Slurring and the body sense

My slurs have always been poor. I spend a lot of time doing them now, sometimes an hour or two. Slow, moderately fast, high and low. I can't keep my accuracy up with the fast ones.

Today I was trying to imagine them as a fast smear (Charlie Vernon's advice at a masterclass in 1999 or 2000). Hearing all the pitches in between helps me keep my embouchure focused, and helps the tuning and sound.

I have heard many times Arnold Jacobs' description of nerves going from the brain to the embouchure (that whole 7th cranial nerve thing). Brain-to-muscle, our nerves are smart & quick. Muscle-to-brain, they're not so quick - literally, they act much more slowly. I should search for the real numbers on this ...

Using the mirror helps - visually I can see things that I don't feel at all (stupid cranial nerves). It doesn't help me see inside my mouth, though. Visualizing the shape of my mouth cavity, I can tell that I move things inside ... more than necessary. Now I'm trying to think of keeping that same shape, or at least letting it expand as I descend into the valve & pedal registers.

That inadequate body sense picked up something new today. As I slur downward (for example, Bb2 to Eb2), my embouchure want to flatten and expand outward. Really incredibly annoying! The mirror helps, hearing Charlie's imaginary smear helps, and puckering a bit helps. I get the 'shakies' below F2, and the pucker seems to help with this. We'll see how long that lasts.

Back to practice with me.