why your trumpet embouchure was never built for you — Transcript

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1. 0:03Trumpet players, you've spent decades of
2. 0:05your life playing an embouchure that was
3. 0:07never built for you. The embouchure that
4. 0:10you're playing with was actually built
5. 0:11for your teacher, one who has a
6. 0:13completely different setup to you that
7. 0:16you should not even be playing with.
8. 0:19Which is why you as a trumpet player is
9. 0:22struggling with sound, range, endurance,
10. 0:24even after years of practicing etudes
11. 0:27every single day and having the same
12. 0:29routine for decades. And in this video
13. 0:31here today, I'm going to talk to you
14. 0:33about what really makes a difference,
15. 0:36and how to set your embouchure up and
16. 0:37fix them for success. And this exact
17. 0:40system that I myself use and hundreds of
18. 0:43my students use that I teach online, and
19. 0:46how to find out your embouchure setup
20. 0:48for you by using a quick simple
21. 0:50exercises to be able to skyrocket your
22. 0:53trumpet playing. Did you know that there
23. 0:55are two types of the embouchure when it
24. 0:57comes to playing the trumpet? Most
25. 0:59trumpet players think of upstream,
26. 1:01downstream,
27. 1:03where the angle of their trumpet is, and
28. 1:05it's not entirely correct at all. Now,
29. 1:09there's four different categorizations,
30. 1:11but we're going to talk about the first
31. 1:13two that makes the biggest difference in
32. 1:14terms of your trumpet playing. Type one
33. 1:17and type two.
34. 1:19Most players think that when you play on
35. 1:21the trumpet, you go up to ascend, and
36. 1:24you go down for the low notes. So, they
37. 1:26physically reach for those notes. Other
38. 1:29methodologies think down on the note
39. 1:32like the Bill Adam's routine think down
40. 1:34as you go higher and up [snorts] as you
41. 1:35go lower. That works for about 45% of
42. 1:39people, but what happens to the rest of
43. 1:41those people? Well, this is where the
44. 1:44vertical alignment system comes in. What
45. 1:47does the vertical alignment system
46. 1:48actually mean? It talks about the body
47. 1:51positioning through the Alexander
48. 1:52technique. It talks about the embouchure
49. 1:55and the instability of the embouchure
50. 1:57through some things like the air
51. 1:59pivoting system by Bobby Shew as well as
52. 2:03the Don Reinhardt classification system.
53. 2:05So, when we put that all together, you
54. 2:07get the vertical alignment system as
55. 2:09well as other different sorts of things
56. 2:11that go into it, the secret sauce. Even
57. 2:14if you learn what type you are, whether
58. 2:16it's one or two, you might struggle to
59. 2:19achieve high notes or a beautiful sound
60. 2:21because of this. This is because there's
61. 2:24more than one part of the equation. So,
62. 2:27you're probably wondering, Harrison,
63. 2:29what is type one and type two? Well, I'm
64. 2:32going to demonstrate that for you. So,
65. 2:35my ambusher classification is a
66. 2:37downstream type one. If you right now do
67. 2:42a G major scale
68. 2:45breath attacked and slow, you might look
69. 2:47like this.
70. 2:51>> [music]
71. 2:53>> With the bell of my trumpet tracked down
72. 2:56to the right and my aperture as it got
73. 2:58tighter over the teeth went down to the
74. 3:01right. That is a type one, meaning down
75. 3:08to ascend. The ambusher moves down on
76. 3:11the teeth directing the air flow up. So,
77. 3:14if we take a trombone mouthpiece like
78. 3:16this, as I'm playing the low C, the air
79. 3:19is going there as the mouthpiece is
80. 3:21higher up.
81. 3:23Then the low C and G is right there. The
82. 3:26C, the air is going through the middle.
83. 3:29Then the G and the E and the high C is
84. 3:32further up in the cup. So, as my
85. 3:34aperture goes down,
86. 3:36the air goes up into the mouthpiece.
87. 3:39It's not really changing direction up,
88. 3:42it's continually going straight and I'm
89. 3:44moving the external factors to be able
90. 3:46to get that. Now, that's type one, which
91. 3:50means as you go higher
92. 3:56you go down. As you go lower
93. 4:01>> [music]
94. 4:02>> you go up.
95. 4:04You can go straight down
96. 4:07diagonal to the right, diagonal to the
97. 4:09left. That is because the inner teeth
98. 4:12are different.
