Category: Practice

“Practical” Brass Physics?

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

If you’ve been reading my blog long enough you already know that I’m interested in the science of music and pedagogy. I feel that since so much of our art form is very subjective, whenever we can take an empirical look at bass playing and teaching it can offer objective insights into how we practice and teach. So I was very interested when I discovered an article, reprinted from the Utah Music Educators Journal, titled “Practical Brass Physics to Improve Your Teaching and Playing.” Unfortunately, I’m not very certain that the physics are practical, or even necessarily true.

The article is written by either Steve Oare or Shannon Roberts, it’s not clear. The byline states Oare, but then there is a photograph of Roberts prominently displayed at the top of the article and other photographs in the article show Roberts. Regardless, the author wrote that after witnessing a master class by Allen Vizutti that his teaching and playing were transformed by what he heard. He decided to investigate the ideas further to see what physics had to say about the concepts Vizutti discussed regarding “smooth air” and “no buzz techniques.”

But even with these successes, I still harbored the following burning questions. How does this technique actually work? What are the physical mechanisms that make this work for brass players at any level? How can I teach this to students and colleagues and support it with evidence?  These questions subsequently led me to investigate tube physics, air jets, oscillators and any topics that could provide answers and evidence for the smooth air and no buzz techniques. What follows is a summation of this scientific information and some practical applications to teaching and performing.

The first issue to discuss here is the author’s research methodology. He had some questions and tried to find answers that supported his preconceived notions. Right from the beginning, his research is biased. While one could argue that his “research” was informal, when you look for evidence that supports your hypothesis you’re going to miss evidence that contradicts it. This is why the null hypothesis exists. If the author wanted to learn more about the hypothesis that “smooth air and no buzz techniques” works because of physics, he should have looked for evidence that falsifies the research question. If none exists, then he’s on to something. Any evidence that he presents now is tainted by researcher bias.

But that doesn’t mean, in and of itself, that the evidence isn’t correct, just that we need to really take a much closer and skeptical look at it. He lists three basic topics of misconception in brass playing, embouchure mechanics, mouthpiece function, and tube mechanics.

1) Embouchure Mechanics:

  • Buzzing is the technique that produces the best sound on a brass instrument. False
  • Buzzing the lips to match pitches translates into pitch accuracy in the instrument. False
  • Buzzing is the only way that one can make musical tones on a brass instrument. False

All three of these “misconceptions” rely on the belief that the lips don’t actually buzz inside the mouthpiece when playing. This is explicitly stated later in the article.

  • The formation of the lips creates a natural opening (aperture), similar to vocal folds that act as frequency oscillators.
  • 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.

The first bullet point is more nuanced than the author acknowledged and the second is wrong. The lips do in fact touch each other, otherwise there would be no sound. At this point anyone who states the lips don’t actually open and close while playing isn’t paying attention, there is just too much evidence (both theoretical and observational).

There are many more you can find, but the idea that the lips do not buzz while playing is false, therefore the “no buzz technique” the author is advocating for is highly questionable. We can discuss whether the playing sensation of not buzzing the lips to play is helpful or not, but the reality is that no buzz=no sound. Buzzing is the only technique that will produce a sound on brass, not just the best sound. Whether or not the lips actually vibrate at the frequency of the pitch is irrelevant to his hypothesis, but again, it’s much more nuanced than the author presents.

In general, I think it’s fair to state that the lips do vibrate at the frequency of the pitch being played, with a caveat. The research I’m familiar with on this topic often show that the lips vibrate at a frequency that’s typically just a touch above of the pitch frequency.

The players normally played at frequencies about 1.1% above that of the impedance peak of the bore, but could play below as well as above this frequency and bend from above to below without discontinuity.

– Relationships between pressure, flow, lip motion, and upstream and downstream impedances for the trombone

Trombonists normally play at a frequency slightly above a bore resonance. However, they can “lip up and down” to frequencies further above the resonance (more compliant load) and below (inertive load).

