How to Get the Most Out of Your Trumpet Embouchure

What's happening, you rare gems? Trumpeter Bobby Spellman here to welcome you to another exciting episode of Trumpet Rebound. One of the really cool aspects of playing the trumpet is that our bodies become effectively a part of the instrument. And because we're all built in a unique way, everyone has their own individual sound. On a saxophone or clarinet, you can use a reed to vibrate the air and to create a tone on the instrument. But on the trumpet, we rely on our lips. And because each of you has the only custom make and model of your own brand of lips, as well as a unique dental structure and a unique face, every individual will have a particular sound. Now you can do a little bit to change your sound, changing the mouthpiece, changing your trumpet, et cetera, et cetera. But at the end of the day, there are certain aspects to playing the trumpet that are unique to each individual. And at times, while you want to try to get your technique exactly right, you also should be able to embrace that unique approach that you have to playing the instrument. One area where each individual body type and dental structure and lip shape will really become apparent when playing the trumpet is in forming an embouchure. Now when I'm talking about an embouchure, I'm talking about the way that we place our lips on the mouthpiece. Now as each individual person has an individual set of lips and an individual dental structure, you may find that everyone has a slightly different approach to forming this embouchure. Throughout the ages, there have been many different kinds of takes on how to form an embouchure. Sometimes there's been some difference of opinion in how to form an embouchure and how to place your lips on the mouthpiece. For example, way back in 1864 when J.B. Arbin wrote his famous work on playing the trumpet, he recommended that the mouthpiece be one third on your top lip, but two thirds on your bottom lip. A couple years later, around the 1909-ish, when H.L. Clark wrote his elementary studies for cornet, he recommended that the mouthpiece be half on your top lip and half on your bottom lip. Even other people have recommended that the mouthpiece be more on your top lip than your bottom lip. Now in my experience traveling around and seeing so many great trumpet players over the years, I've found that there are about as many different ways to form an embouchure as there are trumpet players. You find that some people will have it off to one side or the other. Some people will find it more comfortable to be a little bit more on the top lip, a little bit more on the bottom lip. You'll notice that some people when they play, they'll frown a little bit. Other people will smile. Other people's faces will stay about in the same place. This all has to do with the fact that each individual person has a unique dental structure and a unique set of lips. And regardless of where they're coming from, everybody can find a place where they're able to comfortably place the mouthpiece on his or her lips. Now that being said, there is one tip that I always recommend all my students stick to when forming an embouchure that will really help in being able to ensure that you can move around the entire range of the instrument and really get a full tone as well as make sure that you're getting the most out of your range and your endurance while playing the trumpet. What I will always recommend is that when you're playing the trumpet and you're forming an embouchure, that the ring on the inside of the mouthpiece covers the outside of what is called the vermilion of your lips. So with our lips, you have this redder or darker part of the lips. This is called the vermilion. And in order to get a strong embouchure and make sure that you're making the most of your muscles around your lips, you want to make sure that you're able to get the ring of the mouthpiece on the inside rim around the outside of that vermilion of your lips. Now there's a couple of ways that you can ensure that you're getting that mouthpiece right where it wants to be. Once you've got that situated, whether the mouthpiece is slightly to the left, slightly to the right, slightly up, slightly down, that'll all have to do with whatever's most comfortable for you based on your own dental structure and the shape of your lips and the shape of your face and the way that you use your air, et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot more leeway for where the mouthpiece wants to go as long as you can ensure that at least some of that, the entirety of the vermilion of your lips is covered by the ring of the mouthpiece. This does not necessarily, if you find that as you're looking at it that you don't exactly have the vermilion of your lips inside the ring of the mouthpiece, it doesn't necessarily require a full embouchure shift, but you may find that you're getting into certain habits that enable you to put the mouthpiece on your face and then move around a little bit in such a way that will take that vermilion outside of the realm of the mouthpiece. So I want to talk a little bit about ways that you can ensure that you've got the mouthpiece centered as much as you need it to be in order to really get the ring of the inside rim of the mouthpiece on the outside of that vermilion of your lips in order to make sure that you're taking advantage of the maximum possible endurance and range and everything else that you're trying to get out of the trumpet. So my first recommendation is that you get a mirror, you stand in front of the mirror, and as you're setting yourself up to play the trumpet, you just pay attention to where that mouthpiece is going on your face. One thing that you can also do that may help just ensure that you're getting it where you want it to be is to play for a little while and let your natural approach to play just cause a slight indent in your lips. You don't want to be jamming the horn against your face, but you may find that as you're playing for a little while, you create a little bit of an indent in your lips. When you take the trumpet off your face, check yourself out in the mirror. If that little ring is going around just on the outside of that vermilion of your lips, you're A-OK, you're good to go, and you can keep practicing as normal, and I think you're going to find that over time you're going to be able to get the maximum efficiency out of the instrument. However, if you notice that, for example, the ring is on the inside of that vermilion and you're not getting enough of both of your lips into the mouthpiece, there are a couple of exercises that you can do in order to ensure that you are centering the mouthpiece on your face enough to really take advantage of the muscles in your face. Now, one thing that may be required is an embouchure shift, where you move the mouthpiece a little bit such that it is centered more on the outside of the vermilion of your lips. Now, that can be sort of a dramatic thing, it can be a dramatic operation to be reorienting the mouthpiece on your face, especially if you've been playing trumpet for a long time, it can at first feel fairly uncomfortable to get that situated. But if that's what's required, all that means is that you're going to have to spend a couple of minutes a day re-situating yourself and then playing exercises like long tones, scales, and other things of that nature, just ensuring that you're reorienting the