Appendix 2
Surveys
Survey questions for Willem’s students
1. What is your current job?
2. When and for how long did you study with Willem?
3. What trumpet/brass methods or books did you use to learn to play the trumpet, apart from your lessons with Willem?
4. Could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
5. Do you still use it? How do you practice it?
6. How has it affected your playing and performance?
7. Do you teach? If yes, do you teach this method, and how?
Survey answers of Jacco Groenendijk
30 Jan. 2017
1. What is your current job?
Groenendijk: My current job is tutti trumpeter at the Royal Concertgebouworchestra in Amsterdam, since august 2015. Before that 10 years in the RFO.
2. When and for how long did you study with Willem?
Groenendijk: I studied for one year at the Conservatory Utrecht with Willem, season 1996-1997. But after that I went on a regular basis to him and also to other teachers. He played at the RFO at that time.
3. What trumpet/brass methods or books did you use to learn to play the trumpet, apart from your lessons with Willem?
Groenendijk: When I was younger I played from Clodomir, Sigmund Hering, parts of Arban and pieces like Rondo for Lifey – Bernstein. Later on with Theo Mertens we always had to play his warm-up exercises without sheet music. Great exercises, I still do them. Then most of the time Charlier etudes. And pieces of course, repertoire with piano.
I also start to use a bit of Vizzutti by then, Caruso, Stamp, Clarke and I practiced a lot from the book Training Coordination Program by trombonist Bart van Lier. As well the book from Bram Balfoort – Houding, Adem en Keel just for breathing and posture.
4. Could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
Groenendijk: Speaking of method: one of the things that Willem emphasized was that a teacher can only show you the way to enter the door. The word method can be misleading. It is eventually based on experiencing it en feeling/hearing it. And how strong you want it, your wishes. What is the taste of a strawberry? A personal thing…
Willem saw that many books are about deep breathing, which is in the basis good (relaxation), but too deep can also make you a bit numb, too heavy in the bottom. Could be a thing that the air stays there, no upward direction. Willem used to show many times to pick up a handkerchief. You lift it with your fingers in the middle and the rest follows. As a posture model for the body, the head up and the rest follows. Also spoken about this subject in Taiji. Willem always got strong influences from eastern visions. The breathing he speaks of starts low but after continuing inhaling climbs up like filling a glass to higher regions, under the collar bones. In the same time it is not only air you take in but also a kind of life energy source, which makes you more awake, more vital. You can see it in the eyes. And has the power to overcome your fears by pulling you into the moment itself, a kind of brain switch from left (scatter talk) to right (hearing, feeling). Then you create a kind of feeling that there is a arch and arrow which directs to the ceiling. It is only too simple to explain it in this way. It is also based on good timing to play the note in a logical sequence after. Too long waiting blocks the setup. But by sniffing a final small nose breath on top of the mouth breath you can keep the system “open” and somehow waiting for the next entrance (for example a conductor who does a longer fermate than he rehearsed…) The advantage of this is that the tongue has less tension and can strike in a different way, more supple. So, simplified: breath in through mouth in beginning, climb up to the higher part of the chest, underneath the collar bone, subclavian and add a little nose breath in the end to release the shot=attack of the note. It depends on what to play how much air and how long it takes 2-5sec. Also nose can be omitted sometimes, in between phrases, you simply don’t have enough time and mouth gateway is the fastest… Best way for me I try to place it in the timing of the music you are playing. Long phrase=more exaggerated amount of air compared to if you just have to play one or two notes.
Again: too simple to explain it this way unfortunately…
It’s like describing how Messi passes a defender, it looks simple but to do it yourself is much harder. Or to see Federer playing tennis, looks so easy…
Willem demonstrated it many times (for example in Spaulding exercises) and then you had to copy it and experience it (or not really, for a long time personally haha)
It is all in the area of finetuning. Like a formula one car. A little screw in wrong position can block the best running of the engine. And too much focus on what happens during playing can block it too. Like going on holiday with car and driving in the mountains, you enjoy the view but in the same time many things move under the hood to keep the car running. So zoom out is also important to let it happen…
If you have look at the Pareto principle, also called the 20/80 or 80/20 rule, you can see interesting things. For example 20% of time effort causes often already 80% of results. An eight as a mark. But if you want to go higher, to a nine or above, then your 80% rest time is needed to get the last 20%! In that area is the teaching of Willem based. It takes a lot of time, but you have to keep practicing it...