99. 4:13Then you have type two players, uh which
100. 4:17are the exact opposite. If they play
101. 4:20that exercise, they'll go
102. 4:26up
103. 4:27for the higher notes and down
104. 4:33for the lower notes. This means that
105. 4:36their air system within the mouthpiece
106. 4:39is completely opposite.
107. 4:41So if you look at Sergei Nakariakov,
108. 4:45when he goes up, he goes da da ga dum,
109. 4:48da da ga dum, da da ga dum. He goes up
110. 4:50to the left for the higher notes. Then
111. 4:53you have other players, where the
112. 4:55massage he goes down as he ascends. Same
113. 4:58as uh myself. So when that happens, the
114. 5:01type two players
115. 5:04their embouchure goes up. So their air
116. 5:07is going lower into the cup for the
117. 5:09upper register.
118. 5:11They go down
119. 5:13and then as they go
120. 5:16um
121. 5:17yeah, they goes up so the air goes
122. 5:18lower. So you have the opposite. So you
123. 5:21have low C at the top of the cup
124. 5:24G slightly inwards
125. 5:26C is in the same spot for both
126. 5:28categorizations,
127. 5:30G is lower and then high C is at the
128. 5:32bottom of the mouthpiece. So then what's
129. 5:35different between type one and type two?
130. 5:38Mouthpiece placement. Usually type twos
131. 5:41have more upper lip. Uh they go up to
132. 5:44ascend. Common traits. If you're someone
133. 5:48that goes up for the higher notes,
134. 5:49you're going to effectively
135. 5:52you could be stopping the vibrating
136. 5:55surface. We've got both upper and lower
137. 5:58lip.
138. 5:59If I buzz, my top lip is active.
139. 6:09So, if I pin that top lip, it's going to
140. 6:11be the end of it for me.
141. 6:13Now, if you're downstream type two, you
142. 6:17may have the top lip active, the bottom
143. 6:20lip, or both of them. Why is it
144. 6:22important? If your top lip is active and
145. 6:25you go up for the higher notes, you're
146. 6:26going to put the pressure on it and
147. 6:28effectively stop your vibrating surface,
148. 6:31which means no matter how much air, no
149. 6:33matter how much force you put into the
150. 6:35trumpet, it will stop working for you.
151. 6:38So, to recap, type ones go
152. 6:46down
153. 6:47to ascend, whether it's down, right, or
154. 6:49left. Then you have type two, where they
155. 6:52go up.
156. 6:58And they go up, whether it's straight
157. 7:00up, to the left, or to the right. That
158. 7:03is conducive of the jaw structure and
159. 7:08the surface that the embouchure moves
160. 7:10through.
161. 7:11So, that's the first categorization.
162. 7:14Then the next categorization, you have
163. 7:17to actually make all the changes, and
164. 7:20you have to make sure that you've got
165. 7:22the embouchure set up for you. Because
166. 7:25if you don't understand where to blow
167. 7:27the air in the embouchure, then no
168. 7:29embouchure in the world or no teacher or
169. 7:32specialist is able to fix it for you.
170. 7:34They'll just try to get you to play um
171. 7:38more air, play louder, practice more.
172. 7:41It's not going to work. So, most people
173. 7:44do this. They start playing and they go
174. 7:52and they go, "Oh, yeah, it's fine." And
175. 7:53they're playing like that.
176. 7:58It's a good sound. But they don't
177. 8:00actually stop and listen and go, "Okay,
178. 8:03right. Uh this person is a downstream
179. 8:05trumpet player and they go down. Okay,
180. 8:08the categorization they need then makes
181. 8:1155% top lip, 52%." Cuz you got this.
182. 8:16>> [music]
183. 8:19>> And if I move it down,
184. 8:25>> [music]
185. 8:26>> where the air's going in the conducive
186. 8:28part of the mouthpiece,
187. 8:29the trumpet can resonate easily.
188. 8:32So, why do people not do this? Remember,
189. 8:35a secret is something kept unexplained
190. 8:38or hidden. Most people don't know about
191. 8:40this. Now, upstream and downstream, what
192. 8:43is that? Okay? Most people think that
193. 8:46upstream means, "Oh, I play up here."
