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Along with the recent upgrade of my stock French horn, I made some changes to my embouchure in the attempt to overcome some long-standing issues.
Socrates has said that in order to begin understanding a thing, you must first give it a name. For lack of a better term I am calling these handicaps I have embouchure breaks.
John Ericson has written about this topic recently and I for one strongly identify with his observations. For years I have had two tricky areas that I would call breaks – one just below the treble staff and another around the first-line G. Over the years it has become a matter of how to minimize these trouble areas so that most people do not notice.
I won’t get into the details here, but rather I want to focus on my new approach. I wanted to affect a real change instead of continuing to mask a problem. For myself these were radical things to try but I thought, why not?
The regimen
I had two goals: to smooth out these breaks and to come up with something that could be done while in the office at work.
The routine consists mainly of contractions and isometric presses. Let’s call it embouchure resistance training for the moment. It is all done away from the horn and the regimen consists of three basics:
- muscle contractions
- the pencil trick
- embouchure pulling
Disclaimer:
- This is an informal diary with many details left out.
- This is not a treatise nor is it meant to be.
- If you attempt this on your own, you do so at your own risk.
Contractions
This technique involves contracting the embouchure muscles tightly like a drawstring, as tightly as possible without tensing the jaw muscles or clenching the teeth, and holding a position in timed intervals.
The picture at right illustrates one position I hold with the lips tightly puckered and rolled inwards. I aim for the appearance of a lighter ring at the edge between the soft and firm flesh.
This can be difficult without clenching the jaw but it is possible.
Typically I will hold a position for 20-30 seconds, release and rest, then repeat – anywhere from 5 to 10 times. Usually by the end a nice tingle is felt.
Interval training like this is how muscles get built in other parts of the body, so this routine seemed logical as a warm-up. It also serves as nice preparation for the next step.
The pencil trick
Forming the embouchure as above, I open the jaw a bit and roll both lips inward over the teeth. I insert the eraser end of my homemade tool and close down a bit.
This is otherwise known as the pencil trick, which has been around since 1942. My variation on this theme is made with a pencil, a coin and a very teeny-tiny drop of superglue.
(You read my disclaimer, right?)
The routine is the same as above, holding a squeeze position anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds, followed by resting. This cycle is repeated 5 to 10 times.
This device pictured at right has a two-fold purpose and for the pencil trick, the coin acts as a small counterweight. Being a total geek, I have a set of three that vary in weight – nickels and dimes, and Mexican centavos.
As much as possible I try to support the pencil with the lip and facial muscles, but of course because the lips are rolled, the teeth are involved to some degree as an underlying support. The basic idea I think is to avoid biting down on the pencil as this defeats the purpose of the muscle workout.
Embouchure pulling
Embouchure pulling involves the coin end of my home-made device. This is of course modeled after a commercially available device, but at a fraction of the cost.
So much so that I could afford to experiment.
I found that the US nickel worked the best for embouchure pulling exercises, for example. And too, I found by trial and error an effective routine that worked for me.
- Insert the coin end of the device between the lips and teeth.
- Form the embouchure in the same manner as under Contractions above.
- Gently pull and hold the pencil away from the face – only a few millimeters.
- With the embouchure muscles, resist the pull and squeeze the lips tightly around the pencil
I do two variations: small-interval repetitions and non-stop squeezes that I hold until my muscles start to wiggle and give in. This is all done with plenty of rest in-between. Sometimes too I roll the lips tightly inward to really clamp down on the pencil.
Does it work?
The entire 3-stage routine stands at about 5-6 minutes. At the end of it I feel strong sensations – tingling around the entire facial area. I found that much beyond 5 minutes was too much, a 10-minute routine left my chops feeling too fatigued when playing horn later in the same day.
The routine is repeated 2-3 times throughout the day, with plenty of rest in-between exercises and sessions. It may not look like much but this is a fairly concentrated muscle workout.
It all sounds crazy right? (Shall we burn this HERETIC at the stake?!)
In short, I would answer quite emphatically that yes, this routine is doing something positive. My embouchure feels stronger and seems to recover much faster after a heavy session or gig.
Among the most noticeable improvements are my break areas – they have improved significantly. While I could not begin to even explain or understand what is going on, there has been a noticeable change. Everything feels smoother and more in control.
As I continue to experiment with this training, I become more convinced that there is something to it and that it is not just some kind of placebo-effect. Of course regular practice sessions on the horn are not excluded – this method is by no means a substitute for playing the horn.
In Part II
I found that the lip rolling aspect of this routine – at least for the bottom lip – went a long way towards improvement in many areas. More on this on Friday.
