A different approach to building an embouchure: mapping out the way your lips are spread out from the point where the vibration starts outwards.
by Denys Derome
I have been teaching horn at McGill University for close to 25 years. Like many of you, when I started playing the horn, my first teacher was rather vague in terms of step-by-step indications. My main instructions were to put the horn mouthpiece on my lips, avoid puffing my cheeks, focus on firmly tensing up my chin and the muscles at the corners of my lips, and build more power in my corner lip muscles through consistent horn practice. As the years have passed and I have spent time observing my own playing and working with students, I have come to realize that we often tense up certain facial muscles too much and end up preventing other muscles from doing their work more efficiently. Small changes to how you use the embouchure muscles can lead to greater results in tone quality, stamina, efficiency, and frankly, much more enjoyment. Obviously, not everyone reading this will want to urgently make changes to the way they produce sounds on the horn. If what you are doing is working for you, please, forget this presentation and let me salute your joy for playing the horn and wish you continued success. On the other hand, if you are curious to see how building an embouchure could be done a bit differently, if you have a problem with students sometimes rolling in their bottom lips in the high register, or if you sometimes wonder if a student might be better served with by a mouthpiece with a wider diameter, this presentation is for you.
When discussing how to create an embouchure with students, I break down my explanations into five steps. Here is a synopsis of each of those steps:
1- Bring awareness to the line of contact between your lower and upper lip when your mouth is at rest. Give attention to the points (line) of contact between your lips when your mouth is closed. Map out mentally (visualize, memorize) the sensation of where on the lower lip the top lip is touching and where on the top lip the lower lip is touching. You always want to go back to this position the instant your lips stop vibrating. This means no rolling in of the bottom lip or any other position than where your lips meet each other when your mouth is closed and the muscles are relaxed. Look in the mirror to have a visual memory as well.
2- Bring awareness to the orbicularis oris muscle. While you are looking in the mirror, observe the position of the corners of your mouth at rest. There is one multilayered muscle that surrounds your lips. This muscle is called the orbicularis oris. Literally translated from the Latin “circular mouth muscle.” There are many facial muscles involved in building an embouchure, but for the purpose of this presentation, I would like to bring your attention to this specific muscle:
- With your mouth closed and relaxed while still feeling that line of contact between top and bottom lip, observe the corners of your lips. You can even gently put a finger right next to the corner of your mouth beyond the lip corner and feel a connection to the orbicularis oris.
- Now, while looking in the mirror and with your mouth still closed, muscles at rest, keep touching the corners of your mouth and move the facial muscles as if you were going to say “EEEE.” Keep your mouth closed as you are doing this. Notice how the orbicularis oris is pulled away from the relaxed position.
- Now, still with your mouth closed, move the facial muscles as if you were getting ready to say “OUUU” and feel how the orbicularis oris is now being engaged and moving inwards towards the center of the lips. The orbicularis oris is now slightly closer to the center of your lips than when your lips are at rest and your mouth closed.
The most efficient way to create your embouchure is to keep the orbicularis oris engaged in a slight “OUUU” setting. An “EEEE” setting will require more tension than necessary and is more likely to let slip in the bad habit of rolling your lips in and out and never establishing a constant line of contact between your lips. The gentle “OUUU” setting will allow you to maintain the same line of contact between the lips. This setting will allow more blood flow and less tension.
The closer to the mouthpiece the orbicularis oris is set, the less force will be required to generate the appropriate tension for your vibrating lips inside the mouthpiece. If you do not develop awareness of the gentle involvement of the orbicularis oris, you risk working against this muscle by constantly trying to lock it forcefully into a position away from the mouthpiece. At that point, your muscles are fighting against each other. Ultimately, the gentle “OUUU” setting means a richer tone, more stamina, easier recuperation after loud playing, and less swelling after very sustained loud playing. (For the more advanced player, the big difference here is that the closer to the mouthpiece you bring to orbicularis oris muscle, the more relaxed your lip behind the mouthpiece has to be. If you are used to playing on an “EEEE” setting, it will take a bit of time to get used to relaxing the lip and realize just how much less effort is needed and how much fuller the sound becomes on the “OUUU” setting.)
3- Free Buzz. After taking time to observe how the orbicularis oris works, go back to feeling the line of contact between your lips when your mouth is closed and your muscles are at rest. Now, we want to find out how to get a vibration in our lips from our neutral lip position. Create a buzz, no matter what pitch—preferably middle to low register, but we will take whatever you can create. Whether your lips are at rest or vibrating, your mind stays on feeling the line of contact between the lips. I only use free buzzing to help map out the spread of the lips. In my teaching, I use free buzzing very sparingly
4- Introduce the mouthpiece to your vibrating lips with your new lip spread. While you are buzzing, place the entire thickness of the lower rim of the mouthpiece on the skin part immediately below the red part of your lower lip. Stop buzzing but do not move any of your lip spread while you now gently cover your lips with the rest of the mouthpiece. This is the moment where you take a look at the diameter of your mouthpiece. Does the mouthpiece rest on the skin parts of your top and bottom lip? If you fall short and the upper part of the mouthpiece ends up resting on the red part of your lips, your mouthpiece diameter is too small for your lips. You should look for a greater diameter. Too many students try to squeeze their lips into a mouthpiece with a diameter too small for their lips. When you place the mouthpiece on the lips, imagine that there is a tiny drop of glue on the top part of the rim and a tiny drop of glue on the bottom part of the rim. You will now imagine that the top and bottom parts of the rim will be glued to your skin whenever the mouthpiece is on your lips. The top part is “glued” to the skin right above the red part of your top lip. The bottom part of the rim is “glued” to the skin as it touches the skin right below the red part of your lower lip.
5- Put it all together. With the mouthpiece “glued” to your lips, relax the musculature and stay glued with closed lips. Take a big breath through the nose and now buzz through the mouthpiece. Your musculature will now be interacting with the mouthpiece. The spread inside your mouthpiece remains the same but the orbicularis oris is now ready to engage and move ever closer to the center of your lips than when you were free buzzing. Repeat this a few times and finally add the horn to your mouthpiece and you are all set!
Thank you for reading. I wish you happy experimentation with these ideas.
Denys Derome
McGill Schulich School of Music, Horn Instructor
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Associate Principal Horn