Pareto principle
5. Do you still use it? How do you practice it?
Groenendijk: I use it but not in a too controlled way, only when I warm-up or practice. In concerts I hope it pops up automatically. More a refIex kind of thing. Don’t want it to be my only way of breathing, want to be free somehow of choice… Like a plumber who comes to repair your kitchen, has maybe 500 tools or more for the right action, not only 3… Another thing I try to do while practicing/ warming up is to keep the tongue in front as much as I can. And then forget it later and hoping for reflexes, trusting the body to solve it. To teach the body what to do.
For me an important thing is the separation of practice and performance. Practice: plan-action-feedback. You try to repeat and make it better, analyse after (not during). To TRY. But performance: plan-action, no feedback! That makes you crazy. You have to DO it then.
6. How has it affected your playing and performance?
Groenendijk: I think in a good way hopefully haha! More accurate tonguing of notes, popping sound. More stamina, lighter feeling of bouncing the notes in stead of slamming them. Although you also have to be able to do that as well, we need as much colors and attacks as we can to make the music sound in different ways. Loud-soft, high-low, sad, aggressive, etc. Otherwise we only can make one kind of color, that would be deadly boring translated to for example painting… A good trumpeter does not mean a good musician automatically... You should also listen a lot to music, how your hero’s do it, taste/culture and be inspired by that!
7. Do you teach? If yes, do you teach this method, and how?
Groenendijk: Yes, I teach. Not main subject but subsidiary subject students.
I try to integrate this in a playful way, not too emphasized. Little by little. More gradually according to the level of the player, because if it becomes too much in the analytical way, it can make your playing even worse, overthinking, opposite results. Feel every muscle in detail in your leg while walking, you can also say: just take a step. Small or big. Simplify. Images are very helpful of course (dark sound, royal attacks, shining sound) but everyone reacts different to certain images/mind pictures. The good result should be audible out of the bell. Recording can help a lot. Then you know you are one the good way. And by listening your sound you stay in present time focus.
So don’t make it too complex. Not easy haha! The brain can be a huge enemy… But some things should really happen on a trumpet to make it running, especially for example to make a ringing sound! To take a look on different aspects or parameters can make the difference, quality is the summing of many details. This is what Willem really works/worked on. Your optimal finetuning, not of someone else. Solfege is of course the big motor behind it, as well coordination of the elements tongue, air, lip in conjunction…
And have fun on the road, because the path is endless anyway!
Survey answers of Sef Hermans
10 Apr. 2017
1. What is your current job?
Hermans: Lecturer of trumpet at the University and Conservatory of Melbourne, Teaching undergrad and master students.
Guest lecturer at the Australian National Academy of Music; ANAM
Performer of Avant guard music/New Music Theatre .
Guest trumpet in various Orchestras.
2. When and for how long did you study with Willem?
Hermans: From 2003 till now. From 2006 till 2013 on a weekly basis. Still meeting once a month on Skype.
3. What trumpet/brass methods or books did you use to learn to play the trumpet, apart from your lessons with Willem?
Hermans: Stamp technical studies, Arban vol 1-3, Clarke Technical studies, Buzzing basics, Allen Vizzutti trumpet method, Book 1-3, Shuebruk Graded lip and tongue Trainers
4. Could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
Hermans: Breathing with direction. By using the direction of the breath and its contact with the tongue, soft pallet and diaphragm, you allow for a deeper and more profound connection with the body, resulting in a soft/relax but vital play-form. Letting the breath and direction aid in the forming of the play-form ed est using the breath and its direction to create compression as well as space in the cavities of the head and body allowing the connection of the diaphragm and soft pallet to create a balance in the play-form.
Ps. Word[s] do not do justice to the process.
5. Do you still use it? How do you practice it?
Hermans: Every day. By finding the balance, softness and direction in the play-form, and keeping the vocality even in Avant Guard music.