mouthpiece on your face in such a way that you're able to get some of the outside layer of the vermilion of your lips on the inside rim of the mouthpiece. Now, more commonly, what I find is that my students will not have the mouthpiece in the wrong place, but rather will find themselves in a situation where they're setting themselves up as they're playing, they're moving their lips around while they're playing, setting up the mouthpiece in such a way that they're not focusing their embouchure. So here's a little exercise that I like to do in order to make sure that you're really setting yourself up properly to play in such a way that you're going to be able to get that vermilion inside the rim of the mouthpiece. Now, this is going to get a little up close and personal here, so check this out. Let's bring this camera in here, whoa, here we go. All right, so you'll notice as I'm playing, you can see a little ring that goes on the outside of this vermilion of my lips. So one thing that you'll notice people will do sometimes is when you put the trumpet on your face, and you can check this out in yourself with a mirror, is people will put the trumpet on their face and then move all around to try to get it where they want it to be comfortably. Now, that process, doing a little of that is not a problem, but what you might find is as you go, that by moving around, even though it looks like you're in the right place, you're actually pushing your lips apart so that only the vermilion is on the inside of that ring, and that may lead to some trouble with, in particular, range and endurance. If so, if you're finding that that's the case, that as you watch yourself put the mouthpiece on your face, that you're moving everything around before you put the horn on your face, one thing that you can do is to set your embouchure first and then place the mouthpiece on your face. So the way that I like to set my embouchure is to think about saying the letter N. N.... Now, in doing that, you don't want to curl your lips in so much that you block off all the air, and you also don't want your lips so puffed out that you end up jamming all your lips into the mouthpiece here. In either case, you're not going to get a good sound. what you want is just a little bit of a firm just a properly firm hold on to your embouchure here and and then from that position you should be able to blow air through your lips just practicing buzzing with your lips this is called free buzzing and that may be a big help for you some people find it easier to do than others so don't get discouraged if it gives you hard time at first but you can practice just trying to get that sound using only your lips without the mouthpiece and it would sound like this you can even practice as you go playing scales like that all right so once your lips are in the right position and you feel comfortable that they're in where they're supposed to be then without moving you want to place the mouthpiece on your lips from there you play a note and if you can do that and make it comfortable you just keep playing that note do some long tones try out some various exercises that require that you just be in the middle or lower register the instrument just try to play a little bit and see if it's comfortable for you to produce a tone without moving your face too much when you start playing into the trumpet ready one more time and now again some minor adjustment is you know certainly just fine but what you don't want to do is find yourself over adjusting to the point where your lips are no longer supported by the muscles on the outside of your face in that instance I'm only playing on the vermilion of my lips and I'm not really taking advantage of the you know proper orbicularis oris muscles on the outside of my lips holding everything in place the way that I want it to all right in holding your in getting your embouchure prepared before you even put the mouthpiece on your face it's not so much about moving the mouthpiece up or down on your face or side to side it's just about focusing your embouchure in such a way so that when you're done playing you'll notice the ring is going just around the vermilion of your lips and again it doesn't have to be too far out it doesn't have to be anything dramatic it's just that you want to make sure that this little the the inside part of your lips here are all making it into that ring inside the mouthpiece so if we can focus this right but you get the gist at the end of the day if your embouchure is set correctly and you're able to get everything inside you know just the outside vermilion of your lips inside the rim of the mouthpiece you will find that no matter whether you're playing it off to one side or the other up two-thirds down two-thirds whether you're smiling or frowning as you're playing that over time you'll be able to take advantage of the full range of the instrument without having to move your embouchure as you play up into different registers and your ultimate goal is to be able to move around the whole range of the instrument without having to shift the mouthpiece on your face as you move up into the different registers and one thing that will really help that is just to ensure that you're you've got that vermilion of your lips inside the rim of the mouthpiece and that everything is as focused as possible without closing off your aperture so much that you end up getting a dull tone or opening it up so much that you get too much air in your tone the goal is always to do it as most comfortable in order to find the sweet spot for you and what works best for your lips and your dental structure in your face all right gang I hope that was helpful in your quest for embouchure excellence appreciate you hanging out this close to me for this little adventure in embouchure position if you've got any questions be sure to leave them in the comments also if there's anything that you're trying to work on as a trumpet player that you'd want a little help with and you want a little advice or some tips or tricks be sure to leave some questions in the comments and I'll check them out and I'll try to do some new videos based on those challenges that you might be facing as a trumpet player all right thanks a lot gang for checking out another video if you like this video you can hit the like button and subscribe to the channel we'll be putting out some new videos every week on trumpet and improvisation and various things of that nature all right have a wonderful time practicing and we'll see you on the next one see ya all right friends thanks so much for checking out this video I hope it helps in your pursuit of the majesty of musical self-expression if you like what we're doing here please like this video and subscribe to the channel big thanks to all the new subscribers we really appreciate your support and we're gonna keep putting out some new videos for you the Ridgewood School of Music is now accepting new students for lessons online as well as in person in the Brooklyn Queens and Greater New York City area you can find us on our website at www.ridgewoodschoolofmusic.com and you can send us a message and we would love to help you achieve all of your musical dreams for some more musical fun you can also follow me Bobby Spellman on instagram at Bob Spellman or in any of the other social media platforms listed in the description below thanks again for checking out this video happy practicing and we'll catch you next time