Questions tagged [embouchure]

The embouchure is the use of facial muscles and the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of woodwind instruments or the mouthpiece of the brass instruments.

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How can I help my beginner horn players access the mid and high range?

I'm teaching trumpet, french horn, and trombone this year in a school setting. The students are around 11 years old and have all been playing for about a year. They can read music with some success ...
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How to play persian ney with interdental emboucher sound of letter p

Traditionally ney is playing with directing air toward edge of ney's end to produce sound, This is doing with tong shape approximately like when telling 'shhhh' or 'tttttt', But Kianinejad has been ...
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What woodwind instruments have easier embouchure?

I've been stuggling playing the trumpet because of the lip position. Do woodwind instruments have less pressure on the lips or have easier embouchure compared to brass? If you had to rank the ...
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Does playing with a mouthpiece patch affect your embouchure?

I have been playing clarinet since 6th grade, and now I am a sophomore in high school. My band director is doing an instrument check that is for a grade. One of the things that we are required to have ...
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Plastic vs. wooden recorder and saliva build-up?

I teach recorder to young students (ages 9-11), and I often play along. I used to play on a Hohner wooden recorder, which I liked. It had a better tone quality and I thought it would be a better ...
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Is curling sides of tongue when playing trumpet a good/bad idea?

I've been exploring ways to control and focus my air stream when playing trumpet with my tongue recently. Many teachers talk about tongue arch and height, and that has a clear and great effect for me ...
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I have to loosen my jaw to play the lowest notes on my Bari. Is that normal?

I've been playing saxophone for 50 years, mostly alto but more recently tenor. Just recently I acquired a baritone saxophone, and I've had it tuned by a seasoned technician, so I'm pretty sure it's in ...
Cary Jensen's user avatar
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In flute technique, is it common to use the throat to change octaves?

I am a beginning flute player with a background in harmonica playing. For those unfamiliar, it is possible to play a diatonic harmonica chromatically by adjusting the shape of your mouth and throat. ...
Andrew Wagner's user avatar
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What embouchure and mouth configuration is the best for singing soul music?

I only started singing soul music well when I started keeping a large horizontal embouchure and I started pushing the back of my tongue up and the soft palate down, sounding more "nasal". ...
user1883212's user avatar
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Tips for going between trumpet and sousaphone from tune to tune?

I used to play mostly trombone in trad jazz bands. I got turned onto the cornet, and there was a need for someone in our area to play the cornet, so I got it "up to speed". For a little ...
pixelearth's user avatar
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Does the lip really vibrate at the same frequency of a brass instrument?

The resonance of woodwind brass instruments can be modeled after a closed cylindrical pipe and calculated by the equation f = (nv)/(4L) where n denotes the number of harmonics, v the velocity of sound ...
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If I were to switch from playing clarinet (6 years) to starting oboe, how hard would it be? [closed]

So I'm aware that oboe is one of the hardest instruments to pick up and learn (partially because of embouchure, reed maintenance, etc.) but I love the instrument and I'd really like to start learning. ...
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Fat/Thick lips/skin making endurance on oboe difficult?

I have an observation leading to my question.... all top oboe players seem to have thin lips. I initial thought that playing the oboe might tone the facial muscles differently and cause thinner lips, ...
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What are the embouchure differences for the brass family instruments?

I play trumpet, but have little to no experience on other brass instruments. In terms of the physiology involved, how does the embouchure change from one (family of) instrument to another? Are certain ...
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High G and G# splitting/jumping to the next harmonic on saxophone

I had asked this question on SaxOnTheWeb a while ago, but I'm still battling with this problem, and it makes certain pieces (like The Beatles' "Come Together") virtually unplayable. ...
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Exercises for getting a consistent tone on the flute

I am a tenor saxophone player who wants to branch out into playing a transverse flute to expand on their fingering techniques and embouchure. For the past 2 weeks, I have been practising with a ...
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Importance of jaw alignment for brass players

Some resources on brass instrument technique recommend pushing the lower jaw forward such that the front teeth are aligned. Is this a controversial recommendation? If not, how important is it to ...
intuited's user avatar
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Proper embouchure to leak air while playing EWI?

