "my single point of failure" is no longer the lips, but the cheeks. I had to constantly re-position the bottom lip to keep the teeth aligned and maintain my control of the embochure. And I overdid this, to the point of slight pain below the cheek bones.

The remedy for this had two parts. First, I changed the angle of the instrument (#1) so the mouthpiece is perpendicular to my lips. My bottom jaw is in its normal position, not pressing against the mouthpiece and not shifted backwards to make more room for the tongue. When I need a more compact embochure, I just bring the lips forward: that's how I do an effortless, smooth diminuendo now. This is not enough, because the cheeks are relatively weak muscles, and it's a bad idea to rely on them. The second part of the remedy is relaxing the jaw and the cheeks and trusting the Maggio system: the flugel sounds great even with a trumpet-like "tu" stream of compressed air and doesn't need a "foo" of "cold air" (that involves the cheeks). Generally, the flugel doesn't need any big changes in technique; quite the opposite - every departure from your technique on the trumpet eventually harms your playing on both instruments, or at least, that's my conclusion. Cheap tricks that increase the player's control of the flugel usually result in tension and pressure, so they eventually reduce stamina and make the flugel sound bad.

Generally, I learned that although the flugel doesn't help you much as a player (because it doesn't resist and "lock" like the trumpet, when you need this), the flugel "plays itself" if you have a relaxed mindset, give the flugel the air it wants and don't stand in its way.

Tip 3: imagine you're playing the trumpet

There's no way around this, the flugel feels different. There's less resistance, the notes don't lock in place and the transition between the registers feels slippery. The last (and most dramatic) phrase in the piece I'm playing in the upcoming concert is originally (on the cello, if I remember correctly) a diminuendo of three high notes, but my teacher and I changed it to a crescendo to make it sound better on the flugel, while also making it much easier to play. However, it's very slippery up there and I'm 80% done practicing on finetuning the balance between the amount of air and the speed of the air: if I don't get this right, I play Ab-Bb-C#, Ab-Bb-D or a weird B-C# trill instead of clean Ab-Bb-C.

I discovered that my problems switching back to the trumpet are the result of one problem really: I just trust the flugel too much and don't use the tongue to "guide" the notes, because I just "slide" towards the note I was aiming for. It's much easier to switch between the instruments if you use the tongue the same way, even if you don't need this with the flugel, or need this less often. If you don't use the tongue, you eventually develop bad habits that compensate for your inability to use the tongue to "guide" those high notes. These habits "infect" your trumpet playing, every time you play both instruments the same day. Also, the tongue makes you a more versatile and dynamic flugel player: subtle staccato here and there can spice up the dramatic parts of melodic pieces.

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