194. 8:49And downstream means I play like a
195. 8:51clarinet player. It's completely
196. 8:52incorrect. It is all about the direction
197. 8:55of the air going into the cup. So, if
198. 8:57you have extremely low mouthpiece
199. 8:58placement,
200. 9:01like this,
201. 9:05you can be upstream because the air is
202. 9:06going up. There's very little top lip,
203. 9:08even though the angle's down. And if I'm
204. 9:10going like this,
205. 9:17that means that I'm using extreme top
206. 9:19lip, but the angle's up, so the air's
207. 9:21going down because I'm primarily using
208. 9:24upper lip. So, the simplest way to get
209. 9:26this,
210. 9:28more top lip in the mouthpiece,
211. 9:30downstream.
212. 9:32More bottom lip, the air goes up.
213. 9:35So, they're the four categorizations
214. 9:37that you need to have because if you
215. 9:40don't know if you're upstream or
216. 9:41downstream or type one or type two,
217. 9:43that's where the problem gets into
218. 9:44because that really lays the blueprint
219. 9:46out for success on trumpet playing.
220. 9:48That's why some people can pick it up
221. 9:50and boom, they can play double C's
222. 9:52because they're most likely a downstream
223. 9:53type one and they've figured it out or
224. 9:55they're a down or they're an upstream
225. 9:57type two with natural compression. They
226. 9:59know exactly how to do it. What you can
227. 10:02do to 100% secure your embouchure and
228. 10:06solidification once you've done that
229. 10:08exercise before is going to be place the
230. 10:11mouthpiece and you're going to push
231. 10:12lightly on the rim while keeping four
232. 10:14points of contact. If you do this,
233. 10:21you're a type one because you're pushing
234. 10:22down it went up. If you push it and you
235. 10:25go
236. 10:29and you go down, then you are a type
237. 10:33two.
238. 10:34If you're playing at this,
239. 10:42you're pinching the tightness the middle
240. 10:45of the embouchure. There's chatter,
241. 10:47which means you're puckering forwards
242. 10:49and your aperture size is too big. If
243. 10:51you get this,
244. 10:59you're relying too much of the jaw
245. 11:01movement to be able to do it. So, you
246. 11:03are far away from the vertical alignment
247. 11:05system and you need help to be able to
248. 11:07get there or to figure out your natural
249. 11:09tracking movement.
250. 11:11So,
251. 11:12what does it actually mean? Well,
252. 11:15when you play a song, if you're playing
253. 11:18with bad alignment,
254. 11:20like um take
255. 11:23Charlie Do, right? If you're playing
256. 11:25with bad alignment, when you have that
257. 11:27octave jump, you're not going to be able
258. 11:30how make it. Watch what can happen when
259. 11:32you're playing unaligned, you don't know
260. 11:34the movement of your embouchure, so you
261. 11:36pull in.
262. 11:44>> [music]
263. 11:47>> Sounded fine, but the timbre changed. I
264. 11:50was pulling in on my lips, and I can
265. 11:52already feel the swelling.
266. 11:54Now, if I play it run thinking down to
267. 11:56the right and have the mouthpiece
268. 11:58aligned,
269. 12:07>> [music]
270. 12:12>> a lot more control, more balance, more
271. 12:14ease of playing, more resonant sound,
272. 12:16better intonation. Now, if we take
273. 12:18another thing and we go unaligned, and
274. 12:21we you'll notice that I'll have to move
275. 12:22my head a lot.
276. 12:26>> [music]
277. 12:34>> Even with just a simple excerpt like
278. 12:36that, there's a lot of head movement. If
279. 12:38we're playing
280. 12:40unaligned, and we do something uh simple
281. 12:43like this, like Arban's exercise,
282. 12:46you'll notice a lot of movement with the
283. 12:47direction cuz I don't know where to go,
284. 12:49and it'll look something like this.
285. 12:58>> [music]
286. 13:02[music]
287. 13:04>> So, what's happening is is the air's
288. 13:05going out there. I can't control the
289. 13:08movement, so I get lost in the scale. I
290. 13:10don't know where the air is going. Now,
291. 13:12if you slow it down and you use a
292. 13:13vertical alignment system,
293. 13:20>> [music]
294. 13:22>> what's happening there is there's less
295. 13:23movement, right? Like this.
296. 13:26>> [music]
297. 13:27>> We're getting
298. 13:30And that's instigated by the thumb here.
299. 13:32While doing these exercises, it is very
300. 13:35important for you to actually make sure
301. 13:37that you breathe properly.
302. 13:38If you're finding yourself out of breath
303. 13:41or it's strained or feeling
304. 13:42uncomfortable, I highly recommend
305. 13:44watching this video and it's going to
306. 13:46teach you one simple trick that'll make
307. 13:48sure that you're breathing correctly on
308. 13:50the trumpet.