Regardless of the embouchure you use these things MUST always happen.

The lips must be moist. The surface tension of the water aids in setting up the vibrations.

The lips must be touching. (If the air has nothing to fight there is NO buzz.)

Use as Little pressure as possible. Pressure only separates the lips and stops the sound. Backing off the pressure will allow you to soar.

Everyone says Tighten up to play high. Hold something between your finger and thumb. That squeeze is what they are talking about. Playing high involves slightly pushing your lips together as you ascend.

Farkas embouchure

75-80% of all players use the Farkas embouchure.
This embouchure is described FULLY in “The Art of Brass Playing” by Phillip Farkas.
He told people to blow as if they were trying to cool soup. That is how he set the embouchure.

Raphael Mendez said to say the letter “M”.

In the Farkas embouchure, you must Point the CHIN down. It is the pointing of the chin that prevents you from stretching the lips too thinly.
The skin under your lower lip will be taut with no air pocket.
Your lips do not overlap nor do they roll in or out.
The corners of the mouth are held firmly in place.

Now what they DIDN’T say.
To play with an extended range you must.

• Use a Pivot
• Use a Tongue Arch (hopefully Anchor Tonguing)
• Use a LipSetpoint
• Remember to use compression for range
• Like finger pushing against finger

Maggio Embouchure

The Maggio embouchure was established because Louis Maggio had sustained an injury that prevented him from playing any other system.

This embouchure is elusive for some players. The pucker is so different from what they used before that they lose control and sound quality. Others do well.

In this system, you cushion the lips by extending them or puckering ( like a monkey ).
In fact, their T-shirts are a closeup of a monkey forming the embouchure.

This puckering enables the players to overcome physical malformations.
It also lets the player play for an extended time in the upper register.

I DO advise people who can not play other embouchures because of injury or serious dental malformations to TRY the Maggio embouchure.

Stevens Embouchure

The Stevens Embouchure requires a special mouth formation to be 100% successful. In the past 2 years, I’ve only started a few students on this embouchure.

To set the Stevens embouchure you:

• Make sure that your teeth are 1/4 – 1/2 of an inch apart.
• Make sure that your jaw is forward making a flat playing surface.
• Make sure that your lips are touching and slightly push your lips together to make a cushion.
• Then PLACE the mouthpiece ON your lips.
• To ascend you will push the lips together.
• Yes the book says never use tongue arch but Stevens used Anchor Tonguing. IT does much more than mere arch does.
• Use a LipSetpoint
• The lips will have a natural tendency to slightly curl in. That’s OK.
• Remember to use as little pressure as possible.
• The more that you can back off the pressure the more you have in reserve for later
• Use a PIVOT.

Super chops Embouchure

This is taught by a well-known teacher/horn maker.

It seems ( at least to me ) to mix parts of both the Maggio and Stevens. It share the same problems also. Plus it is very difficult to learn to slide the lips up to the high register position and back to normal.

In the Super chops embouchure, the pivot is much more aggressive than on other embouchures.

• The pivot is used to push the lips over the top teeth and force the air stream to follow it.
• The lower lip curls in over the top of the bottom teeth ( like a reed player ).
• The top lip slightly overlaps the lower lip.
• The lip compression comes from pulling all of the muscles toward the center. This causes a semi-pucker.
• This system does NOT use a tongue arch. He says that it constricts the throat.
• All tonguing is to be done through your teeth. This part really disturbed me.

As you ascend you pivot draw your facial muscles in and slide the mouthpiece over the top of the upper teeth.
To me, it seemed like an extreme embouchure shift.

Some good professional players ARE using this to their advantage.

Lip Buzzing Embouchure

Mendez played and taught the lip buzzing embouchure. When he taught he made his students lip buzz a month before he gave them a mouthpiece. He then made their mouthpiece buzz a month before he gave them the trumpet. By then they could change pitches and have a decent tone. I use this embouchure on most of my students.

The fastest way to successfully go to a closed lip buzzing embouchure is :

• Lip Buzz: (Like spitting seeds.)
• Do this 15 – 30 minutes a day. Buzz scales, songs, arpeggios, etudes….
• Set your new embouchure
• Buzz a note and while holding the buzz sneak the horn & mpc into playing position.
• Take ALL breaths through your nose (so you don’t disturb the embouchure). (Most open aperture players try to start closed and open up the chops as they breathe. They pin the lips in place while separated and can only make the lips touch by using mpc pressure.)
• And play songs and etudes.
• Use Anchor Tonguing
• Use a LipSetpoint

(After the new setting is secure go back to normal breathing.)

