GordonH

I had this problem. My embouchre had spread out over a period of years and I was using more pressure so I went to see the principal trumpet of one of our national orchestras who also teaches at the Royal Scottish Academy.

Here is what he suggested to me as a way of retraining my lip:

1. Play quietly all the time when you are practicing because all we are doing whne we play loudly is the same trhing but more of it, playing with control quietly.

2. Do the pencil exercise for a few minutes a day, including the reverse of the pencil exercise so you are exercising the muscles in both directions.

3. Concentrate on Schlossberg studies and similar exercises, played quietly.

At the same time I moved to an embouchre where my lips were in the classic "spitting a hair out" position which in my case is just my mouth normally closed but my jaw fairly loose.

It took three months of sounding like a beginner to get my range and sound back, but the result has been almost unlimited endurance; I no longer get marks on my lips after playing; my pitch centre has been raised (meaning I have more room for adjusting via tuning slide) and is more stable; I can hit notes more cleanly on entrances.

In all, it was a very useful exercise, but I would recommend seeing someone who knows about these problems. I was lucky because my teacher sees a lot of kids coming up to the academy who have the same problem and he was able to give me the confidence that it was fixable.

I also had the ability to take three months off playing to make the changes.

__________________
"O trumpeter, methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest,
Thou melt'st my heart, my brain--thou movest, drawest, changest
them at will;" (Walt Whitman)