Developing embouchure control requires a certain degree of embouchure strength. Having strong embouchure muscles allows the brass musician to focus the muscular effort in the correct place, develop a more effortless feeling while playing, and tolerate mouthpiece pressure better without risking injury.
The orbicularis oris is one muscle group used in playing a brass instrument. It is used to pucker the lips and close the mouth. It encompasses the entire lips, including the vermillion and runs from just under the nose to down just above the chin.
Here is a video I recently came across where “Bahb” Civiletti (I’ve discussed Cviiletti before in my discussion about the tongue controlled embouchure, a technique I generally discourage) discusses a Facial-Flex device that is designed to strengthen the orbicular oris.
Best as I can tell, this device can be used as an “away from the horn” exercise to strengthen the orbicular oris, but I think a good question to consider here is whether or not this particular exercise is a good thing for brass players to practice.
For the record, I am an advocate of using exercises to build strength in the embouchure muscles. Things like free buzzing, the pencil trick exercise, the jaw retention drill, and the P.E.T.E. can all be used effectively. When done correctly (and doing them correctly is the key) they can be analogous to weight lifting for your chops. They allow you to build muscular strength in a particular set of muscles without risking injury that can result from lots of heavy playing. When done incorrectly, however, they can end up developing the wrong muscles or train the player to use the muscles incorrectly that might potentially work against the player. In the case of the device that Civilitti is promoting above, I suspect that it may do more harm than good to a brass player’s embouchure.
It is definitely true that the orbicularis oris is a muscle group used for playing a brass instrument. Dr. Matthias Bertsch and Dr. Thomas Maca studied the muscles used by trumpet players using infared thermography and compared the muscles used by experienced players to inexperienced players.
The analysis demonstrates that the main facial muscle activity during warm up is restricted to only a few muscle groups (M.orbicularis oris, M.depresor anguli oris). The “trumpeter’s muscle” (M.buccinator) proved to be of minor importance.
However, I take issue with Civilitti’s presentation of photographs of a handful of trumpet player’s as “evidence” for how important this muscle is for a brass embouchure. Here are photographs of two trumpet players, one students and one professional player. Compare how their muscles look to the photos Civilitti presents. The bottom player is the professional trumpet player playing a high C while the top is the student playing the same pitch (and struggling). Can you tell by the photographs alone how much the orbicularis oris is engaged and whether or not one player is using more or less effort than the other? I’m not certain looking at photographs of great players (out of context, no less) will be an accurate measurement of what muscles are used and to what extent. In contrast, take a look at this photograph of a professional player from Bertsch and Maca’s paper. Note the areas where more muscular activity has occurred (redder).
With this particular player the orbicular oris is shown to be engaged, but largely focused in the lower lip with this particular player, not so much the top lip (as Civiletti points out in his video). Now I would caution everyone from drawing any conclusions from these small number of examples, but it does suggest that perhaps the orbicular oris isn’t engaged quite in the same manner that Civiletti feels, at least not with all players.
Note also in the above thermographic photo that the muscles at and just under the mouth corners are shown to be an area of much muscular effort with this player. This is the area where I believe the bulk of your embouchure effort should come from, not the orbicularis oris. When brass players are able to develop the strength to lock their mouth corners in place and use that area instead of relying on a pucker or smile to ascend the playing is generally stronger. The Facial-Flex device Civiletti demonstrates strengthens the orbicular oris in such a way as to move the mouth corners inward as with a pucker formation, rather than locking them in place.
This is the exact same reservation I have with some of the other “away from the horn” exercises I often recommend. Some players will practice the pencil trick or P.E.T.E. in such a way that they are using the orbicularis oris in the way Civiletti’s device is used. By bringing the mouth corners in to pucker around the pencil or P.E.T.E., rather than locking them in place and using the muscles indicated in the thermographic photo above, you are training your embouchure formation to work in this way. It’s important when practicing the pencil trick or P.E.T.E. to form your lips as if playing, rather than allowing the mouth corners to come inward into a pucker. This is tricky, because this works to a certain extent, but generally causes more long term problems than it solves. (For full disclosure, my personal experience here is a tendency to pucker my right corner too much in particular, which results in some difficulties with attacks and sound in my upper register up to a certain point and some difficulties getting into my low register after playing high without resetting the mouthpiece. When I’m able to keep the corners in place and more relaxed it is easier and sounds more focused. Take that for what it’s worth, a single anecdote.)
