Should You Do An Embouchure Change

[@mustafa1name]

Congratulations on your breakthru Shawn, and thanks for sharing. Your professionalism in working through the pain is admirable. Going through a daunting, doubt-filled and time-consuming process cannot have been easy. Long may you continue to reap benefits, hone the 'bone tone, and feel the fun(k). btw, you often make comments about your supposed shortcomings as a player - that is objectively excessive self-criticism. Any listener can hear that you sound good: accept their judgment! Accede! 😄

[@ShawnBellMusic]

I appreciate your kind words. I guess we are all our own worst critics😅

[@PeterWetherill]

Yes, balance! Try holding an easy note like F without your shoes on and try to feel the resonance from your horn down to your feet. When you can feel the resonant vibration then you have found your balance of air to embochure! After you find this continue up and down chromatically for all notes.

[@prinyarboon9423]

Shawn - that is a wonderful set of insights, many thanks for sharing, very much appreciated. For what it's worth I think that we can really hear that core sound coming through even over a YT feed to my laptop - keep going! [On a personal note - I've been going through a similar process having lessons again after decades of developing 'habits'. It is quite an eye opener - but that sound when it all comes together....]

[@robegerton8923]

In my first year at music college, my teacher changed my embouchure massively to resemble the way that worked for him. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Huge mistake that I am still paying the price for today. A semester sorting out my breathing would have been a better move.

[@ShawnBellMusic]

I think that is unfortunately a somewhat common thing that happens to many players. I definitely personally known a handful of other brass players with similar stories. This is the first time I have ever actively tried to change my setup, and I think it was the right call for me; however, I am always really cautious when recommending embouchure changes to students. Even if they have some really "non traditional" playing habits, it is so easy to become overly focused on how things look or feel that they stop thinking about how the end goal is to make music not just to operate the instrument. As you stated, more often than not, working on other fundamental aspects of playing can solve many problems that may initially seem like they are setup problems.