For about 100 years we have known that tension at the side of the face (cheek area) inhibits tone production, lessens endurance and impedes range. Using this part of the face creates a “Smile” but sadly most people still do this to some extent when they play. Most never even know it. Many famous teachers have written about it but people keep doing it.I myself have been trying to educate people about this for 40+ years. (I’ve been writing books about this for 20 years.)
I decided that showing the muscles used by players that struggle and showing the muscles used by players with range to spare might help.
I thought that the best way to show this was to do a Thermal Video Study of players while they were playing. This has never been done before. Nobody ever did thermal images while someone was playing and the video aspect means that not only can you see the muscles being used, you can hear the notes being played.
We centered the video starting at the edge of the lips. It shows some of the chin and all of the cheek. The reason is because the cheek is the part where we want no real muscle involvement. I wanted you to see the smallest of changes in color. In a Thermal Image or video, colors show how much heat is being generated and that means the muscle is working.
Dark Blue is Cold and means the muscle is doing nothing.
Blue is cool and the muscle is doing almost nothing.
Green is fairly cool and the muscle is doing a little work.
Yellow is warm and means that the muscle is working constantly.
Pink is hot and means the muscle is starting to strain.
Red is very hot and means the muscle is maxed out. There is nothing left to use.
The process
Although a great 60hz thermal camera will record video very well, it has NO sound recording ability. I thought that to show the thermal pattern without the sound wouldn’t help much. So to show the thermal images with the players’ sound, I had to use a separate video camera filming the thermal screen while recording the sound.
Sadly tripods were useless because many players move too much to keep a tight cropping on the face and we had to hand hold both the thermal camera and the video camera to follow them. That is why you see the shakiness in the videos but the stills (from the thermal camera itself) are clear.
Every time I do these I get better and I am now on my 3rd Thermal Camera. (Most thermal cameras are not sensitive enough or don’t refresh often enough per second to be of any use. You learn what will and what won’t work but it can be expensive. LOL)
The box shows where we kept the Thermal Camera lined up.
I have been asked several times who I used for the studies.
I had comeback players who had been back to playing for 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 2, 3, 4 years. I had some college players, some College grads with BM and MM degrees. I had a couple of pros who do session gigs on CDs and Movies and I had everything in-between.
I used mostly people who I had never given a lesson to.
I did this because I wanted to see what the general playing population was like when it came to using the facial muscles.
(I already knew what I taught people to do and so I didn’t need many files of my own students.)
I actually bartered time with people that I hadn’t ever worked with before.
I took readings and did a study with the new player in exchange for a free 1 hour lesson (After the study was filmed).
That way I had fresh info from all types of embouchures and groups of players.
I tried really hard to let the study show the results and I didn’t try to lead it one way or another.
Player with worst range playing top of staff G.Lips and mouthpiece are blue.Muscles around lips are green and yellow. Cheek muscles are red and white (HOT). Cheek temp is 35.8 C a full 2.4 C hotter than player with the best range on the same note. (Roughly 4 degrees F hotter.)
Player with the best range playing top of staff G. (Me) Taken from other side of the face. Lips on lower left are blue and slightly frowned.Muscles around lip and under them are red. Hot spot in cheek is 33.4 C. 2.4 degrees cooler C or 4 degrees F cooler than the player with range issues.
This player shows a real difference between C D E and F in sound and looks on the Spectrum Analyzer.
This is something that we want to learn to hear in our sound.
Listen to the difference between Low C with some peaks and F with lots of peaks. Listen to the hollow part of the sound on D and E, they have a dip between peaks and we can hear it.
On the Thermal his heat is in his frown at the side of his lips.
Pictures of his notes showing the dip where he sounded hollow.
This player has resonance in his sound.
He had a lot of dynamic change between notes in the 1st scale. We talked about it and he corrected it.
I show him play his second scale on the Decibel meter and it was better than the 1st one which I left on the chart.
I show how he has several harmonic peaks equal to his High C.
The Thermal Video shows that he holds his tension under his lips and the side of his cheeks are blue even on his High C.
Spectrum Analysis of the sound of several different Bb Trumpets.
(Bore size and Bell tapers differ but same player and same mouthpiece.)
Spectrum Analysis of Eb Trumpet.
What does it all mean?
I noticed that every time they played a bad note (much less volume, lost resonance, no pitch center…) all 3 tests showed what we all heard. The decibel meter registered a much smaller sound. The Spectral Analyzer showed that the player had no peaks. And the Thermal Imager showed that the player used and heated up the muscles on the side of the face.
The players with the least muscle activity on the sides of the face had much higher ranges. (1 to 2 octaves higher ranges.)
The players who didn’t use the muscles on the sides of the face also were significantly more resonant.
My 2 books Tension-Less Playing. and The 4 Trumpet Octave Keys. deal with the findings of this study.
Many videos and other files to follow.
Pops