All that said, I suppose there may be certain situations where the device Civiletti is demonstrating might be useful. Many players will bring their mouth corners back as if smiling to ascend and for these players it might actually be helpful to train their mouth corners to come inward instead. I suspect, however, that this might be best done in moderation and once the player gets a more proper embouchure formation happening it would likely be better to avoid using the Facial-Flex device altogether. My preference is to use free buzzing as an exercise to help players with the smile embouchure as it not only strengthens to correct muscles but also trains the player to keep the mouth corners in their most efficient place.
In summary, I personally feel that the use of the Facial-Flex device is probably not very helpful for brass players, and possibly even counterproductive. There are other exercises that target the embouchure muscles in a better way with less risk of allowing the mouth corners to slip into a position that tends to work against good brass playing.
Do you have a different opinion? Have you experimented with the Facial-Flex device yourself and found it useful or did it work against your playing? Leave your comments below and let us know what you think.
Well I think it is safe to say to most reader that prolly does not need this toy. Or the P.E.T.E. or the pencil trick and more of this stuff. I believe all of this toys can be useful for some players though.
Obviously the best thing for the embouchure is playing the horn.
A lot of the muscles in face are used when playing, among them the depressor anguli oris witch together with orbicular oris and levator labii superioris helps to pucker the lips.
I have not tried the facial-flex, it is made for exercise the facial muscles to retain the youthful face when some ladies getting older.
Some woodwind players who claim good results use it.
I do believe it can exercise some of the important embouchure muscles for brass players to.
The embouchure is much more complex to master then exercising the “right” muscles though.
As somebody have said in the Trombone forum, every good tip can be followed in hundred ways, only one is right for you.
I am retired still playing but touring.
Touring can be maybe 8 hours in a bus a day, a 4 hour concert with very limited or no chance to warm up, taxing music.
At night you are in the bar talking to the fans.
Every day for several weeks.
This is no fantasy that is my own experiences.
I believe all of this toy can help some players, and be contra productive for some.
As the pencil trick has been for many, free buzzing is often done in a way that does not help, the P.E.T.E. is used in a contra productive way very often. I use the pete my self it is good for me.
David I am surprised that you do not see the (for me very obvious) different appearance of the players in your photos of the pro and amateur playing high C?
Actually the photos are talking to Civilittis favor.
Thanks for your comments, Svenne.
There is no substitute for playing the horn, but upstream brass embouchure players in particular seem to benefit an awful lot from free buzzing, for example. There’s something about this embouchure type that makes it difficult for upstream players to develop more strength at the mouth corners than simply by playing a lot.
I guess you see what you look for. How can you tell by photos alone if the player is using a lot of orbicular oris? What about players with different faces, different amounts of subcutaneous fat under their skin, players who are naturally stronger/weaker, etc.? My point here is that a photograph is not an accurate method of determining where a player is doing the embouchure work, but the thermographic photos on the other hand are a much less subjective and accurate approach.
My point here is that a photograph is not an accurate method of determining where a player is doing the embouchure work, but the thermographic photos on the other hand are a much less subjective and accurate approach.
I do agree with you in that David, even though I would be very surprised if you said it was the other way around. After 50 years of teaching and looking at students faces I do think the photos do look typically struggling versus playing professionally, hard to tell how I can see that, from long experience I think.
About upstream players, the late Åke Persson is so far the most famous Swedish trombonist, an upstream player as well, (my mother and his father were cousins, he did help me getting work in Germany) He never free buzzed or did use toys. Never heard a better lead trombone in my life.
Of course that does not mean that free buzzing or toys can’t be useful.
Hey, Svenne.
Yes, and as it turns out even experts who believe they can tell certain things after years of experience looking and listening to students tend to be remarkably inaccurate. The survey I posted here a while back about trumpet players who place on the red of their lips was one example. Here’s another that looked at mouthpiece pressure.
An awful lot of what music teacher look and listen for is quite subjective and its difficult sometimes to move beyond what we think is happening to notice the reality of the situation.
Thanks again for stopping by!
Dave
Yes that article about pressure! That is kind of a classic object in brass methods since about 30 years.
I was kind of happy when we first read the article since I secretly suspected that was how it really was.
One reason the professional player could use more pressure without even knowing it was the use of the orbicularis oris that kind of took up the pressure, there was a pressure both ways so to speak.
Thank you for posting that, it is not new but obviously it is new to many both teachers and students.
However it does not have much to do with the photos we talked about.
I showed the pictures to wife hiding the text asking who is the pro?
She is not a brass player (well she did play some French horn years ago) but a saxophone player.
She said “It is obvious” and picked the right pictures right away. Okay she have seen many trumpet and trombone players, there lots of exceptions, the struggling guy could just as well be a professional player, but a struggling one.
Thank you for the discussion.
