Thierry Champs - Biography

Thierry’s teaching is strongly inspired by playing concepts developed by Robert Pichaureau.
Instead of working on skill execises available in most trumpet methods, he focuses on the importance of fundamental exercises taking a particular attention to natural mechanisms of sound producing. This approach leads the performer and educator to take care of breathing process and posture first, to after fix problems regarding instrumental gesture (lips position, articulations...).

Here is an excerpt from an article about some aspects of la méthode Pichaureau which was studied by Doctor Jean-François Guyot and published in the magazine Medecine des Arts. You can find the entire version of this article in n° 8 Numéro Spécial sur les instrumentistes à vent.

Thierry’s pedagogy is also based on Marc Papillonresearches, which is physiotherapist at la Clinique du Musicien (Paris). Thierry attended many workshops given by M. Papillon and had learn a lot from it. Works of M. Papillon focus on a better comprehension and integration of basic biomechanic musician motions to optimize instrumental playing.

Problems encountered :

Premature lips fatigue, resulting in a lack of endurance

Tenseness sensation in the throat and in the stomach

Difficulties in high or low registers

Articulation problems

Lack of precision and rapidity in tonguing

Dizzyness

Tension and muscular tiredness