Re: Flat Chin?


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Posted by ke nk on November 21, 2003 at 18:22:21:

In Reply to: Flat Chin? posted by dude on November 19, 2003 at 23:09:03:

I explain it to my students as this: keep the skin below the lower lip against the teeth. That is the flat part. They don't mean to push your chin in and make it flat, but rahter push out your lower jaw slightly to make align the teeth and make the skin under your lower lip firm (against the teeth). I think if you look at most advanced brass players' embouchures you will see this to be the case. If you allow air in between your lower lip and your teeth and have a "puffy" lower lip you probably are not holding your embouchure as still as it could be and your consistency of attack and tone are probalby not what they could be. That doesn't mean it is bad, just not as good as it could be. I think it goes the same for puffy cheeks. There is no one saying you can't play well with puffed cheeks, but the embouchure will not be as consistent, since every time you play the chops are probalby in a slightly different position.

I came upon this phenomenon when I started to teach young beginners. I was trying to teach trumpet and horn players to form the embouchure and as I would play these insturments more I realized it made it much easier to focus the embouchure, when I kept my chin out a bit. So I applied it to my tuba and bass bone chops and voila, the improvement in focus of sound and consistency of attack and pitch was immediate.
Again you don't push the chin in to flatten it but rather push it out a bit.

ken k


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