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Re: Re: Emboucher problems

Hi Simon,
There are lots of good, bad and different info
regarding embouchure. Some suggested examples:

1) Trumpet Technique (Delbert Dale
2) Trombone Technique (Dennis Wick)

Both of these are good books, and well worth a read
for all brass players.

Other books offer advice that has come under a lot of
scrutiny and critisism, sych as "How Brass Players do
it" by Jon Ridgeon, and some other the methods by
James Stamp. Howard Snell also discusses the issue in
his latest book, who's name escapes me at the moment.

All of these books offer great advice, but as always,
take the advice which is going to work for you. There
are top players around who break every rule in these
books... take a look at the horn section of the Berlin
Phil of a few years ago for some comedy embouchures...
and they can play anything that arrives on their
stand!

If you have just managed to centralise your
embouchure, well done. What's improved? Hopefully you
will have seen improvements in extreme registers,
stamina, and perhaps even a clearer articulation, and
a better tone. If you haven't perservere, but if
anything hurts, or if playing just seems like harder
work, go back to your original stance, as playing
should be a comfortable experience.

Before I went to college I had a consultation lesson
with the late Phillip Jones. I played various bits of
Oskar Bohme concerto to him and he seemed quite
impressed. He didn't give me any advice on
musicianship, style, or any of that stuff (implying
that this will be dealt with at College) but that I
should tighten the corners of my lips as I played.
This, he said, would take the strain off the lip
that's in the mouthpiece, and direct it to the sides,
which are a lot stronger. It also helps your
intonation and flexibility, so it reduces split notes!
I worked at this and it certainly brought my playing
on a lot.

I would recommend this policy to any player that was
havingembouchure trouble as it tends to tidy up any
other embouchure errors at the same time. It will
certainly also tidy up the buzzing problem that you
are currently experiencing.

Best of luck...

Steve Bailey


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