I’ve had this YouTube video bookmarked for a while and been meaning to post it. Trumpet player Brad Goode demonstrates a warm up he uses with a “skeleton mouthpiece” (sometimes called an embouchure visualizer).
One thing that I’d like to echo that Brad says in his video is that the “visualizer” is not really very good for looking at the embouchure. The lack of normal resistance sometimes will make the lips form in a slightly different position than they will when playing, which is why I prefer to use a transparent mouthpiece for embouchure diagnosis. The skeleton mouthpiece has some interesting potential for practice, though. Check out how Brad uses it and while we’re at it, let’s play “Guess the Embouchure Type.” My guess after the break.
Since I recently posted some YouTube videos on the acoustics of the trumpet I thought I’d also share another video by trumpet player and physics teacher Nick Drozdoff shattering a wine glass with his trumpet.
Pretty cool. Not too high a pitch that I couldn’t also try that on my trombone.
As an aside, I took trumpet lessons from Nick back in *mumble* when I was in high school. He’s a terrific teacher and trumpet player.
Professor John Harbaugh of Central Washington University has a couple of videos up on YouTube of a trumpet master class. I liked his demonstration using a glass tube and a torch to produce a sound, although the discussion of physics are actually pretty light. Here are the two parts.
Personally, I think that he makes too much about the sympathetic vibrations of the lips to have the lips “relaxed” so that you’re not “fighting the horn.” He’s really discussing playing sensations there, which are notoriously difficult to pin down universally. Some players may benefit from thinking of their lips being relaxed, but others will want to work more on firming the lips. His isometric physics demonstration is a red herring, as I don’t see how it directly relates to the brass embouchure. Squeezing your fingers together for a long time is tiring, of course, but so is playing a brass instrument for long periods of time. If you’ve built the strength and endurance to do this, I feel that it is better to actively firm the embouchure formation (at the mouth corners, primarily) rather than focusing on “kinesthetic response.”
Ultimately Harbaugh wants to advocate a “subconscious or intuitive way of playing,” but the acoustical principles he discusses don’t support this argument. Again, this is a red herring because the point of doing any analysis (embouchure or acoustics or whatever) is to do the active thinking about it while drilling so that you can be intuitive later when it counts. It’s not an either/or issue, just do the proper thing at the proper time. In the practice room you can afford to think about how your are playing and whether your mechanics are correct. On the stage you must concentrate on making good music (which you must also practice doing too).
A much better discussion of trumpet physics (in my opinion) is by Nick Drozdoff, who is not only a very fine trumpet player but also a high school physics teacher.
It’s been a while since I did a “Guess the Embouchure Type.” Here’s a video that has a great look at the chops of Lee Morgan, one of my favorite jazz trumpet players. Take a look and see if you can work out Morgan’s embouchure type. My guess after the break.
I’ve blogged recently about Denver Dill’s new book, Still Playing, My Journey Through Embouchure Surgery and Rehabilitation. Shortly before my copy of his book arrived I got an email from Denver, who happened to come across this site. After watching some of my embouchure vods he was interested in putting together something similar that would show his embouchure. He demonstrates his mouthpiece placement both prior to the surgery and after. Denver also got a hold of a transparent mouthpiece for his video, posted by the West Point Band’s YouTube page. Take a look and see if you can guess Denver’s embouchure type. My guess after the break.
Denver Dill has played trumpet with the West Point Band since 2004, a remarkable achievement for musicians under any circumstances. What makes Dill’s experiences even more noteworthy is that he injured his lip in high school, completed both undergraduate and graduate degrees in trumpet, and successfully auditioned for his spot with the West Point Band – all with a damaged lip. Eventually his injury began to affect his playing to the point where he could no longer work out his way through his difficulties. He was diagnosed with a torn orbicularis oris and had surgery to correct it. He has since made a successful comeback to playing and written a book about his experiences.
Still Playing, My Journey Through Embouchure Surgery and Rehabilitation is self published, but very well produced with color charts and photographs, well laid out, and solidly bound as a paperback. It’s not a very long book, but since the pages aren’t numbered I can’t say exactly how long it is. Dill writes about several topics in his book, including his history of how he injured his lip, his surgery, and recovery process. While there is much in the text that is really superfluous to the topic of embouchure injury and rehabilitation, Dill writes so well that I found myself mostly enjoying reading passages about his personal life. It’s the discussion about his surgery and recovery process that I was most interested in, of course, and Dill didn’t disappoint there.
One thing that I would like to give Dill credit for is something that I find lacking in a lot of other resources musicians put together concerning injuries and rehabilitation, his medical disclaimer. Early on in his book Dill writes:
While trombone is my primary instrument and it’s been a while since I’ve seriously doubled on any other brass, I’ve been thinking lately about fingering issues after doing a “guess the embouchure type” post of trumpet player Giuliano Sommerhalder. One of the things I noted about the video I used for that post was that Sommerhalder doesn’t place his finger tips on the valves, but instead places the second digit of his fingers over the valves. Even though this isn’t what is traditionally taught for fingering technique Sommerhalder is obviously not slowed down by this.
Coincidentally, I’ve recently come across a couple of articles online about fingering that comment on these things. A friend of mine from grad school at Ball State University, Dr. Adam Gaines, wrote a short article for Blessing Brass called There Are Only Three Valves. In it, Adam notes: Continue reading “Fingering For Brass Players”→
I bookmarked this video of Swiss/Italian trumpet player Giuliano Sommerhalder playing Rafael Mendez’s virtuoso arrangement of Mexican Hat Dance a while back and have been meaning to do a “Guess the Embouchure Type” for a while now. I don’t remember how I came across this video, so if you forwarded it to me my apologies for no credit.
At any rate, Sommerhalder is a very fine player and this video has a few places where you can get a good enough look at his chops to guess his embouchure type. Take a look and see what you think. My guess after the break.
This one is a sort of a repost. I had done this same “Guess the Embouchure Type” of Tine Helseth from this video earlier, but a server hiccup (and not remembering to put on automatic backups) caused about 2 weeks worth of posts and comments to be deleted.
At any rate, Helseth is a very fine Norwegian trumpet player. She’s really known for her classical trumpet soloing, but the below video shows some excellent closeups of her embouchure while playing (or at least during a video shoot, the production value of this video is such that they may not be playing exactly what we’re hearing). Take a look and guess which embouchure type you think she plays as.
