People literally use TOO MUCH muscles when playing games. They use muscles that actually work against play, as well as muscles that help play. They pull with the cheeks out and pull with the corners in; they pull the chin down and try to make the lips compress. These are OPPOSITE actions and they just tire us out. Think about what the muscles do and then how they affect the game. When we learn where the additional stress is, we automatically become stronger.

Isometrics are good for adding muscle strength, but they are NOT good when playing games. When it comes to isometrics, all you need is a blunt pencil. It costs 5 cents and gives you all the training you will need. Most people use the muscles UNDER the lower lip for compression and the pencil isolates them better. The pencil exercise should be done with the teeth CLOSED. That makes the lower lip do the job. When the teeth are apart, the jaw moves and the pencil is partially supported by the jaw and neck. Working the neck is a BIG concern for many players, as some of them have real problems with closing their throats.

The corners of the hum or vibration are INSIDE the mouthpiece. The corners of the mouth are isolated from the mouthpiece by the edge and pressure of the mouthpiece. Bad choice of words from many years ago. There are many nozzles and the corners play an important role in only ONE of them. You have to realize that people have done themselves a disservice by combining and mixing embouchure ideas that don’t fit together.

The sand is fine. The water is fine. Water and sand together form MUD. That’s what we do when we continue to assume that ANY mouthpiece idea or exercise will work with another. We muddy our abilities.

What is the BEST mouthpiece? None of them. Maynard Ferguson used a little frown. Andrea Tofanelli rolls her lips and uses her jaw forward. Arturo Sandoval hums. Walt Johnson has his upper lip overlapping his lower lip. Bob Odneal uses the compression that comes from bending the chin. Nick Drozdoff uses his tongue against his lip as part of the mouthpiece.

6 high note players and 6 completely DIFFERENT mouthpieces. However, for whatever reason, people think that there is a high note mouthpiece. (NOT mixing multiple mouthpieces together by accident IS the high note mouthpiece.) Some of them NEED nozzle pressure to work. When you overlap your lips, pressure IS how they compress. Now that is different. Some mouthpieces require the tongue to arch to induce a slight curvature (when the tongue moves, it moves the jaw and that realigns the lips and causes curvature). But in some like the Stevens; The arch of the tongue is useless because the lips are already curved (the tongue cannot move enough to increase the curl).

See that those 6 nozzles that I have mentioned are NOT all. More there are variations on each. There are even a few others that I haven’t mentioned yet. Bill Houghton – Lead Trumpet – The BBC Symphony Orchestra plays with ONE lip against the tongue. The tongue takes the place of the lower lip. (That was first written in the ITG Journal of September 1995).

Look, there are a lot of variations that work as long as we don’t mix some of mouth A with some of mouth B and some of mouth C. Mixing these elements often adds excess and unbalances the balance we need between lip opening, firmness, relaxation, air support … When this balance is disturbed, our progress stops and sometimes is reversed.

Putting Ford parts in a Chevy doesn’t work. This is why MOST nozzle experiments fail. The WAY we use some muscles and the WAY we use our jaw and the WAY we put our lips makes each of us a Chevy, or Ford, or Cad, or &&. This makes actions that are VITAL for some settings completely useless for others. See old habits and overbuilt muscles that need to be overcome BEFORE experiments have a chance to be successful.

If someone smiles to play loud, we get them to position the embouchure by pulling the corners inward to make it much more difficult to smile. That gives them the opportunity to learn to use compression. It is quite possible that your playing embouchure is reinforcing the things that prevent your experimental embouchure from growing. For example, people who already use the lip curler get ZERO benefit from the arch of the tongue. The arch of the tongue helps BECAUSE it creates a bit of curvature in the lips when the movement of the tongue causes the jaw to move. If you already use a lot of curl, the effect will NOT be noticeable because the ratio of tongue movement to jaw movement is 16: 1. That is why Stevens did not use ANY bows. But on a puckered nozzle or vibrating nozzle arc it’s like a turbocharger.

See what muscles actually do.

ALWAYS useful to play:

The real lips are the Orbicularis oris ———- they close their mouths, they purse their lips.

The muscle in the middle of the chin, the Mentalis, protrudes from the lower lip and compresses.

The muscle that runs from below the corners of the lower lip, the depressor anguli oris, frowns and squeezes.

OFTEN Harmful to play:

The muscle of the upper cheek the Zygomaticus major / minor ———- smiles and thin the lips.

The muscle that runs from the cheekbone and lips to the Buccinator ———- compresses the cheek and thins the lips.

The muscle that goes from the ear to the mouth pulls the Risorius ———- smiling and thin the lips.

The muscle that runs from the lip to the nose, the Levator labii superioris ———- lifts the upper lip and spreads the lips and pulls the upper lip above the tooth space

The muscle that goes from the jaw to the mouth, the Depressor labii inferioris ———- lowers the lower lip and separates the lips.

The muscle that goes from the neck muscle that goes from the jaw to the shoulder of the Platysma ———- depresses the jaw, lowers the lip and part the lips.

The largest muscle in the cheek, the masseter, closes the jaw and chokes the flow of air.

The muscle that runs from the top of the cheek to the back of the head, the Temporalis ———- closes the jaw (raises the jaw) and chokes the flow of air.

A lot of players use ALL of these muscles, but when you look at what they do, you see that they make the game difficult. So my best advice to you is to check and see what elements are supposed to be present in the embouchure you are playing and not add ideas from other systems to it.