Posted by David on July 12, 2003 at 13:35:49:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Lip questions posted by Bill Pritchard on July 12, 2003 at 12:52:29:
Years ago, Roger Bobo indicated the mouthpiece should fit into the indentation above the upper teeth. His did and so does mine.
Each and every embouchure is different. What works for you won't work for me and vice versa. The only things that are consistent from player to player is tone production and intonation. By that I mean if everyone used the same technics of producing the tone, had a constant air supply, and heard the pitches in the same way, teachers would have no work to do.
If you subscribe to the pivot system of playing, then you will have to develop a system to get over the breaks that naturally occur when making the transfer between the upper and lower registers. The only way to make the breaks not noticable is to practice going over the breaks over and over and ....
All brass playing involves a pivot system to one extent or another. Some are very noticable and others are not. In order to play with a very open sound in the low register, an open throat and open mouth are necessary. This requires the jaw to be pushed forward, thus pushing the top of the mouthpiece into the upper lip with a slight pressure. The muscles of the face then have to be very relaxed or the low notes just won't happen. Slight puffing of the cheeks does happen contrary to what most of us were originally taught.
Conversely going into the upper register requires taking pressure off the upper lip. More air pressure is required (notice I said air pressure and not mouthpiece pressure) and more abdominal/lung pressure support. Fast air is another way of saying the same thing. There are about as many points of view about lung/abdominal support as there are teachers, i.e. Jacobs, Sheridan, PowerLung, Breath Builder, and I'm sure there are others.
I have a Monette mouthpiece and, according to Dave Monette, a change in the way I played was necessary to make the mouthpiece work correctly. I was skeptical at first but found the change to be a good one. Straightening the back and sitting up straighter makes me use my embouchure in a different way also. It doesn't completely eliminate the pivot style of playing but makes it much less noticable. The same tactics can be used with other mouthpieces with the same results.
Less shifting, the Monette system, means a more consistent embouchure and consequently a more consistent tone quality and intonation.
Whatever a player chooses to use for embouchure and breath support the main idea is to do it over and over and over until it is totally natural. Any time a person has to keep thinking about the techniques means the techniques are probably not correct. I know that sounds too simple but the best players don't spend time thinking about the "how" but rather the "result". A good sound results from proper technique each and every time.