On November 8, 2009 I gave this presentation to the North Carolina Music Educators Convention, held in Winston-Salem, NC. I was pleasantly surprised to have a generally full room of musicians and music educators who mostly seemed genuinely interested in learning more about a topic that is typically ignored in favor of a “let the body figure itself out” practice.
In order to make this information more accessible for both my NCMEA audience as well as to the general public, I created a video that includes my slide show notes, video footage, and the narration from my presentation.
There was a glitch that happened to some of the video in a couple of these videos, resulting in a still image in place of a video clip. I tried to correct it, but the exact same glitch happened, so I ended up leaving the uploaded videos alone, as I think the general point still got across during those sections.
I’ve been asked a couple times if I minded someone downloading and saving these videos to save or to show in a situation where there is no internet access. If you’re involved with music education (teacher or student) and would like a DVD copy you can contact me by leaving a comment below and I will try to get one mailed out to you. I don’t charge for the DVD, so it might take a little time for me to get around to burning you a disc and getting it into the mail.
Thank you for this, Dave! I have had amazing results in just a few weeks. Added a bit of horn pivot and lip motion and wow — huge tonal improvements.
Glad you’re finding it useful, Scott. Just to clarify, I prefer not to use the term “pivot,” but instead use “embouchure motion.” Most people will use “pivot” to talk about changes in the horn angle, which can accompany the embouchure motion, but it’s the pushing/pulling of the mouthpiece and lips together as a unit that needs to be addressed first (usually).
Thanks for stopping by!
Dave
Hi every time I play trombone I get a white ring around my lips and I don’t know how to get rid of it
Hi, Kevin.
It’s probably nothing to be worried about, but if the mouthpiece is irritating your skin talk to your doctor about it. You might try using a mouthpiece with a plastic rim. Some people have sensitivity to the metal.
If it’s not bothering you, don’t worry about it. Lots of people get a mark from the mouthpiece and it usually will go away on it’s own after you haven’t played for an hour or so.
Hi Dave, thanks for your time and effort in producing this document. Many years ago I was a promising young euphoniumist. Around the age of 12 my bandmaster of the time gave me some lessons, largely focusing on mouthpiece position. In the belief that it would improve my tone he had me change from a low placement position to a “traditional” high position. After a few months I made it work and played for about another 5 years in that position with a good range. I then left the instrument, prefering to concentrate on piano. Over the past 15 years I have made a number of attempts to regain my euph. Each has had the same result. Things started ok but over the period of 4 – 5 months my range (which was never good) slips down until I reach the point where I can barely play. This time I’ve actually hurt the muscles around my cheek bones which is what led to me finding this arcticle. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve looked at several different possibilities including allergy and medical conditions. I think reading (and watching the videos) has enlightened me. Once pain free I think its time to return to my natural ombouchure! Thank you so much for your insight.