Roy Roman, a long-time pupil and close friend of Roy Stevens, has played lead trumpet with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Tito Puente, Charlie & Eddie Palmeri, Cat Anderson and many others. Roman will be demonstrating some of the exercises which are the foundation of the Steven-Costello method that Stevens discusses on the audio tape and in his book, Embouchure Self-Analysis.
To use as a practice study guide, page references from the 2nd edition of Embouchure Self-Analysis have been provided next to the videos. This recent out-of-print book is now available through Amazon’s publishing group, Create Space, Embouchure Self-Analysis The Stevens-Costello Embouchure Technique (Complete)
Roy Roman talks about the basic concepts of the Stevens-Costello method and demonstrates the three preparatory exercises to establish the proper muscles to use in the embouchure formation. The mouth to nose, mouth to chin and frown exercises are demonstrated in the video and discussed in the Steven’s Embouchure Self Analysis book, 2nd ed, pp 36 – 38. Also Roman explains the muscles used in playing from the facial muscle chart and Dr. John Basmajian’s studies with the electromyography (EMG) apparatus to analyze the muscles used in the trumpet embouchure – you can find further journal references on this subject in the Writings section.
Roy Roman demonstrates the pencil exercise in setting up the correct teeth aperture and jaw position. The proper jaw formation will allow the bottom lip to be the buffer for the mouthpiece weight.
Roy Roman demonstrates the static exercise on the palm to create the proper air compression with the lips inverting isometrically towards each other. The palm exercise allows for the proper weight relative to the air compression to create the note. The use of relative weight shows that this is not a non-pressure system. It is important not to close the teeth, squeeze the lips, sneer or munch. See pp 39 – 41
Roy Roman playing octaves on the palm and legitimate hand-held position, p 50. Roman intentionally plays incorrectly by closing the teeth and demonstrates the closed teeth effect followed with the corrective action. Roy Stevens also discusses octave playing in depth, refer to recording (12) in the Audio section.
Roy Roman playing arpeggios on the palm and legitimate hand-held position both slurring and tonguing, covering the range of the trumpet from low to high, pp 42 – 46. Roman demonstrates incorrect playing actions and movements so the player can be aware of them.
Bill Moriarity, retired trumpet player and former President of AFM Local 802 musicians union, was a close friend and student of Roy Stevens. He also co-authored Roy’s book: Embouchure Self Analysis. On April 9, 2005 at the NY Brass Conference at Purchase University, Bill conducted a seminar discussing Roy Stevens and his embouchure method, introducing the release of the revised edition of Embouchure Self Analysis
Bill provides an introduction on Roy Stevens.