¡ãLip Slur¡ä
The term lip slur is not used for anything other than brass instruments, so it may be unfamiliar to teachers who are teaching bands for the first time.
This name is not used for other instruments, but the pattern is a broken chord, so it's a good idea to practice woodwinds as well.
Scores of lip slur patterns including woodwinds
Brass instruments can produce several different pitches (harmonics) using the same fingering by controlling the breath and mouth (embouchure). Please refer to the OverTones chart. Lip slur is when you decide on a pattern for those harmonics and blow them in order with a slur.
Lip slurs are very important in basic brass instrument practice, as they help to improve the flexibility of the lips and the muscles around them, and to remember the position of the tongue depending on the range.
With a few exceptions, when the piston (rotary) is not pressed, the position is "0", which is the shortest and produces the highest sound. Pressing the pistons in the order of "2" ¢ª "1" ¢ª "1+2 or 3" ¢ª "2+3" ¢ª "1+3" ¢ª "1+2+3" gradually lengthens the tube through which the air passes, and the sound produced becomes lower by semitones.
The pistons are numbered 1, 2, 3., starting from the one closest to the player. They are pressed with the index finger, middle finger, and ring finger, respectively.
This is common to all brass instruments.
For the trombone, positions 1 through 7 correspond to each fingerings, but few elementary school students can use (reach) 7th position, so first practice accurately reaching 6th position(or 5th).
For example, if you practice the C-G-C pattern on a trumpet or alto horn (in Bb trombone, euphonium, or tuba) with a slur, then change the fingering in the above order, the same pattern can be repeated six semitone steps down.
If you write the same pattern in real pitch for a euphonium, it will look like this. It's one octave lower than the trumpet.
Student can play the same pattern in positions 1 to 7 on a trombone.
The Bb tuba will produce this octave lower using the same fingering.
Once a student learns a certain pitch pattern, they can transpose it in seven different ways just by changing their fingers, and they can expand their range surprisingly easily without having to think about the music score.
First, start by practicing moving from a certain note to an overtone just above or below it and returning to the first note, as in the music score above. Next, gradually expand the range by blowing two notes in the same direction and returning to the first note, or by moving one note up and down, and repeat or combine them to make a longer phrase (example).
Since students don't stop their breath(air) with a slur while playing one pattern, it also serves as an exercise in controlling your breath and embouchure, just like with long tones. Students who can extend a long tone to eight or sixteen beats should be able to play lip slur patterns of similar length.
There are many patterns of lip slurs introduced in Methodbooks for each brass instrument, but anyone can make them by choosing notes from the harmonic chart and arranging them as they come to mind.
In the "Score Storage" section of the "Basic Practice Before Playing" section, I have provided sheet music for lip slurs that woodwind instruments can play together. This is an easy arpeggio (broken chord)practice for woodwind instruments.
Playing all the notes in the same pattern with tonguing is a good practice for strengthening the embouchure, so it's a good idea to play one pattern once with slurs and once with tonguing.