I’ve posted about the Trumpet Gurus Hang Youtube channel before here. Every week José Johnson brings in a trumpet player or teacher to talk making music. The latest episode features Rich Willey. Rich is based in the same area as me, so we have played together many times. Rich also studied extensively with Donald Reinhardt, one of the primary sources of my dissertation research. He is also currently working with my mentor, Doug Elliott, who’s teaching and pedagogy helped me break past my own musical hurdles and strongly influenced the way I teach.
Check out this episode to learn a little more about Rich and Reinhardt’s teaching.
Andrea Giuffredi is a very fine Italian trumpet player with a series of YouTube videos with exercises and backing tracks. You can put them on, listen to Giuffredi play the exercise, then play the exercise back. Here’s an example, which conveniently is a series of exercises based on octave slurs. Octave slurs are useful for guessing a player’s embouchure type because the interval is large enough that you can usually spot the embouchure motion fairly easily. Take a look at this video and see if you can guess his embouchure type. My guess is after the break.
In my last post I discussed horn angle changes that brass players will make while changing registers. If you haven’t read that post yet, I recommend you do so first so that you will better understand why these exercises are helpful and how to alter them to fit your own embouchure technique or those of your students.
Briefly, all brass players will push and pull their lips up and down with the mouthpiece rim along the teeth and gums while changing registers. The general direction of this “embouchure motion” is up and down, but the direction that the musician pushes or pulls to ascend can be different from player to player. Some brass musicians push up towards the nose to ascend and others pull down. But even within these two basic variations, most players have at least a little side to side motion that happens as well, although it should probably always function in a straight line. In the hypothetical example to the side the musician pushes up and to the right to ascend and pulls down and towards the left to descend.
Because teeth and gums are not a flat plane the horn angle will need to adjust while making this motion in order to maintain the stability of the teeth and gums underneath the mouthpiece rim and lips. The horn angle change, in combination with the above mentioned embouchure motion, helps the musician play a particular pitch with less effort and more in tune. See my post on Horn Angle Changes For Brass for details on what is going on and how to test individual players.
Once you’ve worked out the proper embouchure motion and horn angle changes for a particular student there are exercises that can be done to help the brass musician internalize those changes and make them part of their subconscious technique. With students more prone to freezing up or otherwise having difficulty concentrating on “how” to play can be advised to more their focus to as external a focus as possible. In other words, instead of concentrating on keeping the embouchure “legs” stable by putting more weight on one side of the mouthpiece rim, get the student to aim the bell of the instrument at a point along the wall across from them.
Octave Slurs
I usually don’t bother writing out the specific octave slurs, since it can depend on the current abilities of the student, but you can see some basic examples in the image to the left. I usually also have each set (between the “railroad tracks,” which indicate to stop for a moment and rest) repeated, but starting on a different pitch for each repeat. For example, play the first two measures as written (C in the staff to C below the staff) and then repeat it, but slur from the low C to the middle C. When you get to the sets that span two or more octaves repeat starting on each pitch (e.g., C in the staff, C below the staff, and C above the staff).
I will often use octave slurs as my warmup and have them be my first notes of the day. For each pitch there is a particular spot on the embouchure motion “track” and the accompanying horn angle change where the note sounds best and feels easiest. While practicing octave slurs you can watch yourself in a mirror or aim the bell or slide at spots along the wall to help you visualize where each octave sounds best. Work on keeping the amount of change the same between octaves, just moving in a different direction to ascend and descend. Play them slowly enough that you can make the small adjustments you might need at first to get every note in its correct spot. Over time you’ll find it easier to move to the correct angle change right away.
Spiderweb Routine
The Spiderweb Routine is one of Donald Reinhardt’s exercises. Again, it’s not really necessary to write this all out and the particular pitch you use as the center of the “web” will be different, according to the individual student’s particular needs and goals. In the example to the right the center of the exercises is the Bb on top of the bass clef staff. It starts by slurring up a half step (repeated) and then slurs down a half step. Then up a whole step and down a whole step. It continues with a minor 3rd and so on until each slur is an octave.
Use the center of the “web” as home base for horn angles and embouchure motion. At first, when the intervals are small, there will be very little change to the horn angle. When the interval starts to get to be a perfect 4th and larger you should start to notice the appropriate angle changes. On the first time through each set the student can make small adjustments to the horn angle to make sure that it’s in the most efficient spot for that particular note. On the repeat strive to make the horn angle go to its correct position right away. Pay close attention to the amount of change by watching in a mirror or noting where the bell is pointing. Make the amount of change be the same to ascend an interval as it is to descend the same interval, just in the opposite direction.
