Wouldn’t it be great if most of the time you never thought about your embouchure? This is what happens when you concentrate on your breathing and shaping the air. Eventually the embouchure learns to take care of itself. It will still get tired and some days will be better than others but playing will be more about making music than just worrying if your chops will last long enough.
If you have not read the section on breathing do that before you read this. None of this is worthwhile if you are not working on your breathing.
Great breath control can make a player with a mediocre embouchure a fine player. If your air control is not developed then the world’s greatest embouchure won’t make you a good player.
Understand what your chops do
Like a violin string the part of your lip inside the mouthpiece should be held in place firmly at the ends and flexible in the middle.
Just as a violinist has to drag the bow at the correct place on the string we need to focus our airstream at the correct place on the lips. This place is called the target.
The target is at the lowest point of your upper lip. To find it open your mouth without making an embouchure and put something thin like a pencil or the shank of your mouthpiece in your mouth horizontally and close your mouth. The place where the object is touching your upper lip is the target.
The flesh at the target should be relaxed and flexible. It can be stretched by the muscles at the corners of the mouth pulling away from each other but the lip inside the mouthpiece should not be tense.
Strengthening the Right Muscles
The right muscles to strengthen are at the corners of the mouth. If you make the biggest frown that you can, the muscles that pull your lips down at the corners are the muscles we are talking about. These muscles act like the pegs and tuners on a violin, holding it tight at the ends and increasing the tension when needed.
These muscles can be strengthened the same way any other muscles can but we have to remember that they were not designed to play a brass instrument. Our chop muscles are small and weak to begin with. It’s important to take it slow and easy when building the muscles up.
Your lips muscles burn fuel from your blood and create waste products including water and lactic acid. When you use a muscle a lot the acid builds up faster than the blood can get it out of there so it burns the muscle. When this starts to happen your brain gets a signal saying ‘help!’ and the brain stops using the muscle. This is the feeling we get when our lips are so tired we can’t go on.
But there is good news. When you sleep your body fills in the holes the acid left in your muscles with - more muscle! This is what makes weightlifters’ muscles so huge. They routinely burn the muscles and let them build. We can do the same thing.
You can use a pencil or a mouthpiece or anything and hold it in your lips (no teeth!) as long as you can. When you can’t hold it up anymore rest for a few minutes and do it again. Do this daily and you’ll feel your chops get stronger and stronger.
Long tones are great for strengthening the chops. Make sure you are warmed up. Start in your mid range and hold a note as long as possible. Decrescendo through the whole note but keep a good tone.
At first do four or five notes at the end of your practice day. Hold them as long and as quietly as you can with a good tone.
As you get stronger go up by by thirds.
When you feel quite strong, instead of one note play an arpeggio and slur up a half step from the top note and hold that note as long as possible.
If you have not read the section on breathing do that before you read this. None of this is worthwhile if you are not working on your breathing.
Great breath control can make a player with a mediocre embouchure a fine player. If your air control is not developed then the world’s greatest embouchure won’t make you a good player.
Understand what your chops do
Like a violin string the part of your lip inside the mouthpiece should be held in place firmly at the ends and flexible in the middle.
Just as a violinist has to drag the bow at the correct place on the string we need to focus our airstream at the correct place on the lips. This place is called the target.
The target is at the lowest point of your upper lip. To find it open your mouth without making an embouchure and put something thin like a pencil or the shank of your mouthpiece in your mouth horizontally and close your mouth. The place where the object is touching your upper lip is the target.
The flesh at the target should be relaxed and flexible. It can be stretched by the muscles at the corners of the mouth pulling away from each other but the lip inside the mouthpiece should not be tense.
Strengthening the Right Muscles
The right muscles to strengthen are at the corners of the mouth. If you make the biggest frown that you can, the muscles that pull your lips down at the corners are the muscles we are talking about. These muscles act like the pegs and tuners on a violin, holding it tight at the ends and increasing the tension when needed.
These muscles can be strengthened the same way any other muscles can but we have to remember that they were not designed to play a brass instrument. Our chop muscles are small and weak to begin with. It’s important to take it slow and easy when building the muscles up.
Your lips muscles burn fuel from your blood and create waste products including water and lactic acid. When you use a muscle a lot the acid builds up faster than the blood can get it out of there so it burns the muscle. When this starts to happen your brain gets a signal saying ‘help!’ and the brain stops using the muscle. This is the feeling we get when our lips are so tired we can’t go on.
But there is good news. When you sleep your body fills in the holes the acid left in your muscles with - more muscle! This is what makes weightlifters’ muscles so huge. They routinely burn the muscles and let them build. We can do the same thing.
You can use a pencil or a mouthpiece or anything and hold it in your lips (no teeth!) as long as you can. When you can’t hold it up anymore rest for a few minutes and do it again. Do this daily and you’ll feel your chops get stronger and stronger.
Long tones are great for strengthening the chops. Make sure you are warmed up. Start in your mid range and hold a note as long as possible. Decrescendo through the whole note but keep a good tone.
At first do four or five notes at the end of your practice day. Hold them as long and as quietly as you can with a good tone.
As you get stronger go up by by thirds.
When you feel quite strong, instead of one note play an arpeggio and slur up a half step from the top note and hold that note as long as possible.
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