– Trombone lip mechanics with inertive and compliant loads (“lipping up and down”)

All measurements revealed a strong mechanical resonance with “outward striking” behavior; the played note always sounded above this frequency. Several measurements also showed a weaker second resonance, above the played frequency, with “inward striking” behavior. The Q values of the dominant resonances in human lips were lower than those typical of artificial lips.

– Mechanical response measurements of real and artificial brass players lips

The results show that with extreme efforts the players can generated playing frequencies both lower and higher than the corresponding air column resonance, but that the playing frequency under normal playing conditions (the “most comfortable note”) is almost always higher than the corresponding air column resonance. This supports the view that human lips function as “striking outward” reeds.

– Nature of the lip reed

From a practical standpoint, I feel it’s fair to say the lips do vibrate at the frequency being played, or near enough. Certainly it’s not something that we can feel or hear while we’re playing, it’s something that can only be checked with special equipment. What this information doesn’t support is a “no buzz technique.”

Some of the author’s argument conflates feeling with reality.

For example, one’s lips feel like they are buzzing when they play. It is intuitive, then, to conclude that the buzzing is the cause of the tones being produced. But it will be shown that the lip buzz sensation is not a cause but an effect of several factors: air jets, pressure changes in the mouth cavity, strong turbulent eddies in the mouthpiece, a frequency feedback loop to and from the lips, and mouthpiece cavity resonance.

In order for a tone to be produced on a brass instrument the lips must oscillate (opening and closing) before the standing wave reflects back and helps to support the lip vibration. Again, one can discuss the benefits of feeling like the standing wave sets the lips to vibrating, but without the lips oscillating to start with, no tone can be produced. Certainly if we want to attack a pitch cleanly the lips (and air, tongue, fingerings/slide position, etc.) need to be set correctly for that pitch. If the author’s hypothesis were correct, how does the instrument know the musician wants to play a low C or a high C?

Another example is the technique of placing and sealing lips into the mouthpiece. It naturally seems that the cup “captures” a pitch created by buzzing lips. It will be illustrated that this is false. Instead, smooth (laminar) air flows between the lips & into the mouthpiece, which produces Aeolian tones and maximal resonance of the mouthpiece cavity. These actions excite the harmonics of the standing airwave in the instrument to sympathetically resonate.  In effect, the air column resonates in a similar fashion to a string on a piano.

Getting into the weeds of the acoustics is not in my wheel house, so I’m a little unsure about the above. Best as I can tell, the flow of air into the mouthpiece is not a “smooth (laminar)” flow, the air is pulsed into the mouthpiece cup as the lips open and close. After the air passes the lips it swirls inside the cup before it gets blown into the shank. An Aeolian tone is created when air passes a solid object and generates an oscillation of the air stream, such as a flute tone or whistling. Brass playing are sustained lip-reed oscillations, not Aeolian vortex tones.

Now it is true that the brass tone is the air column inside the instrument oscillating, which strings do as well. Where the piano string analogy breaks down for brass is that we only rarely play the fundamental of the air column, we are almost always playing on the harmonics of the vibrating column of air inside the instrument. On a piano the string length determines the pitch. On brass, the frequency of the lip vibrating influences the column of air to develop nodes and oscillate on the harmonic series.

When the author “puts it together” he included a graphic representation. Take a look at it.

Now take a look at the graphic I created way back in 2010 when I needed an image to spice up a blog post.

It’s a pretty poor job of graphics, to be honest. I just wanted an image that depicted a brass musician playing with the tongue tip touching the bottom of the lip (as something to avoid, by the way). I don’t know why the author took this crappy image for his graphical representation, since it really doesn’t add anything. I might have even granted permission to use it, if I had been asked.

In short, buzzing has no positive effect on tone production. It is merely a sensation felt on the lips due to air pressure changes. An effective experiment one can try is to simply blow air into a mouthpiece while inserting it in a brass instrument. The result is the Aeolian tone Mouthpiece Effect. No buzzing is ever needed. One can also try the opposite. Buzz into a mouthpiece while inserting it. Do not alter the buzzing in any way. The resultant sound is kazoo-like and uncontrolled.  A comparison of the muscular positions and tensions of the buzz and smooth-air techniques yields some interesting results.  The photo and spectrographs, which follow, illustrate those results.

