About a year ago Stephan had some questions about my dissertation (The Correlation Between Doug Elliott’s Embouchure Types and Selected Physical and Playing Characteristics Among Trombonists) and I sent him a copy (in case he had insomnia). Recently he emailed me to ask about a bass trombonist friend of his who has been frustrated with some embouchure struggles he’s been having. His friend is worried about how his tooth structure might be affecting his tone quality. I asked him if he could take some video of his friend’s chops and Stephan came through with something I didn’t expect. Because it’s in high speed there’s no sound (filmed with 600 fps and replayed with 30 fps, which results in slow motion factor of 20), which makes it actually a bit harder to put what we’re seeing in context. Still, I am able to spot two things that I would recommend Stephan’s friend might try out. Take a close look at the video below and see what you think. My thoughts after the break.
What embouchure type do you think he plays as? It’s tough to tell because his placement is so close to half and half and neither lip really wants to predominate. Some of the challenge is made harder when he plays in the low register, where the air stream is going to be closer to straight out regardless of which embouchure type a player has. Even though some players do play great with a similar looking mouthpiece placement, one lip or another must predominate inside the cup and with this bass trombonist that’s not really happening on any of the pitches he demonstrates in this video.
With some of the higher pitches he plays his lips look like they want to slot into an upstream position, but his mouthpiece placement is much too high to effectively let him do this. Since he has room on his chin, my suspicion is that he should move his placement down lower on his lips and try playing as a “low placement” embouchure type for his whole range. It would be worth experimenting with a higher mouthpiece placement for a bit too, just to see what happens, but my first guess is that he should be upstream.
The other thing I noticed is the way he takes his mouthpiece off his lips to breathe and then brings the mouthpiece crashing back into his lips for the initial attack. Doing this seems to make endurance harder as you’re beating up your lips a bit each time you do this. You also end up having to hit a moving target for every initial attack. I feel that the closer you can move to keeping the mouthpiece set on your lips and breathing through your mouth corners the better off your playing will be over all. This can be pretty challenging to get used to, particularly for low brass players with big mouthpieces and smaller mouths, but it’s worth practicing and moving closer towards during performance.
Stephan said that he will try to get some video footage up with sound, which should make it easier to say if I’m on the right track. What did you spot in the video and what suggestions would you make?
Thanks to Stephan and his friend for allowing me to blog about this video! If you’re curious to see more high speed video of non-musical subjects, check out Stephan’s web site with videos showing the wing movements of the bee fly.
Amazing video! Thanks for posting. He looks like a medium high placement to me (and definitely pulls down as he ascends), but it’s really hard to tell when someone is so close to 50/50.
He might also experiment with taking some weight off his top lip and putting it on the bottom lip instead, it looks like he might be pushing pushing really hard on top, and it’s hard to tell whether he’s using enough pressure on the bottom lip or not.
Hey, Paul.
Yes, it is difficult to say whether he is a “low placement” or “medium high placement” embouchure type. What makes me suspect that he should move his placement lower on his lips and go fully as an upstream players is that his lip position and vibration patterns look so much more like an upstream player than a downstream one. Compare this bass trombonist’s lips while playing to a medium high placement player like Denver Dill, for example, and you can see that the way his lower lip is position and vibrates is different. Leno’s film show similar features, and in slow motion too.
Dave
I’m in total agreement with you. While it looks like he’s playing downstream in the upper register (of the clip; I can’t identify pitches by watching lips vibrate so I don’t know what range he’s actually in), his position is very precarious, and it looks like he could go either way. I agree that he should experiment with a lower mouthpiece placement (forcing himself into an upstream embouchure) to see what that brings.
There is a mention that the player is concerned about his teeth alignment possibly being a factor. Yet, I saw no clear pics of his teeth alignment. Is he concerned about unevenness, degree of overjet, degree of overbite? Is he considering some type of “corrective” dental work? After having my very uneven four upper front teeth replaced and re-aligned with caps, I can attest that an even upper lip support gave me a better tone – literally overnight. Higher range as well. So, I don’t think there can ever be any strong argument against an even tooth alignment. But other dental architecture factors such as overjet and/or overbite are not so clear cut .
Thanks for your comment, Tim. I’m not certain what this player was thinking about with his teeth, just that he was concerned that it was hindering his playing in some way. I don’t have any specifics.
Yes, teeth play an important role, but in spite of your personal experience there are also very fine players with very uneven teeth so this isn’t universal. In my opinion it’s more important to learn to work with your anatomy. Sometimes this means shifting the placement to one side (or higher/lower) to ensure that there is a good foundation of the teeth and gums behind the mouthpiece rim/lips. Some players actually use a gap or particular part in their uneven teeth to sort of “lock against” with the mouthpiece rim. It all depends on the player.
I can’t really comment on your personal case too much beyond that perhaps your mouthpiece placement or something else wasn’t ideal for your teeth before your dental work The dental work may have happened to make your setup work better. Or maybe not, I really can’t say without seeing you play and having a before and after comparison. A lot of players find the reverse happens after dental work and it takes some time for them to get their chops back together and sometimes their mouthpiece placement shifts as a result. The same variety of outcomes happens with students who get braces on and later off.