As I mentioned above, the center note of this exercise can change according to the student. For players who have the anatomy suited for a Very High Placement or a Low Placement embouchure types I generally recommend a higher starting pitch. For me, I usually practice this exercise starting on the F above the bass clef staff and often use this as my first notes of the day.
I also tend to not practice this exercise just by itself in its entirety, depending on what my goals of the practice session are. The Spiderweb Exercise is part of a larger routine that Reinhardt used that he called Warmup #57 (he probably had a reason for that number, but I don’t know exactly why). In that routine you would play through four sets of the Spiderweb exercise (e.g., up and down a half step, then up and down a whole step), then play through one overtone flexibility study in 4 or more positions/fingerings, then play some ascending chromatic exercises before resting a few minutes. Then when you come back you repeat that patter, but now the Spiderweb Exercise is up and down a minor 3rd and then up and down a major 3rd before switching to the other exercises, rest, and continue. In other words, the whole routine is sort of like circuit training in that you’re touching on three different types of exercises, resting, then repeating each of those exercise types but expanding them in range.
The Spiderweb Routine can be a pretty strenuous exercise to play in its entirety, so it can be a good one to use if your practice time is limited and you want a good workout for your chops. But if you have even less time or want to spend more time on other materials you can skip certain sets in it so that you’re slurring first in minor 3rds, then augmented 4ths, major 6ths, and then octaves (these notes would end up creating a fully diminished 7 chord, by the way), or any similar sort of combination. I would recommend, however, that whatever interval you slur up to that you also practice the same descending interval. Use that as a chance to check and see if your horn angles are consistent between the intervals as mentioned earlier.
Embouchure Motion Stabilizer
This exercise is a variation on another one of Donald Reinhardt’s. You can read more about Reinhardt’s original exercise here. My variation starts on a higher note (one octave higher) and ascends first, rather than descending. Remove the mouthpiece and rest a moment at the “V.” Similar to the other exercises above, play the slurs slowly enough to give yourself time to make those small adjustments to your horn angle and observe the angle with a mirror or by sighting along your bell. On the repeats strive to go directly to the most efficient angle right away.
Ultimately, it’s not as much what you practice, but how you practice that is important. What these three exercises have, however, is they incorporate large enough intervals that the horn angle changes should be noticeable to both the teacher and player and they are simple enough so that the student can play them and keep the attention on making the horn angle changes (or, for that matter, the attention can be brought instead to tongue position, breathing, embouchure motion, or whatever fits the needs and goals at the time). The point here isn’t to teach yourself how to focus on horn angle, it’s to internalize the correct horn angles so that attention can be on something else, like music. I wouldn’t practice an etude or solo repertoire with horn angle changes in mind, but if it’s helpful you could also address horn angle changes then too. If, for example, there’s a large interval leap in a solo you’re working on you might draw an arrow over the note after the leap in the direction you want to move your horn angle to remind yourself to bring that horn angle to its correct spot. But generally speaking you want to use something simple and unmusical for this sort of technique practice, then forget all about it when you’re done with it for the session and work on other things, including sounding good.
If you look at a large enough number of different brass musicians play over their entire range you’ll notice that some of them will noticeably alter their horn angle when changing register. Some will do this to a large degree, others appear to not do so much at all. Some players might appear to tilt their instrument bell up to ascend, while others might do the opposite. Many players even bring their horn angle side to side as well.
What’s going on here? What’s correct? How much should a brass musician worry about this when practicing? How much should a teacher understand?
One of the first things to consider with regards to a horn angle change is the position of the lower jaw. Donald Reinhardt wrote,
The principal duty of the lower jaw while playing is to provide an adequate playing base or foundation so that both the inner and the outer embouchures may function as one solid synchronized unit, regardless of the player’s type classification. This playing base must hold intact while the jaw is protruded and receded (according to the register being played), regardless of any jaw malocclusion that may exist in the player’s jaw formation.
“Encyclopedia…,” p. 152
Reinhardt at times would advise his students to exaggerate the horn angle changes in order to encourage the correct jaw manipulation. So for Reinhardt, getting a student to change the horn angle was often a way to encourage the correct jaw position for the student. He didn’t want the student to be thinking about the jaw while playing so much, so by altering the horn angle the jaw would need to move into its correct position in order to maintain the foundation of the teeth and gums under the lips and mouthpiece rim (which Reinhardt often referred to as the “legs” of the embouchure, likening it to the four legs of a table or the three legs of a tripod). This tracks with what researchers who study the development of motor skills say about keeping your focus as external as possible. You could concentrate on the sensation of your embouchure “legs” by paying attention to how the rim is in contact with your lips, but Reinhardt wanted to move the focus outward, towards the bell of the instrument instead.