Yeah, not really. If one were to conduct the above experiments utilizing artificial lips I suspect that the results might be different. Trying to do this with a human being will result on the musician making micro-adjustments, perhaps even without realizing it. Blowing air into the mouthpiece while inserting it into the instrument does, in fact, alter the conditions and the resulting back pressure can indeed make it feel as if the lips begin oscillating on their own, but that’s just the player making enough adjustment to get the tone started. Try doing this with a high C, instead of the low pitch that you end up with this experiment.

Likewise buzzing the mouthpiece and then slotting it into the instrument requires some adjustments. The lip position and blowing activity is different between mouthpiece buzzing and playing the instrument. The author pointed out that the mouthpiece itself has a natural (very high pitch) resonance. Buzzing on the mouthpiece alone requires the player to lip the oscillation to the desired pitch and this is quite easy to do on the mouthpiece. Adding the instrument then adds the resonance of the air column inside of the instrument and influences (not creates) the frequency of the lip vibration. So by mouthpiece buzzing and slotting the instrument you’re going to need to make an adjustment or else you will get an uncontrolled and kazoo-like sound.

The author does eventually get down to brass tacks (no pun intended) with some practical suggestions.

  • Always incorporate breathing exercises into every practice session.  This promotes more lung capacity and the ability to produce steady laminar air.
  • fig 8Straw Blowing to achieve laminar (smooth) air. This is one of the most beneficial exercises a brass player can perform. Place the straw between the lips. The straw should make no contact with the teeth. Simply practice blowing long phrases/tones into the palm of the hand. Concentrate on steady smooth air. Follow this immediately by blowing into the instrument.  The results are remarkable. One can see and hear immediate improvement. This is very beneficial for students who are currently having difficulty with tone production.
  • Make an “M” for embouchure formation.  The “M” position of the mouth, as in the word “mom”, is the most natural brass embouchure.  It places the lips in a very relaxed and supple position for smooth air production.
  • More closed M for higher notes, open for low notes.  This is a productive method for register change. Tighten the “M” as if one is squeezing a straw between the lips. This can be practiced with the straw ahead of time.  Emphasize steady air when shifting to the next overtone.

Breathing exercises are fine, and probably to be encouraged. The idea that one can increase lung capacity is a myth on its own, but not worth going into right now. Laminar air flow doesn’t really apply to brass playing, which has the pulsating and varying jets of air.

Straw blowing might make for a way to lead a player towards a particular playing sensation, but doesn’t recreate the way the lips actually vibrate. It might also lead to the student going too far in that direction. Use that exercise with caution.

Setting the embouchure formation with an “M” syllable is fine, I use that analogy all the time. However, I prefer not to describe ascending as “squeezing a straw between the lips.” My concern here is that the squeezing action results in bringing the mouth corners in from their position as ascending, rather than keeping them lock in the same place for the entire range. Sure, if a student has difficulties with pulling them back with a “smile embouchure” the sensation of bringing them in like you’re squeezing a straw between your lips might help. But some brass musicians have the opposite problem, their mouth corners get pulled in towards the mouthpiece rim, which can choke off the sound and make it difficult to ascend from the upper register without resetting the mouthpiece (I speak from personal experience here).

Conclusion

If something in the article speaks to you and helps you with your playing and teacher, that’s just fine. Don’t mistake the playing analogies and playing sensations the author is claiming to be actual fact. I find his claims that the lip vibration is merely a playing sensation ironic. The physics he covers have just enough truth to them to sound legit, but not enough to be objectively helpful. Is the article inspirational? Maybe, but I was just disappointed.

The “Secret” to High Notes

~ wilktone ~ 3 Comments

Is there a “secret” to playing high notes on a brass instrument?

