The brass player’s embouchure is a paradoxical phenomenon requiring much training and regular maintenance. The very idea that it is possible to turn a “Bronx cheer” into music with the aid of a mouthpiece and some brass plumbing with a flared end almost defies reason! And yet, with a careful combination of tension and suppleness, compression and flow the warm and noble sound of the trumpet is possible.
The most crucial area of the embouchure, the place where the rubber meets the road, is the aperture. This is the point where the air exits the body and the buzz is produced. In order for the aperture to function properly there must be a balance between firmness and softness, airflow and muscle function (“flow and flesh”). The aperture is actually a nozzle of sorts controlling the air column’s size, direction, focus and rate of flow. The aperture must remain soft enough to vibrate freely, firm enough to produce desired pitches and open enough to keep air flowing proportionate to volume and range.
One of the most common mistakes we make regarding proper aperture formation is that we tend to press the lips too tightly together, especially in the upper register, thus closing off the “nozzle” and limiting the flow of air. It is important to remember that it is air passing through the lips which causes them to vibrate. If the lips are pressed so tightly together that air cannot flow through them sufficiently, they will not vibrate. No amount of pressing or straining will produce the desired tones if there is no room for the air to travel through the lips and make them buzz. This presents us with a bit of a dilemma. How are we to tighten our lips to play in the upper register if tightening them closes the aperture and stops the flow of air? In order to produce higher pitches (faster vibrations) the vibrating surface must tighten somewhat and the airflow must increase its velocity. The answer to our dilemma may be found in studying Trumpeter’s Enemy Number One: Excessive Mouthpiece Pressure. Why does mouthpiece pressure work? (And it does indeed work. The only problem is that excessive mouthpiece pressure injures the lips and causes them to swell thus cutting down on endurance). Mouthpiece pressure “works” because you’re using your arms to do what your lips ought to be doing. You are compressing the lips against the firm foundation of the dental structure and producing a firm, dense vibrating surface which can react with increased air speed to produce higher frequency vibrations. What we need to learn to do is compress the lip muscles against the teeth by using the lip muscles themselves, not our arms, by “rolling in” (for lack of a better term) toward the teeth and focusing toward the center of the mouthpiece. This allows us to make the lips firm enough to produce the higher pitches without closing off the opening that lets the air pass through them. The muscle must become more dense providing a firmer foundation as well as a protective cushion or pad between the teeth and the mouthpiece. This is the “pucker tempered with a smile” referred to by Donald Fink in his “The Art of Trombone Playing,” and it is a fundamental characteristic of all effective brass embouchures. The lips come in towards the teeth as they do when smiling, but the corners stay firmly planted without stretching back as the area of lip outside the mouthpiece move toward the center of the mouth as if to grip the outside of the mouthpiece.
Great caution must be used when reading about or working on the embouchure! It is extremely easy to do too much of something and throw the whole mechanism out of balance. Use good judgment and common sense, and above all, use your ears. Let your tone be your guide.