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It is important to
reiterate that the goal of the Pivot System is to allow the
brass student to work with his or her physical anatomy in the
most efficient manner possible. Where other popular brass
methods take a more rigid approach to brass playing, the Pivot
System utilizes an approach that is catered to each unique
individual.
It is this
personalized approach that may be responsible for more
confusion and misunderstanding about the Pivot System. Advice
given to one student may directly contradict with advice given
to another. Often times Reinhardt's instructions to a single
student would conflict with previous instructions according to
this student's level of development. This apparently
contradictory advice has caused many to unfairly dismiss the
Pivot System.
The Three Primary Playing Factors
Although the Pivot
System is named after the embouchure motion Reinhardt referred
to as a "pivot" (to be discussed later in this article), the
system as a whole takes into account what Reinhardt called the
three primary playing factors. These are the entire embouchure
formation (including the lips, mouth corners, cheeks, and
entire facial area), the tongue and its manipulation, and the
breathing. The goal of the Pivot System is to coordinate all
three factors so that they function properly as a synchronized
unit. These three playing factors will vary in importance
according to the stage of development of the student.
Where many methods
place primary importance on breathing, Reinhardt felt that
focusing on correcting playing faults by breathing alone was
to be likened to a woodwind player playing on a bad reed. "If
a very fine oboist selects an excellent instrument but uses a
defective reed, the results will suffer regardless of whether
his breathing is correct or incorrect. The same holds true in
brass playing!" (Reinhardt, Encyclopedia of the Pivot
System, page 6).
Here again is an
example of how Reinhardt's instructions often seemed contrary
from student to student. Where Reinhardt might suggest to one
student to focus on a particular aspect of breathing to the
other he would advise working on embouchure or tonguing. This
wasn't because his instruction was untested and in flux, but
because he recognized the stage of development for each
particular student and precisely understood the focus
necessary to achieve the most benefit for each student.
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