According to this video, it’s got something to do with the teeth and lips, but he’s not very clear on what he means. He talks about if you imagine the air passing over the tongue it hits the back of the teeth and then on the lips it forms a “thick” air stream. But we need a “thin” air stream to play high. He then demonstrates how he can place the mouthpiece in different (horizontal) placements that, I think he claims, naturally create a thin air stream for high notes.

But the key is his Mays Double-Aperture System (MDAS). This is used to unlock “High Note Air Jets” (HNAJ). He goes through a number of procedures to position the lower lip closer to the top teeth, position the top lip further away from the lower lip, curl the lower lip over the lower teeth, drag the lower lip so it’s in line with the edge of the lower teeth, direct the air up (with the jaw), experiment with horizontal mouthpiece placement (in order to find a place that “unlocks” air channels), experiment with vertical mouthpiece placement, and create “fast” air with “dry areas” of your lips.

Now I can see how some of this experimentation could lead to brass students finding a “sweet spot” on the lips that works best, but much of his description seems to be more his playing sensations or an analogy. This sort of experimentation done subjectively could just as easily screw a player up, in my opinion.

By the way, I would type his embouchure as a Medium High Placement type.

But there are a lot of more videos on YouTube that teach us the “secrets” to playing high. Let’s see what another says.

This video states that it’s tongue position. But he first describes that instead of going “up or down” on the center of the pitch we need to go “out deeper into the center of the instrument.” The lips, he says, are not the cause of the sound but rather just responding to everything else (most especially the oral cavity resonance). With the lip position what you want to do is think of the air column as a string. To go up an octave, you use the tongue position to “cut the air column in half.” He discusses a “half whistle,” which I like to describe as a pitched hissing instead.

Tongue position is an important part of the puzzle, and his idea of a “half whistle” is similar to something that I’ve been using in my own practice and teaching as well. But is it the “secret” to high notes for all players or does it depend on what the student is already doing and what direction they need to move towards? I think that in order for this concept to have such a dramatic effect the musician will need to have other things, like the embouchure and breathing, already pretty well in place.

By the way, my best guess for his embouchure type is the Very High Placement type.

In this video we learn a bit about how the brain is plastic and changes as we learn new motor skills, but it can adopt to incorrect technique as well as correct technique. So we need to practice correctly in order to reinforce efficient playing rather than incorrect playing.

Regarding the embouchure, he describes his as having an “open aperture.” The concept of an open or closed aperture to play a brass instrument is sometimes brought up, but people often use the terms differently and neither really describes what happens as a tone is being played. The aperture actually opens and closes throughout the playing. Regardless, he makes the connection between aperture size and dynamic (larger aperture for louder notes, smaller for softer) and range (smaller aperture for higher notes, larger for lower).

According to this teacher, we can create “compression” at three points in the playing apparatus; the lips, the tongue, and the glottis. Of the three, we don’t really want to do so at the glottis as that tends to cause playing issues. The tongue is used to create a resonance in the oral cavity to match the pitch being played, as described in the previous video. He briefly discusses a “modified yoga breathing,” which he describes as a process to breathe in first at the abdomen, then the intercostal muscles, and then then “claviculary” (at the clavicles). The goal of all of this is to remove excess tension, so I guess that’s the secret he’s talking about.

For descriptions and instructions on breathing I think I prefer to avoid the three-step process he advocates. I lean more towards how Arnold Jacobs would prefer to get the student taking a natural breath, using the sensation of moving air instead. Perhaps you could use those three regions as a guide for the teacher to use to see if the inhalation is working correctly, but Jacobs famously pointed out that you can imitate this body movements without moving the air correctly. It’s not the body moving that creates efficient and relaxed breathing, but rather efficient breathing that causes the body to move in the manner we associate as correct.

I can’t really guess his embouchure type from this video. Every time he plays the camera focuses on the bell of his trumpet and we can’t get a decent look at his embouchure. Probably one of the downstream types.

What’s the point of going through contrasting discussions on playing well in the upper register? Particularly since they cover some different things? Some players could definitely follow the advice of any of these videos (or the myriad of other videos purporting to offer the “secret”) and find something that clicks. But again, it really depends on what other playing factors are already in place and what needs adjustments.