There does appear to be a direct relationship between jaw position and horn angle, but this can be personal to the individual brass musician. Many players will, for example, protrude their jaw slightly to ascend and recede it to descend and the horn angle should follow the jaw in order to maintain the “legs” of the embouchure. But almost everyone has a malocclusion to a certain degree and the jaw will often also move from side to side. Watch this trumpet player very closely and note how his jaw moves both in and out and side to side as he changes register, but also note his horn angle.
The view from his side shows that his jaw comes forward slightly as he ascend, while he also brings the horn angle lower, which seems opposite of what you might expect (more on this topic below). But I find the front view a little more interesting and helpful to demonstrate side to side angles. Notice that as he ascends his jaw moves to his left and when descending his jaw moves to his right. But his horizontal horn angle remains pretty static. Watch it again and listen for the intonation and tone on the higher and lower pitches. Does it sound just a little pinched and flat on the high C to you?
For fun, I asked him to play the same slurs, but to also try bringing his horn angle over to one side and compare what happens. Notice that when he slurs from the middle C to the high C he still brings his jaw over to his left while ascending. When he also changes his horn angle towards the right to ascend I feel the pitch is more in tune and the tone more focused. When he brings his horn angle to the left to ascend (the same direction his jaw is moving) the pitch on the high C is definitely flat. The effect is easier to see. Bringing his horn angle to his left to descend helps the low C to be more in tune and focused while bringing his horn angle over to his right (the same direction his jaw is moving) obviously chokes off the note.
This sort of side to side horn angle change is often accompanied with a jaw movement side to side as well and it seems to work best when those two things happen in the opposite direction. If the jaw is moving to the right to ascend, then the horn angle should probably move to the left. This seems to be universal for all brass players with some side to side motion in the jaw/horn angle. When this is working efficiently, according to the individual player’s variation, it can also minimize both the jaw change and horn angle change when they work together. It can also help correct some other mechanical issues. For example, for years I would have to reverse the direction of my embouchure motion to play a pedal Bb. It made playing down in my low register difficult for me. When I began to practice bringing my horn angle to my right while allowing my jaw to move to my left the reversal of embouchure motion direction began to minimize and is almost eliminated for me now.
Speaking of the embouchure motion the way a player pushes and pulls their lips and mouthpiece together along the teeth and gums while playing directly influences the correct horn angle as well. Consider again having the “legs” or the feeling of the rim against the teeth and gums. Our teeth and gums are not a flat surface. There’s some curvature to it, both along the horizontal and vertical. A player’s most efficient embouchure motion is usually also not straight up and down, there’s almost always at least a little side to side variation as well. When changing registers and making the correct embouchure motion a player should follow the shape of the teeth and gums underneath the mouthpiece rim and lips. If while ascending, for example, the brass musician pushes up and to the right the horn angle will probably work best if it comes up slightly and moves to the right as well, following the teeth and gums underneath.
Think of a ball and socket joint. The mouthpiece is like the socket while the musician’s teeth and gums are like the ball. When the socket/mouthpiece are pushed up and to the left it follows the shape of the ball/teeth and gums. It’s not the horn angle that dictates the embouchure motion as much as the embouchure motion dictating how the horn angle needs to change.
Since everyone is going to have different anatomy, everyone’s horn angle will be unique to the individual musician. But there are methods that teachers and players can use to help work out what works best. I’ve touched on this topic in my Embouchure 101 resource, but I’ll briefly describe how I currently work with students to help them with their horn angles.
I will ask a student to sustain a note and move their horn angle around left and right and listen. I want to see how far the musician can bring the horn angle to either side as well as hear what this does to the tone and pitch. If the pitch goes flat when the angle is brought to the left it will probably go sharp when brought to the right. Somewhere in between will be where the pitch becomes most in tune and the timbre will be the most focused. Then repeat on the same note keeping the horizontal horn angle where it is, but tilt the horn angle up and down finding where along the vertical access where the pitch is most in tune and tone is most focused. You can also try moving the bell of the instrument around in a circle, starting with a very big circle and then making it smaller and smaller, circling in on the best angle for the particular note. Repeat on higher and lower notes. I use pitches along the open fingering/1st position partials.