Stay in the staff until you have strengthened the NEW embouchure.

Do a lip-setting drill:
Buzz and sneak the horn into place to play 1 note. Remove the horn and start over. It takes thousands of good reps to break a bad habit.

Do those things for 1 month.

Then AFTER the new embouchure is set and the chops are stronger you can work on the Stevens palming exercise. I only do open arpeggios with this. Do it 15 minutes a day and after a month you should be able to play over High C with almost no pressure.

Then you must learn to relax the face and let the tone become full. Work on pulling the corners in to adjust the tone color and assist range. Relearn your pivot and tongue arch. Work on more efficient breathing….

By Pops

The post The Role of the Embouchure. appeared first on BBTrumpet.

Trumpet Embouchures control the pitch and the quality of your sound.

Regardless of which one of the Trumpet Embouchures you use these things MUST always happen.

The lips must be moist. The surface tension of the water aids in setting up the vibrations.

The lips must be touching. (If the air has nothing to fight there is NO buzz.)

Use as Little pressure as possible. Pressure only separates the lips and stops the sound. Backing off the pressure will allow you to soar.

Everyone says Tighten up to play high. That is wrong. What they mean is this: Hold something between your finger and thumb. That squeeze is what they are talking about. Playing high involves slightly pushing your lips together as you ascend.

Farkas Trumpet Embouchure

75-80% of all players use this embouchure.
This embouchure is described FULLY in “The Art of Brass Playing” by Phillip Farkas.
He told people to blow as if they were trying to cool soup. That is how he set the embouchure.

Raphael Mendez said to say the letter “M”.

In this embouchure most players Point the CHIN down. It is the pointing of the chin that prevents you from stretching the lips too thinly or going into a smile.
The skin under your lower lip will be flat with no air pocket.
Your lips should not overlap, nor do they roll in or out.
The corners of the mouth are held firmly in place.

Now what they DIDN’T say.
To play with an extended range you must.

• Use a Pivot
• Use a Tongue Arch
• Remember use compression for range. It is like one finger pushing against the thumb.
• You also use a flexing of the muscles around the embouchure for support.

Maggio Trumpet Embouchure

The Maggio system was established because Louis Maggio had sustained an injury which prevented him from playing any other system.

This embouchure is elusive for some players. The pucker is so different from what they used before that they lose control and sound quality. Others do it very easily and play well.

In this system you cushion the lips by extending them or puckering slightly.  There is a picture on the cover of the book that shows a monkey making a puckered kissy face. This is used as humor and is a very big exaggeration of what you do. 

This slight puckering creates a cushion between the teeth and the mouthpiece.
It also lets the player play for an extended time in the upper register.

Players of this system use a tongue arch and many use Anchor Tonguing as their tongue arch (like me).

I DO advise people who cannot play other embouchures because of injury or serious dental malformations to TRY Maggio.

I like that it is easier for ME to be more resonant using a slight pucker.

Stevens Trumpet Embouchure

This requires a special mouth formation to be 100% successful. 

To set this embouchure you:

• Make sure that your teeth are 1/4 – 1/2 of an inch apart.
• Make sure that your jaw is forward making a flat playing surface.
• Make sure that your lips are touching and slightly push your lips together to make a cushion. You also set the faintest hint of an inward lip curl.
• Then PLACE the mouthpiece ON your lips.
• To ascend you will push the lips together.
• The lips will have a natural tendency to slightly curl in. That’s OK.
• Remember to use as little pressure as possible.
• The more that you can back off the pressure the more you have in reserve for later
• Use a PIVOT.
• Anchor Tongue.  Several places in his book Stevens said to not use tongue arch. He as well as many teachers saw tongue arch and anchor tonguing as different things.  Anchor Tonguing works by making a focused air stream while tongue arch doesn’t do this.

Superchops Trumpet Embouchure

This was taught by Jerry Callet.

