Greg emailed me a video of trumpet player Bruce Harris trying out some equipment at the 2023 ITG. It makes for a good example to play guess the embouchure type.

While we’re at it, check out this video of Harris blowing over Ornithology, along with a transcription.

Harris’s embouchure type is very clear to see. Greg mentioned in his email that this would be a good example of mouthpiece placement on the red of the upper lip working well. Harris’s very low placement is an obvious example of the “low placement” embouchure type. Because his placement has more lower lip inside the air stream gets directed upstream.

You can also easily see Harris’s embouchure motion of pulling the mouthpiece and lips together down (and to his right) to ascend and pushing up (and to his left) to descend (the Ornithology video shows the slight side to side track better than the ITG video). Pretty much every player has some of this side to side deviation in the track of their embouchure motion, some players have more or less than others.

I enjoy watching examples of great players who place the mouthpiece like this, partly because that’s how I personally play and party because so many otherwise good teachers so strongly believe that this is a feature “to be avoided at all costs.” Harris plays great and shows that the lip vermillion is really an arbitrary feature and isn’t something in particular to be concerned about with regards to mouthpiece placement.