Each note will have it’s own horn angle that makes the pitch play best and assuming that overall embouchure form is working well enough and that the breathing and tongue arch aren’t getting in the way you’ll also note the individual player’s pattern. The horn angle will change gradually along one direction as the notes ascend and gradually in the opposite direction as notes descend. Typically the amount of horn angle change to ascend an octave from a particular pitch will be the same as descending from the same starting pitch, just in the opposite direction. If it’s not, try to see if minimizing the angle change in one direction or making more in the opposite direction works. As a starting point, I feel it’s best to keep these angle changes consistent between octave, similar to working with the player’s embouchure motion.
In summary, everyone will have their own unique changes of horn angle while playing because everyone has different facial anatomy. The player’s horn angle is determined primarily by the shape of the musician’s teeth and gums underneath the mouthpiece rim and lips and angle changes help provide the player with a firm foundation on the teeth and gums for the rim and lips. Some players will tilt their horn up and down more while others may bring their horn angle from side to side more. The amount of horn angle change a musician needs can vary from player to player, but it will generally be close to the same amount to slur up an octave as it is to slur down an octave from the same note. A teacher can help a student work out the best horn angles by watching and listening to the student move the horn angles left to right and up to down, paying attention to where the pitch goes and where the tone is most focused.
The next post will discuss some exercises that a brass musician can use to solidify horn angle changes and make them work subconsciously so that the musician can concentrate more on playing more expressively.
Here is a 13 minute video I put together to discuss a couple of basic brass embouchure characteristics that I think are important for all players and teachers to understand. If you’ve poked around here on my blog or watch some of my YouTube channel before you already know about this stuff.
I made this one pretty quickly compared to the time I’ve spent on other videos I’ve posted on this topic. This video was specifically made to quickly address some things I was trying to discuss on a closed internet group that is nominally devoted to brass embouchure advice. I say “nominally” because the main purpose of this group seems to be the administrator pushing his wares, lessons, and Patreon page and there’s very little actual discussion about brass embouchure technique or advice.
The little discussion about brass embouchure technique that has been posted there has a lot of misinformation. For example, there are people who believe that lining up the teeth and getting the horn angle close to straight out makes the player blow the air stream straight down the shank of the mouthpiece (not true). Others seem to believe that tilting the horn angle up makes the player upstream and tilting it down makes the player downstream (also not true). Everyone seems to be well intentioned, they are just misinformed.
My big gripe over the direction the discussion on that group takes is that so much of the conversation revolves around information that’s just wrong. We can honestly discuss the details of things like mouthpiece pressure and jaw position (two things the administrator of that group is very focused on), but it bothers me when recommendations are based on erroneous details. It’s much better to base our pedagogy on reality, not confirmation bias. Particularly if the suggestions involve spending around $300 to purchase a device that is of dubious use, in my opinion.
Back in October 2012 I conducted a pilot study to see whether it would be accurate to state that one could simply listen to a trumpet player and tell by sound alone whether or not that player placed the mouthpiece with a significant amount of rim on the vermillion of one lip. Since then the plugin I used to collect the participants’ answers is no longer being updated for WordPress and is no longer available, so you won’t be able to take the test that way. Furthermore, the original page I created to show the answers and videos to the participants after they took the test seems to have been lost into the aether. This page is my recreation of that post, but it’s been so long I don’t exactly recall how much I wrote there.
Since I’m writing this up now as a post I’m going to put the results below the “read more” fold. If you’re catching this post from the home page you won’t be able to see the results until you click that link, so try the survey out first and then come back to see how well you did.
All the embedded videos below are the same video with all six trumpet players. I set up each embedded video to start directly on the particular player, however.
There is a concept for practicing brass instruments that is fairly well known, but probably not done correctly by most of us – when practicing, rest as much as you play. Those instructions are fairly clear, but hard to implement and also leaves a lot of room for interpretation. What does it really mean to rest as much as you play while practicing?
My interpretation of this advice is to break that up into two concepts. First, when in the midst of a practice session when I get done with an exercise routine or piece that I’m practicing I will try to put the instrument down for the same amount of time it took me to play it before moving on to the next routine or piece. So in a 60 minute practice session I might only have the metal on the mouth for about 30 minutes of that hour, but it’s 5 minutes on, 5 minutes of rest, and so on. In actuality, there’s perhaps even more rest time than playing time if you count the very short breaks I’ll be taking built into whatever I’m practicing. Solo rep has rests in it, many technique exercises have repeated “sets” where I’ll take the mouthpiece off the lips for a moment and then move on to the next set, etc.