6. How has it affected your playing and performance?
Hermans: More than I can explain. It changed my vision on music, trumpet playing and life itself.
7. Do you teach? If yes, do you teach this method, and how?
Hermans: Yes and yes. This is a very complicated question, with every student you have to join them in the discovery of their play-form and connection to their body. With each student you have to try various methods and suggestions to make them aware of the inside of their bodies such as tongue, nasal cavity, soft pallet, diaphragm and expanding the soft tissue to expand the space in their heads. You have to make them aware of their bodies, and spend every lesson re-balancing and expanding. This is a very dynamic process. My main way of guiding them is through my color of sounds, as Willem always does. The color of the sounds says more than a thousand words. The rest is suggestion, awareness and vitality.
Survey answers of Angel Serrano Soliva
7 Feb. 2017
1. What is your current job?
Serrano Soliva: 1st Trumpet in Barcelona Symphony Orchestra
Trumpet and Chamber Music teacher in High School Music from Cataluña ESMUC (Barcelona)
2. When and for how long did you study with Willem?
Serrano Soliva: I studied by Willem from 1990 to 1993 in Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam. [Since then] we are always in touch.
3. What trumpet/brass methods or books did you use to learn to play the trumpet, apart from your lessons with Willem?
Serrano Soliva: Arban, Colins, Clarke, etc…for technical things.
Chavanne, Charlier, Bordogni, etc… for lessons.
And Concerts and Orchestral Parts.
4. Could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
Serrano Soliva: 1st, important to relax [the whole] body and get out any tension from [it]. Generally breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Opening the jaw from the inside, this gives you relaxed and open throat and natural relaxed position of the tongue (wide and close to the [lower] teeth). Then the direction of the air is important and also the position of the tongue [guides] the air [out of the mouth into the instrument].
5. Do you still use it? How do you practice it?
Serrano Soliva: Yes. I try to practice all time, not only playing, [but] also doing [daily life activities].
6. How has it affected your playing and performance?
Serrano Soliva: Well I got better sound, better intonation because [this way of breathing] helps to [achieve a] natural singing way when you play and much more [resonance] because you play more relaxed, [more] air, less muscle [tension].
7. Do you teach? If yes, do you teach this method, and how?
Serrano Soliva: Yes. I do like I told you in [the answer to] question 4.
1st, relaxation exercises to get out tensions in our body
2nd, I do all [kinds of] breathing exercises, breathe in 4 [counts, and breathe] out 6, 8, 10 etc…. all combinations, the important [thing] is how, [and I explained that] in the [answer to question] 4.
3rd, direction of the air. I practice blowing out [while] moving out the sternum and [keeping] wide ribs, and I try to keep this form and always relax, you don't have to feel any tension… never blow [with a downward force] and never ‘close’ your shoulders.
4th, do this with trumpet in basic exercises.
Survey answers for Christian Ansink
Transribed by Danny Teong, 17 Jan. 2017
Ed. by Christian Ansink, 27 Jan. 2017
Danny (D): … Could you tell me what is your current job?
Christian Ansink (CA): My current job is trombone player in Het Gelders Orkest, in Arnhem. And that I’m doing for over 27 years now in the orchestra.
D: Good, is it tutti, or 1st or 2nd?
CA: Ya, just, how do you call that… eerste posaune.
D: Principal, in a way.
CA: … first trombone, how do you call it… I don’t know exactly… Associate Principal?
D: No, that is clear, thank you.
CA: Ya, I think it is enough.
D: Yup, okay. And, so 2nd question: When and for how long did you study with Willem?
CA: I think I began to go to him for about 6 years ago, because after 20 years of playing, I wrote that in the [email], you know too eh? Then I couldn’t play anymore. I’ve got to play the low B-flat and just in my study room was nothing coming out, of the horn. Nothing coming out of the trombone. I played for 25 years, and now nothing is going very well. I was in the orchestra, and the lower part, there was nothing there. I couldn’t play. And then first I was with Pierre Volders, Bart van Lier, and even George Wiegal, my former teacher, and nothing of all the exercises worked for me to solve the problem. And then, a trumpet player in the orchestra in Arnhem, and he told me to go to Willem. And after playing two notes with him, he know exactly what was going on. And then for the first time, Willem told me my tongue lie too far away from the lower teeth, and it was the first time since 3 years I had a new contact with the trombone. So that was my first lesson, and then the first two years, I was going, I think, once in 6 weeks. And then, it became a little bit lesser. I go now once or twice a year.