With my personal interest in brass embouchure technique and pedagogy it’s very easy for me to break down the “secret” to opening up the upper register there. If I were to take it more personal, I might even advise all players to put as little upper lip inside the mouthpiece as possible and play upstream. But that particular adjustment that worked so well for me might be exactly opposite of what another player needs to do.

Ultimately the best way to open up the upper register is to get the coordination of all the different playing factors working together. It can be very helpful to isolate something in particular (tongue position, mouthpiece placement, breathing, etc.) because it can help us to both diagnose what needs changing and make the corrections. But these things must interact with the other playing factors in order for things to work efficiently.

I’ve discussed (quite a while ago) how I dislike it when brass teachers describe things as “secrets” to unlock your potential. It always seems that when that’s the rhetoric the advice is either pretty much already acknowledged as an important part of good playing mechanics or something really unusual that I wouldn’t advocate for. Most of the time I think well-intentioned teachers describe what clicked for them personally and then transfer its importance on to every student.

What do you think? Is there really a “secret” to good brass technique? Do you think that it’s OK to describe corrections as a “secret” and I’m being pedantic? Or do you agree with this pet peeve and think that brass teachers need to stop being so over-the-top in their sales technique? Is it just a way for these teachers to get clicks on their videos, drive traffic, and hawk their books and lessons? Let me know in the comments if I’m being a curmudgeon.

You’re Going To Be Fine – Talking Embouchure Injuries with Brad Goode

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Brad Goode is an amazing musician. You’re probably most likely to know about his jazz trumpet playing. He’s also an excellent composer and bassist. He has also struggled a number of times with injuries to his lips that have seriously hindered his trumpet players.

Recently I came across a video podcast series, Trust the Process, that is devoted to helping musicians deal with injuries related to playing their instruments. Episode 4 is an interview with Brad Goode.

Here are a couple of quotes from the video that I found particularly interesting or insightful.

Understanding good brass technique and preventing injury go hand in hand.

For those who prefer not to think about brass technique, this is the best argument I can think for why you should understand brass technique.

There are many, many brass teachers not teaching embouchure. And not dealing with the subject of embouchure but believing in a magical thinking system where if you just imagine the results strong enough everything will be perfect and you won’t need to know anything about embouchure.

I find it truly amazing how many intelligent, well-intentioned, and experience brass teachers and players buy into this “think system” approach. And many are quite defensive if you point out the absurdity of it. And as Brad mentions, more players than not who get injured have been indoctrinated into this idea.

There are a few things he says that I question or disagree with. For example, while Brad is correct that different brass instruments require different approaches, I’ve found that the basic principles apply to all and they are more similar than many give credit. But I imagine that if we discussed these differences and similarities in person we’d find we’re more aligned than not here.

The whole interview is interesting and worth watching. I will definitely be checking out more of the Trust the Process series.

Brass Embouchures: A Guide For Teachers and Players – NC Trombone Festival Recording

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Yesterday I attended the North Carolina Trombone Festival, held at Appalachian State University this year. It was a wonderful time. I heard two very fine trombone choirs perform, the ASU Trombone Choir and the Charlotte Trombone Collective. The Performer’s Showcase Recital featured a number of the guest artists and most performed pieces I wasn’t familiar with already. I got to meet some colleagues from around North Carolina that I haven’t met before and also finally met a couple of teachers face to face for the first time.

There were also some workshops and I gave a presentation on brass embouchure technique and pedagogy in the morning session. While preparing for this I spent some time practicing it and recorded myself. Here is one practice session, unedited, but I think that it will get the points across pretty well. I didn’t write out everything I planned to say. Instead I had some bullet points of things I wanted to say in my presenters notes (as well as on the slides) and spoke about them off the cuff. I think that this makes a live presentation feel more natural, but on video it perhaps comes across better to recite something prewritten. What do you think?

At any rate, here is the practice session for anyone who is interested but wasn’t able to attend the festival or went to another workshop at the same time.