I have been using the facial flex as well as a P.E.T.E for the past two months and have experienced a significant improvement in my range, endurance and sound. I am an active professional player and have been playing for nearly 60 years.
Thanks, Jim. I can be persuaded to change my mind, however I still feel that the muscles the facial-flex device is designed to strengthen will work against consistent improvement for brass instruments. Please keep us posted.
I know that the original article by Dave is directed to the embouchere and the use of various ways of developing it and the facial muscles that produce it, but my experience as both teacher and performer is that there’s way too much concentration on the lips and way too little on the true source of tone and range – the diaphragm. This is probably because most young beginners are immature physically mentally and find the concept of air support a difficult one to understand and implement. Yes, Lars, nothing like work at the coal face to develop embouchere strength, but how many of us forget to develop and maintain proper breathing practice both at and away from the instrument. Great diaphragm support takes much pressure away from the lips and leads to less damage, greater endurance and a broader and an ‘easier’ sound in the upper range.
Hi, Phil.
Thanks for stopping by and offering your thoughts. Yes, breathing is a very important part of brass playing and shouldn’t be ignored. Nor should embouchure, although this particular post addresses a device that I feel puts the muscular effort in a way that is opposite of how good brass playing seems to function best.
The diaphragm’s role is purely with inhalation, which is important for how brass players perform. However, it plays no role in exhalation, so its role in the tone and range is secondary to muscle groups that actually engage for the production of sound on a brass instrument.
Regardless, I would like to invite you to browse some of the embouchure resources I’ve made available here, especially the Embouchure 101 pages. Those ones would give you the foundation to understand embouchure technique and put it into its proper context along with breathing, tonguing, and other mechanical elements of brass playing.
Dave
I would like to make a case in favor of the Facial-Flex, although only for a very specific circumstance.
I used one during my recovery from Bell’s Palsy, on the recommendation of my physical therapist. She specialized in facial therapy, and while she was very experienced, I was the first brass player she had ever worked with. The purpose, she said, was not for strength but to help regain control of the muscles and balance the strength evenly from one side of my face to the other. It was only one of many exercises and therapies we employed, so I can’t speak to its overall importance in my recovery. I am a professional player, and 8 weeks after beginning therapy, and 12 weeks after my initial diagnosis, I was back on stage playing concerts (Copland 3 and Handel Partenope the first week!) I do believe it helped, at least for that purpose. I no longer feel the need to use it, and your article has given me much to think about.
Glad to hear about your recovery, Robinson! Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Dave:. I would like to hear more about the corners, as I misunderstood Doc and used the obicularis way too much to change partials. I think it should be the triangularis that creates “compression as Doc called it. You are doing a great job.
Bruce, thanks for the kind words. Essentially, I feel that the bulk of the embouchure effort should be focused on that small knot of muscles that intersect at and just under the mouth corners. Personally, I have a tendency to let that area come inward towards the mouthpiece rim, which screws with my playing starting around Ab above the staff. When my corners get drawn in like this it also makes it harder to descend into the low register without resetting the mouthpiece.
The Facial-Flex Device advocated in the embedded video does exactly what I try to avoid, it trains your mouth corners to come inward towards the rim. It may be less of an issue on trumpet since the corners are further back from the rim, but I still suspect that it’s best to keep the corners locked in place rather than bunching them in towards the mouthpiece like that. Rather than train your corners to come in, I feel we should train our corners to remain locked firmly about where they might be while at rest.
A lot of this is, of course, based on what I’ve picked up from Doug Elliott, who picked it up from Donald Reinhardt. When you next get the chance, you should ask Doug to clarify too.
Dave
I am not certain that IR thermography is a good way to measure muscle activity. Has this method been validated?
We do know that each person displays a fairly unique “heat signature.”
Electromyography may give more meaningful information. This would be fairly invasive, and would required qualified medical professionals to administer the study. This may be a nice thesis or PhD project.
Hi, Jason.
You may be correct, but the actual paper itself did apply controls, in part by using the IR thermography to photograph each subject prior to warming up and afterwards. The variations we see between players could individually be attributed to individual differences in the musician’s “heat signatures,” but the aggregate areas that show muscular activity between the different subjects after warming up show the trends I noted in my blog post above. I see that the link to the full paper I posted is broken now, so you’ll have to look for yourself for the paper if you want to see it.
If you do a Google Scholar search you’ll find some papers have already been done. The first that I’m aware of, Electromyographic Analysis of Embouchure Muscle Function in Trumpet Playing by Elmer White, was published in 1974. I see that some more recent ones have come out now that I haven’t read.
Thanks for stopping by and offering your thoughts.
Dave