Re: Re: High Range: Drawing lips toward teeth?


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Posted by Roger Lewis on January 28, 2003 at 08:54:35:

In Reply to: Re: High Range: Drawing lips toward teeth? posted by Mary Ann on January 27, 2003 at 15:25:16:

Here is how I teach my students to do this and it only involves the direction of the air at first and then the speed of the air second. This exercise is to get your lips in the proper setting for each register, defining what lip tissue will be in use for each part of the range of the instrument.

Sit in a chair and look straight ahead. Your sight line is parellel to the floor (provided the floor is flat). Now, place your hand 18" in front of your face and three inches below the sight line. Blow air at the palm of your hand without moving your head - this is the direction of the air stream direction for the low register.

Now move your hand about 3-5" lower and blow air at your hand again while still looking straight ahead - this is the mid register air flow and lip setting.

Now place your hand palm up against your chest. While still looking forward blow air at your hand (pretty much straight down). This is the setting I use to have a full sound in the high register.

Now repeat the exercise but "buzz" the air to the hand in each of these positions and you will see the changes that occur to the embouchure as you go from one register to another.

You are also changing the type of tissue that is vibrating to create the sound when you are blowing (buzzing) for the low register you have your lips slightly pursed out ward so you have the soft inner tissue of the upper lip vibrating against the soft inner tissue of the lower lip. This tissue will allow you to attain a nice, slow vibration with a full sound as the softness of the tissue will not allow the lip to vibrate too fast for that register.

In the mid register setting you are using slightly firmer tissue and the upper lip can vibrate against the lower at a faster rate of speed allowing for a good sound in the mid register. This is what I refer to as my "morning" face. Whne you wake up on a Sunday morning without the alarm clock this is how your face is set at that moment. It is a very relaxed setting.

For the high range you need to have firm tissue vibrating against firm tissue. This is when you curl the lips in slightly to have the "weathered" tissue of the outer lips creating the vibrations. This is firmer tissue and will allow the lip to vibrate at an even faster rate when combined with good air speed and a smaller apperture.

Think of it as trying to do a fast roll on a bass drum head with bass drum mallets. The softness of the head tension will not allow a fast rebound-softer tissue allows slower vibrations. The same situation arises on the piccolo snare drum. The stick rebound is very fast allowing for a high speed drum roll without great effort. This is the same type of change your lip needs to go through to create the vibrations you need for each of the different registers. The blowing exercise is to get you familiar with the setting of the lips to expose the proper tissue for each register and take note as you go from one register to the next of the changes that occur to the lower lip and the upper lip to get the air flow in the right place.

Just the strange way I view the world.

Roger


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