The other interpretation I have of resting as much as you play is to then put time between practice sessions. In general, I rarely practice more than an hour at a stretch, so when I come back to another practice session I make sure that I have an hour of not playing between. With my current schedule that’s not a problem since I usually am able to practice for an hour each morning and if I don’t have a gig or a rehearsal that evening will put in another hour in the evening. Back when I was a graduate music student I had a more demanding rehearsal and practice schedule and would organize my practice time around my rehearsal schedule so that I could put at least an hour in between each playing obligation.
The basic idea here is that while practicing you should always be refreshed enough to play correctly. When fatigue sets in it’s very easy to slip into habits that aren’t very helpful. Some of these habits will seem like they’re working, to an extent, but it’s often not until the next day where it feels stiff and unresponsive. Resting as much as you play both in a practice session and throughout the entire day helps you avoid that.
It’s also worth mentioning that players will respond differently to how much you rest and play. If you’re familiar with the basic brass embouchure types, players belonging to the two downstream types will typically find that they can play for longer periods of time, but when they finally get tired they will need a nice long break to recover. In contrast, players who belong to the upstream type find that they can get tire quickly, but all it takes is a short break to recover. These are generalizations and you can find exceptions, but they can be used to your advantage if you understand your embouchure type and how to play correctly for that type. For example, as an upstream player I find that practicing in shorter spurts of just a few minutes at a time, then resting for a few minutes, can get me through more challenging materials better than trying to go through everything as quickly as possible.
It’s important, at least at first, to be more diligent about this. Take out your phone and time yourself on how long it takes you to get through something you’re working on. Then set a timer for that amount of time and rest before you play again. Better still, record yourself and then listen back to it in its entirety. Hearing how you sound while not in the act of making music is great feedback. Another fine way to duplicate this is to find a practice partner working on similar things as you. If you’re working on technique routines, for example, you play an exercise and your partner plays it back, then you move on to the next one and go back and forth. If you’re practicing solo repertoire you can alternate phrases with each other, or play the same phrase back and forth. If improvising you can trade choruses, 16, 8s, or 4s. Rest for a few minutes between each set that you’re doing.
If you already practice this way, let us know in the comments why you’ve adopted this approach and how it’s worked for you. If you don’t, tell us why you’ve chosen to not do so or try it out for a week or three and then let us know if you felt a difference.
I wasn’t familiar with trumpet player Glenn Libman prior to coming across this video. Libman studied with Donald Reinhardt for a number of years. In this video for the Trumpet Diagnostics YouTube channel Libman got together with Bobby Medina and Paul Baron to discuss Donald Reinhardt’s pedagogy.
I don’t know exactly when Libman studied with Reinhardt, but I do know that Reinhardt altered some of his ideas and presentation over the years. Some of what Libman discusses in this video are contrary to things that I learned from my teacher, Doug Elliott, who also studied with Reinhardt for a number of years.
For example, Libman describes Reinhardt’s term “pivot” more about bring the bell of the instrument up or down. He does qualify it as bring the bell up also pushes the mouthpiece and lips up, but this is a tricky way to describe it. My preference is to call the phenomenon as an “embouchure motion” and discuss any horn angle changes as being related to keeping the mouthpiece pressure consistent across the entire range.
Libman also discusses Reinhardt’s IIIB type (what I usually call the Medium High Placement) as being the most common, and IIIA (Very High Placement) as being more rare. If I recall correctly, Reinhardt wrote or said something similar that his IIIB type was pretty common. That said, my experience has been different. I find many more players belong to the Very High Placement (IIIA) type than the Medium High Placement (IIIB). I wonder if the prevalence of modern orthodontics have made some types like the Medium High Placement/IIIB less common than they were during Reinhardt’s day.
He also describes free buzzing as working against upstream players, where I was taught that free buzzing was a very good exercise for upstream players (as long as you don’t buzz into the instrument). There seems to be something about the upstream embouchure type (Low Placement/IV) that these players have trouble building embouchure strength and endurance simply by playing a lot. Free buzzing seems to really help upstream players do so.
Regardless, I found the whole interview interesting and informative. There’s a lot of good information in there and if you are curious about Donald Reinhardt’s pedagogy it makes for a solid introduction.