If you’ve read through some of my embouchure materials I’ve already posted here you’ll recognize the discussion as well as many of the examples I use. But it’s possible that this format and organization works well for some people as an introduction or review.

North Carolina Trombone Festival Embouchure Presentation 4/13/24

~ wilktone ~ 1 Comment

Coming up next month, on April 13, 2024, I will be presenting at the North Carolina Trombone Festival. I will be giving an presentation on brass embouchure technique titled “Brass Embouchures: A Guide for Teachers and Players” at 10 AM.

The boilerplate release forms that I received to participate this year mention live streaming. If the event is streamed or recorded, I will be sure to post links here for folks who might want to tune in.

Regardless of whether it is going to be streamed, I will practice the presentation (in part so I can be sure to get through everything in the allotted 45 minutes) and will probably record my practice. If I get a decent practice recording I’ll post it too, so even if the NCTF doesn’t record or stream it you’ll be able to watch it later.

How to Flutter Tongue on Brass

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To be honest, I’m not sure how effective this will be for teaching brass players how to flutter tongue. If you came here looking for help learning to flutter tongue please leave a comment after trying this out and let us know if it helped.

Flutter tonguing is an effect that brass players are sometimes asked to play that provides a raspy or growling effect. I use it quite frequently when I’m playing plunger trombone solos. But many brass musicians have trouble with it and simply can’t do it.

The technique itself is, I feel, almost identical to rolling your “R’s,” something that is common with some languages like Spanish. I never had any trouble with this, so when it comes to teaching it I have been at a loss. But recently I happened to come across this YouTube video from the Breakthrough Spanish channel, teaching how to roll your “R’s.”

One of the takeaways I got from this video is how rolling your “R’s” is more difficult with a harder consonant before it. When we articulate notes on brass most of us will employ a “T” or “D” consonant to start the pitch, but if we’re articulating too hard on the beginning of that note it doesn’t allow the tongue the flexibility it needs to flutter. One key to learning how to flutter might be lightening up on the initial attack or trying it out with a breath attack.

I suspect that the “ara” trick explained in this video might also be very helpful for developing a good flutter tongue. Quite often I find that tweaking a playing technique away from the instrument and then transferring that skill to playing is a very effective practice approach.

If you can’t already flutter tongue and try this out, please come back and let us know in the comments how it worked for you.

Skill Consolidation to Optimize Practice

~ wilktone ~ 1 Comment

I’m always looking around for research based ideas on how we can improve our pedagogy and practice. I came across this article a while back, bookmarked it, and then promptly forgot about it. It concerns research published in 2016 called Motor Skills Are Strengthened through Reconsolidation, published in the journal Current Biology.

The key to learning a new motor skill – such as playing the piano or mastering a new sport – isn’t necessarily how many hours you spend practising, but the way you practise, according to a 2016 study.

Scientist Have Found a Way to Help You Learn New Skills Twice as Fast

No big surprise there, we already know that how you practice is more important than what you practice or how long you practice. What I’m curious about is what practice strategies had the most benefit.

Recent evidence has shown that memories can be modified through reconsolidation, in which previously consolidated memories can re-enter a temporary state of instability through retrieval, and in order to persist, undergo re-stabilization.

Motor Skills Are Strengthened through Reconsolidation

Reconsolidation is the process where memories, including how to perform motor skills, are recalled and changed as new knowledge is (or motor skill development, in this case) are added. In order to ensure this is happening the materials or skill being practiced are subtly altered in subsequent practice sessions. In the paper quoted above the researchers used a specially designed computer mouse that worked through squeezing it. Test subjects were asked to practice moving the cursor on a computer screen using this unfamiliar mouse. After six hours they were asked to repeat it, but one group of the subjects were asked to practice it using a subtly different squeezing technique. These subjects ended up outperforming the group that practiced the exact same mouse technique.

The key, according to the researchers, is to mix up the practice in subtle ways, not drastically. There also needs to be a six hour gap between the initial practice and the subtly altered practice in order to give the brain enough time to consolidate the original practice.

