In the summer of 2012 lip slurs started appearing in my Facebook feed. Scott Belck was working on a book of flexibilities and was trying them out on his Facebook trumpet buddies. (I don't know Scott, but I have a few friends that do and it was their comments that invited Scott's lip slurs into my Facebook feed.) I was quite taken with the exercises at the time. Scott was mixing meters and changing valve combinatons within patterns to challange trumpeters' ears along with their faces in musically intriguing ways.

In June of 2013, Modern Lip Flexibilites for Brass was published by Meredith Music and, in January of 2015, I finally got around to ordering a copy. I confess that at first glance I was somewhat diassapointed: many of the most outrageous lip slurs that Scott had posted on Facebook were not in the book. As I spent a few days playing through the exercises I realized that rather than being ourtrageous these lip slurs were approachable by nearly the entire spectrum of trumpeters and consequently very useful. There are plenty of exercises in the book that will provide a work out for the established professional, but, perhaps more importantly, there are exercises to spark interest in the progressing trumpeter.

The few lip flexibilites to be found in the Arban's are unimaginative and tedious at best, and, perhaps worst of all, can promote a 'static' approach, i.e. because there is little sense of moving forward to a goal the student can fall into mediocre breath support. Scott has written exercises that are melodically intriguing with a light scent of jazz that create a feeling of forward motion thereby enouraging good breath support. Plenty of lip slurs with enough repetition built in to work the muscles well, but with enough variety to engage the musical imagination. I already look forward to playing these!


For a many years the core of my teaching has rested upon the A Trumpeter's Daily Routine by Michael Chunn, Technical Studies by Herbert L Clarke and the Daily Drills and Lip Flexibilites by Max Schlossberg, but I believe that this fall my students will be buying an additional book.

Tags: Scott Belck, lip slur, teaching