Are there basic descriptors of what how an effective brass embouchure looks and functions? This is a very difficult question to answer, partly because an individual musician’s anatomical features will change around that particular player’s embouchure form and function. That said, there may be some specific features that we can look for that are common for all brass musicians, regardless of those anatomical differences. If we then also take into account the basic embouchure types we can then generalize effective embouchure form for each of these basic types.
Before going any further, it might be useful to define what we mean by “embouchure technique” in the first place, as well as what it means for an embouchure to be “effective.” You would think that something as basic as embouchure would be pretty clearly defined and understood by the field already, but definitions can vary from source to source. I’m going to use the definition and description as written by Kees H. Woldendorp, MD, Hans Boschma, BHS, Anne M. Boonstra, MD, PhD,aHans J. Arendzen, MD, PhD, and Michiel F. Reneman, PhD in their paper, “Fundamentals of Embouchure in Brass Players: Towards a Definition and Clinical Assessment.”
We propose the following definition of embouchure: embouchure is the process needed to adjust the amount, pressure,† and direction of the air flow (generated by the breath support) as it travels through the mouth cavity and between the lips, by the position and/or movements of the tongue, teeth, jaws, cheeks, and lips, to produce a tone in a wind instrument.
Embouchure can be described in terms of “functional” and “dysfunctional.” In “functional” embouchure, the wind player has the ability to efficiently create the intended tone (or range of tones) or sound in his/her wind instrument, without causing performance-related physical complaints. “Dysfunctional” embouchure is the opposite: embouchure which does not, or insufficiently, create the tone (or range of tones) or sound and/or causes physical complaints related to wind playing. Dysfunctional embouchure can occur without apparent physical com- plaints, e.g., in “squeezed playing” with ineffective high muscle tension in the facial area that restricts the range of playable notes. Examples of possible consequences of dysfunctional embouchure include a limited range of tones (restrictions in playing low and/or high tones), poor dynamics (restrictions in playing loudly and/or softly), sound artifacts (squeezed tone, burred tone, superimposed sounds, diminished harmonics of the sound, noise caused by air escape, faulty intonation, or difficulties producing clear tonal intervals ), difficulty playing long notes, pain, redness or swollen lips, and problems of “attack” (the start- ing or onset of the tone).
†Pressure is force divided by surface area, i.e., the opening of a reed or the equivalent of it in a brass instrument.
What I like about the above definition and descriptions is that it clearly recognizes the interaction the embouchure has with the rest of the playing system. Unlike some, I don’t feel that it’s wrong to separate a discussion of embouchure technique from any other specific technique (breathing, tonguing, slide technique/fingering, etc.). It’s worth recognizing that the brass embouchure is part of an overall playing network, but looking closely at that one piece will help us better understand how it fits within the larger picture.
Because of the inherent variations between different players due to anatomical differences the basic principles of a well functioning brass embouchure that describe everyone is limited, but I’ll try to list some anyway. Philip Farkas’s “The Art of Brass Playing” does describe some characteristics that make for a basic description, even though there is much that is inaccurate or misleading in that book. Specifically, Farkas’s discussion of “the brass player’s face” is a pretty fair starting point. I don’t have a personal copy of this book to quote, but my recollection was that Farkas discussed a “puckered smile” where the mouth corners are locked into place and the chin was described as being flat, as opposed to a “peach pit” appearance.
Taking into account that looking for the appearance of a flat chin or exactly where the mouth corners are locked can look different from player to player, Farkas’s advice here seems to hold up under scrutiny. Dr. Matthias Bertsch and Dr. Thomas Maca looked at what muscles in the face were activated by trumpet players in their article Visualization of Trumpet Players’ Warm Up By Infrared Thermography. The authors took an interesting approach to studying the warm up of trumpet players by photographing them using an infrared camera. Their results showed that the most experienced trumpet players showed consistency in the areas where the muscular effort was concentrated.
The analysis demonstrates that the main facial muscle activity during warm up is restricted to only a few muscle groups (M.orbicularis oris, M.depresor anguli oris). The “trumpeter’s muscle” (M.buccinator) proved to be of minor importance. Less trained players expressed a more inhomogenous thermographic pattern compared to well-trained musicians. Infrared thermography could become a useful tool for documentation of musicians playing technique.
The photo to the right shows one of the images in their paper. Notice the red portion of the trumpet player’s face, indicating which muscles were activated after his warm up. The “U” shape begins at the area just under the mouth corners and connects at the chin. For effective brass playing it appears to be important that the mouth corners be locked in place (more or less where they are while at rest) and the chin be held flat so that it doesn’t bunch up towards the lower lip. As best as I can tell, these basic principles apply for all effective brass embouchures, regardless of the musician’s basic embouchure type or individual variations.