D: So you have been studying 6 years ago, until now.
CA: Yup.
D: Okay great. Yes, so the 3rd question: Well, this is not really applicable to you… because – but I will try to modify it a bit. What, um, you mentioned some methods earlier, so what brass methods, or books did you use apart from your lessons with Willem?
CA: Not exactly… When you have a career of about 30 years, then you play not 1 or 2 or 3 methods. You build your own exercises, technical studies, and when you have to play a Bruckner symphony, then you do a little bit more strength. And when you have to play Mozart, ya, you train a little bit, you train something else. Well I don’t have a playing method that I use daily. You do some warming up exercises every day about [sings arpeggios with different articulation], but it’s a mix from everybody.
D: Yup okay, great. So the next question would be, could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
CA: Ya. [pause] To describe? Okay. Could I describe… Ya, the most important thing is, for me, is that the tip of the tongue is making contact with your upper lip by breathing in and so this position of the tongue, with the sides of the tongue against your molars, makes it possible to have contact with your whole body. And that was the great eye-opener for me, to get a new grip on the trombone. So the, how do you call that, the tip of the tongue, and you keep it at your upper lip, you will feel in your diaphragm a little bit energy. So this energy is going up, and the position of the tongue when you blow on, keep the front of your tongue against the lower teeth so you can keep a steady breathing, steady airstream. And, can I describe the breathing in… through mouth, and nose, and when the nose is much free, you have a feeling you are breathing in to your ears, and further, at the back of your head. The more you breathing in to the back of your head the more you have contact with your whole body. The tongue is getting more free, and so you have more freedom when you blow out, you can get a nice sound. That is my – that is how it works for me.
D: Great! Sounds good. Okay, so I’m supposing you still use it nowadays, because –
CA: Wait a minute, wait a minute. The last, I cannot understand.
D: Sorry! So my next question on my list is actually, do you still use it, but I guess yes, right?
CA: Yea!
D: Okay, and then, so, how do you practice it?
CA: Just every day, when I start, to play with my trombone. I do a lot of mouthpiece exercise, so the first 3-4 minutes, and then you try to feel every place of your tongue, near your lips, and in the back of the tongue, as broad as possible. Have a nice, free, breathing in, with the mouth and the nose. And then with the blowing out, check if you have the tongue just in front against your teeth, and have a free feeling in your head. Like you are saying ‘Dingngngngng’ with a lot of emphasis on the NG. That’s all these points I’m looking, the first 5 to 15 minutes, I think. Just checking. And hear the sound of the trombone. That’s what I try in the first minutes. And when it’s becoming a little bit less, I try to pick it up back in the good shape. And then you can play all the things, you can play the long tones with a good feeling, you can play the lip exercises, or just the scales, and just get a good form, a good form in your head. As free as possible in your head. Ya, as free as possible, and the breathing out, and try to think a lot about the, that Willem told you, the ding or twing, the diiiiinnggg, if you do it then you know your head is free. That is important for me.
D: Very nice answer, thank you. And okay, the next question, you mentioned a bit, but how has it affected your playing and performance?
CA: Ya, everything.
D: Could you give some examples?
CA: It gave me a whole new concept of brass playing, the method of Willem. Without Willem, I think I couldn’t play anymore on the trombone. That it’s impossible for me to make a career again. If Willem was not there, I still looking how to manage the trombone and now I have grip is an imagination. What is happening.
D: Ya, so that’s a very drastic, erm, what do you call it…
CA: Ya! Very drastic, ya.
D: Okay. Then this is the final question, do you teach?
CA: Yup, a little bit. But not on a conservatorium or something like that.
D: So, private?
CA: Ya, private, I have a few students.
D: And then, so, the next part of this question is, do you teach them this method? And how do you teach them this method?
