The Brass Players Stutter

Name: Nicholas Prince Main Subject: Classical Bass Trombone Research Supervisor: Pete Saunders Title of Research: The brass player’s stutter Research Question: The brass players stutter, what is it, what are the causes and how can it be alleviated? Summary of Results: This paper deals with what is known as the brass player’s stutter, a very common but under researched issue. It occurs as the player inhales a breath to play but cannot exhale and produce the note on demand. The breath is just held in, thus giving a stutter effect. Many well-known professional brass musicians have suffered with these problems at some point in their careers. The author himself is one of the trombonists who has had to deal with this issue. Research was done through a series of interviews with different professional trombonists who have dealt with this problem to get their own opinions on this unusual issue and what they did to alleviate the problems. A questionnaire was also sent to trombone students in The Netherlands to find out if younger students are aware of such issues and if it can be avoided in the future. The results will provide a greater understanding of this problem and how I and others can find a solution to this obscure technical issue.  Biography: Nick Prince is a Bass Trombonist from the UK. After finishing his Bachelor degree with Roger Argente and Graham Lee at Trinity College of Music London, he moved to the Netherlands to do his master degree with Brandt Attema. His keen interest in orchestral music has led to playing with many orchestras including the RPO and Southbank Sinfonia. He also has a keen interest in brass chamber music, being a founding member of the Gianni Brass ensemble, which still performs numerous concerts per year and takes part in many education projects in the London area.