9. Changing Your Embouchure? (Be Kind to Yourself)

Video #9 of 18 in the series: Up Your Mental & Emotional Game (for Trumpet Playing)
English transcript of available on: www.AdamRapa.com
You can watch the full series there, and find lots of other goodies!
Some key take-aways from this video:
"Embouchure problems make people absolutely f'ing neurotic; turns perfectly good, reasonable, happy people into miserable shadows of themselves. Because, a lot of times our ego... gets a seat at the table that it does not deserve."
"When the ego is in that type of situation, if you've attached your sense of self - your self-image - if your ego identifies as a trumpet player... you're gonna be miserable because having embouchure problems means YOU have a problem. There's not just something wrong with your technique at this moment; there's something wrong with YOU."
"And if that's what you feel like your ego is experiencing... It's hard to be a scientist and gather data, gather valuable information about the cause and effect of what you've just done; and formulate a new plan about how to move forward."
"If you're having these emotional responses, then you are not thinking clearly. You're not feeling clearly. You're not gonna be open for the information about what you're doing; what are you actually physically doing..."
"You have got to detach your self-worth from the current state of your playing."
"It starts with taking a breath, being kind to yourself, and not just succumbing to the emotional response of failure, not letting your ego torture you because it's not satisfied with where you're at. That's really, really huge. That is a really big, really important piece of advice; that you have got to detach your self-worth from the current state of your playing.
"Detach your sense of self-worth from your ability to play the trumpet; completely!"
"Focus on being happy with how you are developing yourself. And then you can be a perfectly happy person, who maybe isn't playing the trumpet very well right now; but you can work on that. And a person who has control of their emotional state can do lots of great work, on the technical side of things."
" If you feel like your worth as a human being depends on your ability to play the trumpet, then one day you're gonna f'ing crash and burn.
"But if you have a different metric for your self-worth, then you can be kind to yourself during the, of course, the potentially very stressful process of changing your technique. But at least if you can do it with some compassion for yourself..."

[@mattvj5]

Adam is awesome. Besides being a great player he is a great person.

[@vernonrembold8675]

Thanks. This video describes my current feelings exactly while going through an embrouchure change. I'm sure this will help me get through the frustrations.

[@da11king]

Embouchure and tongue arch remains an enigma to me 😥🎺 Thanks for your philosophical answer

[@dktrumpet65]

If you - mr. Rapa - should ever stop playing music on your trumpet, then life-coach is the next level! The best words for me was that "defining yourself as xxxxx" and not at trumpetplayer (if one live from playing trumpet it is different). Tak care Adam!🇩🇰🌞

[@lolofriend4701]

wow this really hit hard

[@RandomUsername34]

Embouchure ( and playing in general) is a very frustrating thing to me. I've had moments were a high C just felt as easy as a low C... I've had final chords were, in the moment, i heard the high G# in my head and it just popped out ringing like a bell without effort (I even had to check afterwords to see which note it was, thats how surprised i was) But for 99.99% of the time, it feels like hard work. I've been playing for 30 years (and having a blast on gigs and rehearsals etc) but that's what keeps me going and searching... these rare moments were you experience how easy it can actualy be. It must be heaven to be able to play that efficient all of the time.....

[@shanebeaver2618]

Had upper and lower jaw surgery the summer before my senior year of Music school. It’s been a journey and still is. Your insight on the ego couldn’t be truer.

[@CanadianDivergent]

This is "Fight Club 101. “You are not your job, you're not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all singing, all dancing crap of the world.” ~Tyler Durden~

[@DPHMUSIC.]

I have struggled with this my entire career. Thank you for this advice, sharing this with my Studio!

[@hillrl51]

You are nailing this for me. Thanks. I am 71 and was once pretty good. I have really huge tremor.

[@adamrapa1]

Wonderful! I'm glad you're finding it helpful. 🙏

[@aleoscarbadia]

Gracias! este video me apareció en el momento indicado, voy a tratarme mejor a partir de ahora!

[@slidegrease]

i think this video will be helpful to most every trumpet player. thanks.

[@trumpettradesman]

It was indeed

[@forsythia33]

This is so helpful. I quit singing after seven years because I was in a state of near panic over my technical difficulties (which of course destroyed any possibility of simply relaxing and improving slowly, because tension is the death of singing). And after a month off I decided to just give up singing altogether and learn trumpet instead. And because it just doesn't matter if I figure out how to play the trumpet or not, I can just noodle on the thing and experiment and try to figure out how to make the sounds. It's fun. It's hard. It's weird. But it's fun! Singing was so wrapped up in being 'good' that it lost all its fun, and I never could 'play' - it was always just work. What might be possible is that after learning to 'play' again on the trumpet I can go back to singing and just noodle, and find the fun in it again... who knows? I figure at least the trumpet is a wind instrument, so it will maintain my breath control... This video was great advice!

[@iustbarbara3762]

Grazie Maestro 🎺🎺🙋‍♂️🙋‍♂️

[@Reikimaster_Healer]

Man, I love this video. Thank you so much for that wisdom. I’ve been past my prime for many years and considered myself retired from playing the trumpet but you have inspired me to pick it up and try new techniques. I wish I would have gotten this instruction when I was in college.

[@fernan.costantino]

Gracias otra vez maestro.

[@MarioSilva-jg5nh]

Amazing way to put it.

[@flavorchris4721]

The video tutorial that i needed ❤🎺

[@patrickzimba6545]

Wonderful, really helpful, that I want start serious practice

[@KleberebelK18]

You said it all.

[@seancorby6732]

Brilliant

[@wimkrol2233]

Great message. Very helpful. And…. great performance. Very recognizable 😉😂

[@terrenceharrington9454]

Perhaps this lesson extends to a whole lot more than the 🎺

[@johannb2011]

Practice slow this is important