CA: I have to see the person, when he plays, and then, that I always tell them, is the free breathing in, and the tongue at the front of the mouth, against the teeth. That’s what I always tell them. About the pulling out the tongue, that’s only when the player has no good sound, something like that. Then I try to teach that method to… When it’s okay, it’s okay. I’m not gonna give him the whole situation, what Willem tells. I think then it’s too…
D: Too much information?
CA: Ya, then the story is more difficult. If it’s okay with the student, then it’s okay. I don’t do something like that, so much.
D: Good, that’s actually about all the questions, thank you so much!
Survey answers of Danny Teong
2 Apr. 2017
1. What is your current job?
Teong: Full-time masters degree student at Koninklijk Conservatorium, natural trumpet performance major, and freelance musician in The Netherlands and Germany.
2. When and for how long did you study with Willem?
Teong: My first lesson was in October 2010, I visited him on average once per month. Since 2016, the average went down to about once every 2-3 months.
3. What trumpet/brass methods or books did you use to learn to play the trumpet, apart from your lessons with Willem?
Teong: Books regarding basic technicalities were Arban, Vizzutti, James Stamp, Clarke, Bai Ling Lip Flexibilities, and also a basic trumpet technique book in Japanese aimed at beginners, which I cannot remember the title. Etudes used were Charlier, Kopprasch, Snedecor, Bitsch.
4. Could you describe the breathing method you learnt from Willem?
Teong: In simple terms, it is a breath that invigorates the body, the mind, and the playing. It also provides balance, and also a connection between all those 3 aspects and also to the self.
The act of inhalation itself is to breath in upwards into the head through both the nose and mouth, with the tongue as far forward as possible. This does a couple of things: raising the soft palate, creating a certain ‘form/shape’ in the throat, opening up airway cavities in the head, bringing the body into an active posture. The space in the head created by that, in turn, serves 2 purposes: It creates an optimal inner-form for resonance, and acts (in combination with the windpipe and lip aperture) like a venturi to generate air pressure (in combination with the trachea or windpipe) and speed up the airflow (in combination with the lip aperture) for playing the trumpet. It is efficient.
The exhalation needs to be supported by the body, staying in this upwards direction of the inhalation. This is in line with Hazrat Inayat Khan’s ideas that it is the direction of the breath that matters, and not the strength of the breath. This means that the diaphragm should not be ‘dropped’, and the upper thoracic area should be kept open and up so as not to create a contradictory direction to the breath of playing the trumpet.
Finally, in Willem’s idea of breathing in combination with the trumpet, the transitional moments in the breath are not any less important than the act of inhaling or exhaling. Much like how an end of a pendulum’s oscillation seems to just suspend in the air ‘without weight or time’, this is the how the transitional moments should feel. These moments occur between the inhalation and exhalation, and vice versa. They also occur between one note to another note, between one phrase and the next. Practice is needed to be able to recognize and use these moments. In this respect, Willem’s breathing method surpasses the act of breathing, and its principles encompass and apply to everything else we do.
5. Do you still use it? How do you practice it?
Teong: Yes. I practice it at every moment I can. Specifically for the trumpet, I pay great attention to how I breathe in my warmup, after which I ‘forget’ about it and trust that my body is able to achieve the state of being able to utilize the breath the way I want. The colour and quality of my sound will inform me about the condition of my breath, and I make adjustments accordingly when needed.
6. How has it affected your playing and performance?
Teong: Training myself to breathe in this way has conditioned both my body (posture) and mind to be more ‘open’. I feel that this effect directly correlates to my playing, and manifests also in my sound. I also feel that I am gaining mastery, in a certain sense. I do not have to practice for long periods per day to maintain or improve my level of playing. For example, I find that 30 minutes of practicing on the trumpet per day is sufficient to maintain my level.
In performance, this breathing method ‘quiets’ my inner thoughts. I find that I can concentrate better on the task at hand, and I get fewer obstructions accessing my inner self to express music the way I want. Furthermore, this way of breathing vitalizes me, and I get enough energy to give to the performance.
7. Do you teach? If yes, do you teach this method, and how?
Teong: No, I do not teach.
