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So, what's in Broken Embouchures, The Embouchure
Handbook? Well, here are a a few pages: Chapter 1 Just Having a Bad Day--or Is It Really a Chop Problem? The "Embouchure Twilight Zone" Embouchure Twilight Zone
"About three weeks ago I was very stiff from an excessive amount of practicing the day before. The next two days I continued to play as usual. The third day, my sound was full of air, and I had no ability to play softly. I took three days off and tried to play again. After playing for two days, it was obvious that something was still very wrong. I decided to take the last month of the season off, canceling all sorts of solo concerts as well. It was all pretty embarrassing and upsetting. It's been over two weeks that I haven't touched my horn. I thought in another week that I would try buzzing. There is still a prominent scar on the inside of my top lip."
If you have ever suffered the effects of embouchure overuse, you have likely traveled into the fourth dimensional-space known as the Embouchure Twilight Zone. But far from Rod Serling's wonderful 1960s CBS television series, the Embouchure Twilight Zone is a very real prison, replete with its own daily nightmares. Many adjectives are offered to describe embouchure problems. Few do so adequately.
"My symptoms are as follows: 1. localized pain at the point where the mouthpiece contacts my upper lip where the pink of the lip borders the white skin above, usually on the right side of my embouchure but occasionally on the left 2. swelling of the upper lip. The impact on my playing: diminished flexibility and response, dull sound, difficulty in centering pitch, harder to play in extreme registers, etc. Like many horn players, I had occasional minor bruising or a "fat lip" which I was able to overcome with a day or two of rest until about two years ago when I hurt myself particularly badly during a very heavy week. I went to see my doctor who referred me to a local ear, nose and throat man who put me on prednisone. After a week off, I went back to playing and quickly re-injured myself, forcing myself to have to take more sick leave. Since then, my symptoms have come and gone with regularity, depending on the heaviness of my schedule."
There are no Disabled Lists for instrumental players. No one will get up before a performance to announce the names and ailments of all of the distressed players on stage as they do for singers, soloists, or professional athletes. Musicians have to suffer their discomforts silently with no merit badges for playing under duress. We're just expected to play well regardless of how lousy everything feels, and, in large part, that's what we expect of ourselves. No one can begin to understand what it's like to play and perform in pain or with a dysfunctional embouchure unless he has personally experienced it. When a player's embouchure stops working comfortably, playing is reduced to a terrifying effort, requiring much more mental and physical energy. It's easy to conclude that it sounds just as bad as it feels. Unfortunately, it is within this confused, emotional prison that a player is faced with figuring out what's not right and how to fix what he cannot figure out. It becomes an even greater task when one's career and livelihood are on the line. But how does a player know if his chop problem is embouchure overuse syndrome or just a momentary aberration?
Chapter 3 Air Control and Overuse Syndrome
We don't usually think of the embouchure as an integral component of air control. Embouchure and air support are taught quite separately from each other. However, when a player's embouchure becomes dysfunctional, his air control will be disabled as well. Without a doubt, one of the more mysterious parts of playing is air control and for obvious reasons. It is something that can be felt but not seen. Generally speaking, the use of air in playing is one of those thorny, territorial issues brass players love to debate. Some even suggest that all or most playing problems will disappear if you "...just use more air." In my years of research, I have found that good air control has less to do with the quantity of air a player can suck into his lungs or how fast he can expel it, as much as whether his embouchure is physically able to govern and focus his air stream optimally during playing.
"I don't know what's wrong with my chops. I just woke up one day, and everything about my lips and playing seemed to be different. Nothing feels normal. It's almost like I'm playing on someone else's embouchure. I also don't seem to be able to get my air going with the rest of my playing. It's like there's a big space between my air and my lips. I don't seem to be able to play long phrases even when I take a big breath. Everything just feels weak and like it's working separately."
Most injured players describe the sensation of a "gap" in their air control--a gap which ranges from below their Adam's apple to their lips.
"I thought there might be something wrong with my lungs, but my doctor says I'm fine. I used to be able to play forever before I had to take a breath, and, now, I can barely play two bars before I completely run out of air. I have no endurance at all and my lips and embouchure feel weak. It's almost like I'm feeling no resistance when I play. What could be wrong?"
Under normal circumstances, a healthy embouchure provides a player with just the right amount of playing resistance for his technical needs and for his air to work effectively. Embouchure overuse syndrome puts one's facial muscles and lips in a constant state of stress, irritation, and fatigue, all of which dissuade a player from generating the normal level of intensity in both his facial muscles and his air stream during playing.... ********************************** Chapter 4 Embouchure Speak A Translation of the Most Common Physical and Playing Symptoms
"I have had the same problem with my chops for years. When I play too much or too loud, the tiny part of the inside upper lip that actually vibrates gets irritated. It seems that after a while the skin just simply can't take the vibrations. Playing loud seems to be the real culprit. A bump kind of raises and I can feel it with my tongue. Then I know I'm in trouble and I have to really back off. Other than taking it easy playing, the only things that seem to help are drinking lots of water, vitamin C, diet and maybe ibuprofen.
I have talked to other players and have gotten unbelievable different response about this thing. Some have no idea what I'm talking about. Some have experienced the problem but have been freaked out by it and haven't told anyone."
If you listen to your chops, you can learn a lot. Pain, swelling, bruising, stiffness, and abrasions are all part of your embouchure's idiomatic lingo. Ancillary to that is what your playing is telling you. A hollow, airy sound, a problem high range, difficult attacks, feeling more mouthpiece pressure, loss of endurance are all ways that your embouchure communicates with you, but do you know what it's saying?
"I can't focus my sound any more. My lips feel like they are made of rubber and that I'm playing with both cheeks puffed out, and I have no control over what I'm doing. My lips are already tired after a five-minute warmup. I just don't know what could be wrong. I've added several hours of practice each day, but it hasn't helped."
Injury to a player's embouchure system from overuse masquerades as a variety of nasty physical and playing symptoms. The symptoms most often appear soon after a very heavy period of intense, physically demanding playing, where the muscles have become so taxed and the lip tissue so stressed that the player's embouchure is rendered physically incapable of configuring properly. From then on, a player's lips are exposed to repeated irritation. At the end of an average day of playing, which would consist of the amount and kind of playing one is used to, a player may experience mild lip puffiness and facial fatigue which disappear within a few hours. However, because the buzzing aperture is so tiny to begin with, any change in the physical contour of the lips from swelling can make playing very challenging. In general, lip swelling is anathema to playing. Brass players describe it as "stiff lips," because that's how it feels. Swelling narrows the gap of the buzzing aperture, preventing the lips from vibrating freely. To overcome swelling in the lips, the facial muscles have to work just a little bit harder to stretch the aperture open enough so it then has room to vibrate. Even though the face has to work with more effort, under normal circumstances, the muscles are strong enough to handle the added burden. However, after an episode of embouchure overuse, nothing is normal.... ********************************** |
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cinlewis@embouchures.com with questions or comments.
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