It’s also important to note that this study only looks at a particular skill, moving around a cursor with an unconventional mouse. It’s not a slam dunk that a similar approach will work for practicing a musical instrument, but there’s also no reason to believe that it won’t.

How can we subtly alter the materials we’re practicing to achieve the reconsolidating effect? The closest analogue to the experimental design I can think of would be to practice on a different instrument, not necessarily a different instrument type. For example, I tend to select which trombone I practice based on whether I’m practice jazz or classical music, but when working on something like lip breaks or fretting patterns for jazz improvisation they could be practiced on my large-bore orchestral trombone instead. Another similar idea would be to practice on a different brass instrument altogether, say working on mechanical corrections to your embouchure on an instrument with a completely different sized mouthpiece.

There are obviously some other ideas that could provide a similar benefit. What thoughts do you have on how we can subtly alter our practice in order to maximize the benefits?

Embouchure Type Switching For Pedals

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A recent discussion on TromboneChat discussed playing pedal tones and whether or not it is appropriate to switch embouchure types for playing the pedals. Specifically, whether it’s helpful for a downstream player to change to upstream or vice versa. One participant wrote:

If you are a high placement downstream player, reverse your playing to upstream for pedals. I don’t know how you would do it if you are an upstream player already. 

Basically, the airstream needs to aim more or less right at the mouthpiece throat.

First, it’s important to understand and define what upstream and downstream embouchures actually are. Follow the above link to read and watch some details, but to summarize when a brass musician places the mouthpiece with more upper lip inside the mouthpiece the air gets blown in a downward direction. When the mouthpiece is placed with more lower lip inside the air stream direction is blown up. This embouchure characteristic can be found on all functioning brass embouchures, regardless of how the musicians feels is what is happening. It’s not directly related to the position or the jaw, it’s the mouthpiece placement that makes the air stream blown up or down.

It is definitely true that as a brass musician plays lower the air stream will be blown closer towards the shank of the mouthpiece. But I don’t feel it should switch air stream direction. In fact, I don’t buy that this is actually happening with the examples shown or discussed in the Trombone Chat topic. For example, one participant feels that this film of George Roberts playing a pedal F demonstrates a switch from upstream to downstream.

Notice that in this video that Roberts places the mouthpiece so that there’s more upper lip inside. The upper lip predominates and overlaps the lower lip. The film maker, Lloyd Leno, even classifies Roberts as playing with a downstream embouchure. I don’t see anything in this film clip that would indicate Roberts flips his air stream from downstream to upstream for this pedal F. Certainly the air stream is directed closer to blowing straight into the shank, but I don’t think it’s reversing and blowing upstream.

If you’re not convinced, let’s take a look at a bunch of different trombonists playing a pedal Bb. First, let’s look at the more common downstream types.

Downstream Pedal Bb

The above photo captures the aperture close to its most open position and the air stream does look like it might be being blown straight into the shank. Note the slight overlap of the upper lip over the lower.

This player shows a similar lip position as the player above. Both players place their mouthpiece quite close to half and half, perhaps too much so. Again, notice how the lips are lining up. In this case the upper lip doesn’t look like it overlaps quite as much over the lower.

This one doesn’t have the best angle, but you can see the upper lip overlapping the lower lip slightly. Here’s several more.

You get the idea. In the above examples there is more upper lip inside the mouthpiece and the upper lip slightly overlaps the lower. This upper lip overlap is easier to see in higher register notes because the air stream is blown more sharply downward, but the same general lip position is present on the pedals too.

I want to point out that some of the above players reset their mouthpiece placement to a more centered placement to play pedals. This is something I advise against, but it’s important to notice this fact because it is something that happens with upstream trombonists as well.

Let’s compare the downstream players with some photos of upstream trombonists playing a pedal Bb and see if there’s an obvious difference.

Upstream Pedal Bb

The glare off the flash on the mouthpiece along with the position the lip aperture happened to be in makes it a little harder to see, but notice the mouthpiece placement allows for more lower lip inside. This trombonist resets the mouthpiece to a position closer to half and half for pedal range – and example of “shifting” to play pedals that I advise against. If you rely on resetting the mouthpiece for pedals you’re always going to have trouble getting in and out of the pedal register. It’s best to learn to play pedals in a way that matches your embouchure form for the normal playing range.

