I haven't been playing piccolo very long and there aren't alot of (good) pic players at my university. I've been put on a piece that is, I feel, a bit too hard for me, but I'll just have to suck it up and play it anyway. Problem is though, a lot of it is in the stratosphere and there are notes I can't even play. I've been working at it, mostly doing long tones descending up, but are there suggested embouchure or air stream changes I can incorporate to help me? I'm good up to a high g, and I started to get Ab out tonight with some consistency... so I need A, Bb and B. I've looked up some auxiliary fingerings tonight, as I was using regular flute fingerins.... duh... I'll try them out tomorrow. But any other advice might be helpful, thanks!
That is a good idea what you are doing so far with the long tones and alternative fingerings. Make sure to keep the opening of your lips as small as possible on those high notes and keep the air stream steady. I am not good with words or descriptions, so sorry if I am not much help. You are going to have to spend a while practicing on piccolo everyday to get your embouchure ready in which I am sure you already know this.
A good suggestion if you haven't tried this already is to post this on the GFC board. There area a couple of very highly trained professional piccolists on that board that could help.
Sorry, for the limited information, but piccolo is not my specialty. I just play it and hope is sound good. lol!
the alternate fingerings really helped and I try to be very conscience about not tightening up my embouchure. I finally got a high b out today and I think I figured out the key: support. More support than I ever thought would be possible or necessary. More support than I ever thought a note would need. It's amazing that for such a little instrument it takes more support to play and I have to open every cavity and orifice in my body to get a good, in tune, resonate sound. I hate obnoxious sounding piccolos...
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