I was recently asked if I could clarify Donald Reinhardt’s thoughts on the position of the lower lip while free buzzing. Rather than paraphrase it again, here is the direct quote.
The membrane (red) of the lower lip must be rolled in (not curled in) and slightly over the lower teeth, while the tip of the overlapping upper lip is simultaneously reaching down to make its light contact (just touching) with the lower lip at the vibrating points.
Encyclopedia of the Pivot System, p. 167
One specific question was what Reinhardt meant by “roll” and “curl.” My interpretation is that the inner membrane of the lower lip shouldn’t be stretched up and over the lower teeth (curl), but rather the vermillion (red) of the lips rolled in to contact the top of the lower teeth. While the vermillion is capable of accepting pressure pretty well, the inner membrane isn’t. Curling your lip over your lower teeth would position the inner membrane over the top of your lower teeth, while rolling the lip encourages placing vermillion slightly over the top of the lower teeth. Whether or not this was Reinhardt’s reasoning, I don’t know. There may also be a difference in what specific embouchure muscles are targeted that Reinhardt felt was optimal, but as far as I know he never wrote about or described his reasoning to any students.
Another concern was whether my paraphrasing to roll the lower lip “in towards” rather than “over” the lower teeth makes for a noticeable difference. In my opinion, any description of free buzzing is designed to get the player heading in the right direction and that adjustments are made as needed. Reinhardt crams a lot of detail into that one sentence and I find it a little unwieldy and sometimes unnecessary to explain free buzzing that way. I’ve had some success by telling students, “Think of your lower lip gently hugging your lower teeth, now bring your top lip down as if you’re saying ’em’.” Sometimes that doesn’t do the trick and I need to describe it differently. I also think that depending on what a student is capable of, it may be best to intentionally deviate slightly from the exact description, so long as the correct muscles are targeted (mostly the muscles that intersect at and just under the mouth corners). Sometimes I’ll have the student roll so there’s more lower lip over the lower teeth, sometimes less. So whether you prefer roll “in towards” or roll “over” the lower teeth, keep the inner membrane of your lower lip off the lower teeth and you probably will be fine to get started with free buzzing.
In my opinion, the two most important things to remember while free buzzing is to go for a mosquito-like sound as much as possible – soft, thin, airy, and high pitched at first, and keep in mind that all you really need to do is a little bit of free buzzing. Free buzzing as Reinhardt describes is strenuous enough that you probably only need a couple of minutes a day at first.
Nice post, Dave.
I always interpreted Reinhardt’s “roll, not curl” as being about avoiding the lip actually curling in on itself. (I’ve seen some players do this, even one highly successful player.)
In other words, to avoid this:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1425/1466789656_169d41ef89_z.jpg
So, the lip rolls over the bottom lip enough to cover it, but not so much as to start curling in on itself.
Your notes about the vermillion of the lip vs. the inner membrane are very interesting. I definitely have enough lower lip in my mouth when I play that the inner membrane is stretched over my lower lip, and it seems to work best this way for me. However, I do occasionally experience difficulties because of this (the teeth irritate or even lightly cut the inside of the bottom lip). I may try to play the way you suggest, to see what I can do with it.