Other easily observable characteristics of a well functioning brass embouchure that Farkas, and many others, list as important are too variable to be considered universal. Features like a centered mouthpiece placement with 2/3 upper lip inside, jaw position, and horn angle are not universal among excellent brass players and it’s quite easy to find examples that contradict those traits.
On the other hand, I believe that we can say that a functional brass embouchure will have a consistent amount of mouthpiece pressure where the entire rim of the mouthpiece and lips have a firm foundation on the teeth and gums underneath. In other words, there isn’t too much or too little pressure on one side or on one lip or another. It’s probably best for all players to keep a little more mouthpiece pressure on the lower lip compared to the upper lip as the upper lip tends to be more sensitive and prone to swelling or injury. I also suggest keeping mouthpiece pressure somewhat consistent between registers. Many players will descend into their low register and allow their mouthpiece to back off a significant amount. This can be problematic and lead to the musician needing to reset before ascending from that position.
Speaking of the jaw position, there are players who will want to position the teeth so that they are more or less aligned and others who need to play with the jaw position receded. Some players with an underbite might even play best with the lower teeth in front of the upper teeth. While those features are more personal to the individual player, I feel that keeping the jaw position more or less in place is best for pretty much every player. While there can be a very slight protruding or receding of the jaw (as well as some side to side movement) when changing registers, I don’t recommend dropping the jaw to descend. I have gone into why I feel this way elsewhere, if you care to read more about that.
Downstream Embouchure
There are two very important characteristics that all well functioning brass embouchures also have, but these principles are variable from player to player. The first is that one lip or another must predominate inside the mouthpiece and the air stream should be consistently blown past the lips either in a downward direction or upward direction, not straight into the mouthpiece. When the upper lip predominates the air stream will get directed at a downward angle as it passes the lips. This embouchure can be said to belong to the more common “downstream” types.
When these players play higher the air stream is directed further downstream, closer to the lower mouthpiece rim. The air stream will be blown closer to straight the lower the brass musician plays. Notice the photo to the left, showing a trombonist playing a high Bb (Bb4).
Upstream Embouchure
Less common are players who place the mouthpiece correctly with more lower lip inside. Because the lower lip predominates the air stream gets blown up as it passes the lips. Like the downstream embouchure types, upstream players will blow the air stream closer to straight out the lower the pitch, but direct the air stream at a higher angle so that it strikes closer to the upper mouthpiece rim for the higher pitches. Look for the upstream position on the player in the photograph to the right, playing an F above high Bb (F5).
Players who place the mouthpiece close to half and half upper to lower lip inside the cup are quite uncommon. One lip or another will usually predominate inside the cup regardless of a 50/50 placement. Rarely is this placement the correct placement for the individual, it will usually function more efficiently if the placement is moved higher or lower on the lips, depending on whether the brass musician’s anatomy makes their embouchure function best as an upstream or downstream one. Often times players like this will flip the direction of the air stream at particular points in their range, causing issues right around where the embouchure changes from upstream to downstream. The tubist in the video below has this issue and at his transition point you can see and hear the lips fighting for predominance. The air stream should never be blown straight into the mouthpiece.
Whether a brass musician is upstream or downstream, I think it is best if the player keeps the mouthpiece placement consistently in the same spot on the lips over the entire range. Some brass players will set their mouthpiece with a placement that works well for the high register and then change to another placement to play in the low register. The obvious drawback to this approach is that they develop an embouchure “break” where they need to reset the mouthpiece in order to play across that transition point. It’s better to learn to play the entire range on one setting.
Whether or not they are aware of it, brass musicians will push and pull the mouthpiece and lips together along the teeth and gums while changing registers. Some players will push the mouthpiece and lips towards the nose to ascend and pull down towards the chin to descend. Other players will do the reverse, pull down to ascend and push up to descend. Watch the following video to see two different trumpet players playing octave slurs. Without instructing them to demonstrate this technique, both naturally played this way for this video recording.
Even considering the general direction of pushing or pulling the mouthpiece and lips, which I prefer to call an “embouchure motion,” there are variations. While the general direction is up and down, most players will have some angular deviations in that line, sometimes very much so. More universally, I believe it’s safe to say that the track of the embouchure motion should be in a straight line across the player’s entire range and not hook off at a different angle or change direction at a certain point in the player’s range. I also feel that it’s best to make the amount of motion that the player makes the same between octaves. For example, if the player pushes up and to the right to ascend from middle Bb to high Bb, the player should pull down and to the left to descend the same amount from middle Bb to low Bb. So it should be the same amount of embouchure motion, just in the opposite direction. See the diagram to the right that demonstrates this principal.