It seems (at least to me) to mix parts of both the Maggio and Stevens. It shares the same problems also. Plus, it is very difficult to learn to slide the lips up to the high register position and back to normal.

In this system the pivot is much more aggressive than on other embouchures.

• The pivot is used to push the lips over the top teeth and force the air stream to follow it.
• The lower lip curls in over the top of the bottom teeth (like a reed player).
• The top lip slightly overlaps the lower lip.
• The lip compression comes from the muscles under the chin bunching up to make a knot of muscle on the chin. 
• This system does NOT use a tongue arch. He says that it constricts the throat.
• All tonguing is to be done thru your teeth. This part really disturbed me.

As you ascend you pivot draw your facial muscles in and slide the mouthpiece over the top of the upper teeth.
To me it seemed like an extreme embouchure shift.

There ARE some good professional players using this to their advantage.

Lip Buzzing Trumpet Embouchure

This is the embouchure Clarke and Mendez played. When they taught, they made students lip buzz a month before they gave them a mouthpiece. They then had to mouthpiece buzz a month before being given the trumpet. By then they could change pitches and had decent tone. I use this embouchure on many of my students because it is so easy to learn.

The fastest way to successfully go to a closed embouchure is:

• Lip Buzz: (Like spitting seeds.)
• Do this 10 minutes a day. Buzz scales, songs, arpeggios, etudes….
• Set your new embouchure
• Buzz a note and while holding the buzz sneak the horn & mouthpiece into playing position.
• At first take ALL breaths through your nose (so you don’t disturb the embouchure). (Most open aperture players try to start closed and open up the chops as they breathe. They pin the lips in place while separated and can only make the lips touch by using mouthpiece pressure.)
• And play songs and etudes.

(After the new setting is secure go back to normal breathing.)

Stay in the staff until you have strengthened the NEW embouchure.

Do a lip setting drill:
Buzz and sneak the horn into place to play 1 note. Remove the horn and start over. It takes thousands of good reps to break a bad habit.

Do those things for 1 month.

Then AFTER the new embouchure is set and the chops are stronger you can work on the Stevens palming exercise. I only do open arpeggios with this. Do it 10 minutes a day and after a month you should be able to play over High C with almost no pressure.

Then you must learn to relax the face and let the tone become full. Work on pulling the corners in to adjust tone color and assist range. Relearn your pivot and Anchor Tonguing. Work on more efficient breathing….

I hope that my little overview of Trumpet Embouchures helps.

Pops

The post Trumpet Embouchures appeared first on BBTrumpet.

I always do my embouchure changes in parts. The complete Stevens Embouchure given to a student all at once has frozen many players. They spent so much time worried about mechanics that they could not play. Because of this I introduce the embouchure a little at a time so that the student isn’t overwhelmed.

1. I make them learn a little, slight amount of lip curl.

2. I make them learn to pull the corners in and make an oval lip aperture. Using an upper and a lower lip curl enables the player to relax and LET the AIR provide the resistance. The airstream blows into the curled-in lips and tries to push them out. This closes the lip aperture and gives you more resistance than you can use. So, you get a squeak or no sound at all. The solution is to relax the chops some, open your mouth wider, pull the mouthpiece away from your lips (SOME), and simply LET THE AIR OUT. To work on the tone, contract your lip muscles toward the aperture before you set your curl and concentrate on an oval lip aperture.>> I feel it helps to first set the corners inwards, then add lip curl, and finally place the mouthpiece.

3. I teach them to make a lip cushion by moving the embouchure forward (some do this on their own). This gives the Ferguson-type endurance.

4. I teach them to relax the corners over high c and release the mouthpiece grip above high g. This will tend to draw the corners in. The corners when they draw in will make the aperture even more oval improving the tone. It also adds to the lip cushion and endurance. Releasing the grip on the top lip allows faster vibrations and helps to increase the volume of notes above the f or g above high c. For some people this gets them to a good g over super c for others it goes to triple high c.

Lip compression alone will get most players to a good g over high c but around a – b the volume is lost because the compression is too great to allow air to escape. Pulling the corners shortens the vibrating surface and means less compression is needed for each note. Think about piano strings. I pull my corners to the point where super c needs less compression than my normal high f. It still needs air pressure there is no real way to cheat here.

Pops

The post Stevens Embouchure appeared first on BBTrumpet.