| sealing corners
I was wondering if any one had any suggestions as to a routine to help strengthen corners. (or exercises to help seal the corners not necessarily just build muscle). I have trouble sealing my corners sometimes and now I am without a teacher for the summer. I can control the leaking but a lot of the time (especially when I am playing jazz and standing up), I am not concentrating on that. It is mainly when I am tonguing. But when I am thinking about it, I think that I am going about it wrong and trying to just bring my lips together more and not just the corners. When I try to focus on getting the corners sealed and the aperture just right, I cant seem go get my face on the mouthpiece comfortably. I use the arban's, clarke, colin lip flexibilites, schlossberg, and soon to be buzzing book by james thompson. I would just like to know some specific exercises out of those to work on and maybe any suggestions on a routine you know of.
Also, on a side-note... sometimes, I let air into my upper lip, (when I get fatigued, lose concentration, or sometimes when playing in the upper register). It has gotten so much better since I became aware of this in high school but, Could this be related to having trouble sealing the corners?
Thanks,
Adam |