Hi BAHB,

I hope you had a good flight back home. Just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed every minute of the master class. For me as a teacher it was a pleasure to see somebody as dedicated and as knowledgeable as you. I also know that I am far off from teaching this method myself. I first have to 'get it' myself, before I can teach this to anybody. I don't mind. I already teach my students double pedals (I was surprised that you would mention those), and I teach them to tongue through the teeth, which is IMO definitely better then against the top teeth. At least it is closer to TCE and keeps the jaw from closing.

For my own playing, I think I have to practice what you taught me, a lot and I will let you know when nice things start to happen. I think I finally know what TCE is about, the rest is up to me.

I loved your baroque playing. Man, that is something. As a kid I listened to Maurice Andre a lot, so I know some of those pieces, but I never ever heard anybody play them like this on a valve less trumpet! Unbelievable and very beautiful. I also like the CD's very much, I am glad I bought them, it gives me a totally different perspective of playing baroque music and how it should sound. Maybe I will try it myself once I get this TCE thing happening.

Thanks for the great lessons and for being a nice person. You can play what you say and that isn't always the case!

Greetz,
Bert Lochs

Hi Bahb,

First of all i really would like to thank you for the wonderful Master class in Belgium, you really know everything about embouchures, and after all your explanations everything became so logical that is really easy to understand the TCE. Now when i am practicing i can feel my chops and my tongue becoming stronger and stronger. I hope you had a nice trip back to the United States.

If you don't mind i would like to know all your conditions, and everything you need to come to Portugal and give a 2 or 3 days master class, it would be a pleasure for me to organize for you a master class in Portugal.

All the Best,
Bruno Fernandes (Portugal)
ps: sorry for my English

Hello Ole,

it is difficult to relate precisely about the teaching, I think that it is always better to attend the class and to make a personal opinion , wich things appeal to one is a real personal issue; but let's try.

After welcoming in a friendly way each new participant, Bahb would let him play anything then some scales so he could have an idea of one's way of playing.

From this point Bahb would start to give some to each person adapted explanations about TCE, he would then turn these explanations into exercises so that the students would get an immediate application of the theory.

As supports to his explanations, Bahb used his (really remarkable) "TCE Training Manual" and devices such as a play-doh tongue, and a skull.

He worked individually with each student about one hour (the size of the group was intentionally held very small so that we could afford this), he was very demanding on quality of the work done and on concentrating on TCE fundamentals, but since it was always done in a very positive and helpful manner, everybody was eagerly waiting his turn to have class.

For the rest it would be better to ask directly the people how they experienced this themselves, I hope they'll post a reply. (By the way, Bert Loch from the Netherlands was indeed here, he's a very fine person. )

Thanks Nini (for the 'fine person' thing, goes for you, too, it is a shame that you were rushing in every direction, so we didn't have the time to talk things over some more, maybe we should meet in Holland some time, but we can discuss this later).

I visited the master class (nothing short of a master, indeed, this Bahb, djeeezzz), and I don't want to go into details (the people who really want my take on it are invited to write to me personal, but through Bahbs teachings I learned that I am much too far off from understanding, let alone teaching or really say useful things about TCE to write about it on a public forum). I can only say that Bahb is a monster on the baroque trumpet, a great guy to hang out with and a very committed (TCE) teacher with a good psychological insight. He really seems to look through you sometimes.

I can only say, if you have a chance to meet him, go there! If you want to learn how TCE works, visit him, it will save you a lot of headaches wondering how TCE works.

Maybe just one tip that seems to work for me (BTW he is a guy who has a different recipe for everybody, not 'just do the exercises' type of guy), and I think for a lot of experienced players: don't get too hung up about it. The moment I could let go of thinking about all the stuff I read, heard and thought about, it finally worked (the last five minutes of the master class). For the rest, be patient and work hard on the five articulations.