This upstream trombonist also resets the mouthpiece to a more centered position. You can see the loose right mouth corner. Collapsing the embouchure formation to descend is a common issue. Those features aside, notice the lower lip is overlapping the upper lip slightly. There is a distinctly different lip position compared with the downstream embouchures.

This upstream trombonist has a placement close to half and half for his entire range. I didn’t capture the aperture in a very open position for the above photo, but that is a pedal Bb. Photos of this musician playing higher notes shows it much more clearly as an upstream embouchure. Again, notice the lip position and compare to the downstream players.

This photo got the aperture in a position that makes it easier to note the upstream air direction for a pedal Bb. Notice how the lower lip predominates and overlaps slightly.

Here’s another example. The glare of the flash again gets in the way a bit, but you can see the predominance of the lower lip inside the mouthpiece and the lower lip is slightly in front of the upper. This is opposite of all the downstream examples.

The above photo is me playing a pedal Bb. My friend didn’t quite get the side angle I had with the other photos, so it’s harder to see the lower lip coming out in front of the upper, but you can clearly see how much more lower lip is inside the mouthpiece.

There is a general type of lip position you can see inside the mouthpiece that is different between downstream and upstream brass musicians. If you take the time to look closely at a number of different brass embouchures like this you’ll become adept at spotting the difference. Look closely at the above photographs and also the entire Leno film I embedded above and look for which lip tends to overlap the other. With downstream players the upper lip will be slightly in front of the lower while with upstream embouchures you’ll see the lower lip slightly in front of the upper. It doesn’t matter what the horn angle is or jaw position, the mouthpiece placement makes the embouchure upstream or downstream. Notice in the above photo examples that you can find players with receded or aligned jaw positions playing upstream and downstream.

One thing that you won’t be able to see in just the isolated photographs is that there is a gradual adjustment of the air stream direction from high to low. When a downstream embouchure brass musician plays in the upper register the air stream is blown more sharply downstream and when that musician plays in the lower register the air stream will be blown at a smaller angle downward. This is reversed for upstream embouchures. The Lloyd Leno film I embedded above shows this pretty clearly in slow motion.

So the question is whether or not it’s appropriate to change embouchure types for pedals. As a tenor trombonist, I don’t need to perform pedals very frequently and generally the context in the tenor literature for pedal tones are such that if I did need to reset or make a radical shift in my embouchure to get pedal tones out I probably could. So you could make an argument that as long as this shift doesn’t happen in the normal playing range it’s no big deal.

That said, I think it’s best to avoid any embouchure type switching or radical shifts in embouchure, regardless of what range it’s in. For one thing, shifting back and forth will cause a noticeable break in the embouchure and right at that switch you’ll be able to see and hear something happen. Here is an example of this happening in the normal playing register on a tubist.

Notice the lip position inside the mouthpiece. For his lower register his lower lip predominates and the embouchure is upstream. In the middle of his register he flips lip position and the upper lip begins to predominate and the air will be blown downstream. He’s quite adept at going back and forth, but you’ll hear that he almost always cracks the notes around the break. When asked to play something that happens right at this switch things can easily break down.

This tubist happens to have a mouthpiece placement too close to half and half, so he is unable to keep the embouchure functioning for the entire range as either upstream or downstream. Notice that his type switching happens without a radical change in jaw position or other shift that might be noticeable if you don’t know what to look and listen for.

Something similar can happen for trombonists when they play pedal tones, but the same disadvantages that the above tubist is dealing with apply. Again, you could make the argument that a tenor trombonist who plays pedals infrequently shouldn’t worry too much about playing the pedal range differently, but if that embouchure type switching creeps into the normal playing range it will be more problematic. Regardless, I feel that spending time in the practice room to minimize or eliminate any unnecessary or drastic shifts in embouchure technique is better – even for the pedal register.