Another feature of the embouchure motion that can be both overlooked and over-emphasized is how the horn angle can change as the player makes the embouchure motion while changing ranges. For example, in our hypothetical player depicted in the diagram here pushes up and to the right to ascend. Because her teeth, gums, and jaw have some curvature to them, as she pushes to the right she will need to bring her horn angle slightly over to her right to maintain that consistent pressure or loose the foundation towards the right side of the mouthpiece rim. The reverse would be true for this hypothetical player for descending. She would want to bring the horn angle towards her left to descend. Horn angle can also move up and down to follow the shape of the players teeth and gums as well as whatever slight jaw protruding or receding that might be present. Much like the amount of embouchure motion, I feel it’s best to keep the amount of horn angle change consistent between octaves, just in the opposite direction when ascending/descending from the same pitch. The presence of crooked teeth or other anatomical features might make this suggestion different for certain players, but as a starting point I find it to be a good one.
The two characteristics of air stream direction and the general direction of the above embouchure motion are the main distinguishing features of the three basic embouchure types as Doug Elliott first described them to me. I won’t go into more detail about them here, since this post is supposed to be as general as possible, but I do want to point out that each of these basic embouchure types have their own idiosyncrasies that can provide models for effective embouchure principles within the context of each type. Follow the above link to learn more or read through my Embouchure 101 resource for a more complete discussion of each type.
The embouchure “aperture” is defined as the hole in which air passes through as the brass musician plays the instruments, but there is a degree of controversy over what the aperture is doing while sustaining a pitch. More specifically, a number of players and teachers claim that the aperture is always open while blowing. Here are just a few.
Technically, the aperture is always open while playing, otherwiseair would not be moving through the lips. For our intents, think of the size of the aperture as being on a sliding scale that oscillates between varying degrees of openness and closedness.
For years we have been told that our lips are supposed to be buzzing at all times when we play any notes. In fact, the lips must vibrate but NOT in the close configurations as when we do lip buzzing.
We need to tighten our lips in order to play, but the lips themselves should always be squeezing against a lovely cushion of air, not squeezing against each other.
. . .
The smaller a gap is the quicker the air has to travel to get through it, but there must always be a gap.
As air is forced through the lips, the lips never touch each other. Instead, they oscillate because of the shifts in air pressure, turbulent eddies in the mouthpiece and elasticity of the skin.
To add to the confusion, many teachers and players also describe the embouchure aperture as needing to be “open” or “closed,” but appear to be talking about the general size or shape of the aperture overall, rather than keeping the lips completely in an open position while playing. I’ve also read some players describe an “open” aperture as one where the player begins the pitch with the lips in an open position and a “closed” aperture where the lips are touching and the aperture is blown apart to start.
The trouble with all the above is that it is speculation, largely based on playing sensations. Since a great deal of brass playing happens inside the mouthpiece at high speed, where we really can’t easily see what’s going on, we’re going to inherently rely on what we think is happening. However, there have been several observational studies which clearly show the brass embouchure functioning, so we don’t need to speculate. Look at the following videos and see whether the embouchure aperture remains open.
It’s quite clear from all this video footage that the embouchure aperture opens and closes rapidly during the production of a tone on a brass instrument. Further details show that the higher the pitch the smaller overall the aperture gets at it’s largest spot while lower notes have a larger opening at the most open end of the cycle. Likewise, louder notes end up with the aperture cycle being larger and softer notes have a smaller cycle. In spite of what the earlier players and teachers claim, it really doesn’t appear that brass musicians play with their aperture open at all times.
Why is this important? Well for one, I find it interesting and think describing the actual function of brass playing correctly to be more honest. There’s really nothing wrong with teaching and practicing with analogy or inaccurate playing sensations leading our technique – so long as those are understood to be analogies. But playing sensations are different from player to player. Leading a student to efficient playing technique may be effective by asking her to play with an “open aperture,” but if the student is too loose in the first place then this advice could lead to the a more extreme problem. Even if the analogy initially works, mistaking it for truth can lead to the student continuing to move towards that analogy and take it too far in the long term.
Facts do matter. If you’re going to teach by analogy just make a quick point to clarify that this is just “how you like to feel or think of it.” Teach the truth.
