[BrysonStakely]

I recently bought Sinta's book on Voicings, as recommended by my teacher. However, I'm having trouble with the high-F bending exercise (where you glissando down in semitones while fingering front F). I'm having a hard time often times getting below even Eb without the pitch dropping out. Several people have told me to visualize whistling while playing the exercise, but as I can't whistle, this isn't of much help. Any suggestions on how to work this out?

 

[ShedShark]

Practice getting your F happening and then 'whistle' down. Don't worry about getting exact pitches at first, just ride the sound down as far as possible. If you feel the pitch start to die, hang there for a few seconds, get your 'whistle' stable, push a bit more air, and continue.

Edit: I thought about it for a few minutes, and one of the things I 'think' about is "aiming" my air further and further "down". So, whistle-glissing the note down, during which I focus on aiming my air downward with the pitch. I "think" it more than I "do" it. I can bottom the thing out that way.

 

[CustomRam]

My whistling is not great either, but it's still the best analogy I've found for mastering the F-trick. Can you sustain a pitch by whistling, bend it down a little, then back up?

 

[datsaxman]

So the advice to a guy that doesn't know how to whistle is to "whistle" ??

Dunno.

I would advise to keep at it. After one more month / 1000 attempts / a long damn time, it will be easier.

 

[Jazz House]

I recently bought Sinta's book on Voicings, as recommended by my teacher. However, I'm having trouble with the high-F bending exercise (where you glissando down in semitones while fingering front F). I'm having a hard time often times getting below even Eb without the pitch dropping out. Several people have told me to visualize whistling while playing the exercise, but as I can't whistle, this isn't of much help. Any suggestions on how to work this out?

Try reversing it.
Start with a high D fingering and pitch, and then add the high Eb while retaining the pitch of D, then add high E while retaining the pitch, etc...
Then, move to high C#, add high D and retain high C# pitch, add high Eb, etc...
Then, try it on high C.
This should help your flexibility.

 

[datsaxman]

I bet this will help too ^^^^^^^^