If you read enough beginner resources for Akai EWI players, you'll keep seeing people mention that you need to let air leak out the sides of your mouth while you play, to avoid building up ...
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How much does an embouchure's shape affects the ability to produce a note on a flute?

I've already asked a bunch of (more theoretical) questions about the subject, but I'm trying to build a flute — a chromatic flute to be more precise. I don't play the flute or any other woodwind ...
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Music Physics Question - Automatic Trumpet Embouchure Mouthpiece

So this might be a bit of a newbie question. I'm a working musician who mainly plays guitar and piano, and uses a lot of sampled instruments and synths as well. I don't mean this to be offensive to ...
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Lip pain when playing flute: how to overcome?

I have noticed that when I play higher octave notes on the flute my lips start to hurt. This has happened before but I dealt with it just by ignoring the pain. I would like to know whether there is ...
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Learning the Flute embouchure with a teardrop in the lips?

I'm trying to learn the flute embouchure for an irish (wooden) flute for 2 years now. My teacher mentioned to me that because of the shape of my lips (I'm having a teardrop in the middle of my upper ...
Quantumwhisp's user avatar
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Re-learning bass trombone after many years

Many years ago I was experienced and occasionally substituted for a symphony bass trombonist. When learning, I remember a major breakthrough in sound came when starting with a smaller mouthpiece (e....
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Flattened notes and odd fuzzy sound on trumpet

Yesterday practicing I noticed a high improvement over previous days in terms of sound and intonation, I could play all the harmonic series up to high E more or less properly intonated and with a good ...
Mister Equis's user avatar
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4 answers
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Trumpet playing to clarinet playing

Sorry if this has been asked here somewhere before but I haven't been able to find this question (I found the reverse situation of my question). I've been playing trumpet for several years now and ...
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Decades of wrong oboe embouchure

I started learning the oboe when I was 10, and went up to get a distinction at Grade 8 in the UK. However, my lips were nearly always sore, and I realise now that my teeth were biting in to my lip. I ...
Cass's user avatar
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How hard would it be to switch from a bass clarinet to a soprano sax?

I am currently playing a bass clarinet in my concert band, but my parents want me to switch to a "lighter" instrument. I looked through different options, and saw the soprano saxophone. If I were to ...
Agent Eric's user avatar
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2 answers
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How will getting braces affect my embouchure?

I'm thinking of getting braces and was wondering how this would affect my embouchure. I'm a flute player, but not very good. I worry that if I work hard at practicing the flute while wearing braces, ...
Melanie Palen's user avatar
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Oboe embouchure issues?

I recently just got a brand new Oboe, and I'm having trouble getting my embouchure right. Please know that I just got it, so I'm still in need of much more practice. I am also a seasoned flute player ...
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How to develop a proper trumpet embochure: Tuning and range

I recently started playing the trumpet, and I am struggling with the upper range, but what concerns me even more than that is that my notes in the range I mostly control are out of tune. In general ...
Septimus G's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is it possible to play 2 wind instruments well?

I am currently playing the tenor trombone and flute. I have been playing the trombone for quite a while and I have recently taken up the flute. I am finding it difficult to sustain a strong tone on ...
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What are some ways to improve my embouchure stamina besides regular practice?

I'm a saxophone player who recently signed up for a community concert band at a local college, but it's been about 7-8 months since I played with any regularity, and that wasn't much more than once a ...
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Will learning trumpet damage my single reed embouchure?

I mainly play clarinet and sax, but I'd like to pick up a bit of trumpet to be able to play all the big band instruments (albeit quite badly for some of them). However, I've heard that playing brass ...
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How to hit right partials on brass?

Sometimes when playing a trumpet/flugelhorn part on my own, I can't tell if I'm hitting the right partial, usually in the upper register. Sometimes it's too high, other times too low. What is the ...
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How to develop pedal tones on brass instrument

I play the cornet and have a decent range (F#3-Eb6) and I am trying to develop pedal tones. However, I've encountered some difficulty (actually a lot of difficulty) in doing this. What is the ...
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