My daughter prefers speaking English to French and her (French) trombone teacher this morning asked me what syllable brass teachers in England tell their beginners to use when they want them to play detached notes as he thought she would find it easier to say something English.

So any suggestions anyone?

Thanks

do you mean sticato notes...........????

No, I just mean the very basics of separating one note from another with the tongue.

"tu"
get her to practise saying "flick the Tip of the Tongue on the Top Teeth"
It's the "T" bit that is important

Thanks, I'll get her practising the sentence for the next two days. She was so determined to get a high note out yesterday in her lesson that she actually split her lip so her teacher has banned her from playing for two days until it is healed.

That suggests

1) She is using pressure to get the high notes
and
2) She is trying to play too high too soon.

For best stamina on a brass instrument you try to use no more pressure than gives a good seal between mouthpiece and lips. Then you use lateral tension in the lips to get higher notes. See my reply to pianoandflute on the "How to get Higher Notes ..." thread for how to practise for range.

This is exactly what her teacher said and has in fact told her she is not to play any of the higher notes until after the holidays when he can make sure she is doing it properly.

My daughter can be incredibly stubborn and apparently she was absolutely determined that she was going to get the note out. As it was towards the end of the lesson (which is in theory only 30 minutes but as there is no one after her was in fact after about 45 minutes) and her lips were presumably tired she forced the pressure too much. In fact her teacher was quite upset about it (more so than my daughter), saying he thought she was tired and had asked her several times if she would like to stop and that it didn't matter if she couldn't get that particular note but my daughter insisted she was all right.

He said next time he won't listen to her, he'll listen to his own instincts instead!

Yeah, "tu" or "du" for legato.