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The Three Basic Brass Embouchure Types For many brass performers and teachers the embouchure is a mysterious and often fickle thing. Looking through the major texts on brass playing will show a wide variety of advice of very rigid descriptions of how a brass musician should place the mouthpiece and position the lips, often in contradiction to another text. Much of the discrepency results not from these texts being wrong, per se, but rather not taking into account that works best for one individual player will not always work best for another. Unique difference in teeth, lip shape and texture, the jaw, and other anatomical factors will affect how the brass player's embouchure will work at its most efficient. When successful brass performers' embouchure are analyzed in detail certain easily seen patterns emerge that can be classified into three basic embouchure types. Through an understanding of how these basic embouchure types function brass performers and teachers can improve performance through not only selecting the most efficient embouchure type for the individual, but also through an understanding of the proper embouchure form for that specific type. In order to understand the three basic embouchure types it is first necessary to understand how the air stream is directed inside the mouthpiece cup. Contrary to some sources, the air is not blown straight into the shank of the mouthpiece, but rather gets directed either towards the top of the cup (upstream) or the bottom of the cup (downstream). The determining factor regarding air stream direction has nothing to do with horn angle or jaw position, but rather is dependent upon which lip predominates inside the mouthpiece cup. When the mouthpiece is placed with more upper lip inside the mouthpiece the air stream is directed towards the bottom of the cup while playing. An upstream embouchure has more lower lip inside the cup and the air stream is therefore directed towards the top of the cup.
The above are pretty obvious examples. As extreme as both mouthpiece placements are it's a safe bet to know if the embouchure is upstream or downstream from the outside, without the transparent mouthpiece. The closer to half-and-half the placement is the more difficult it is to tell. Some players will even switch back and forth, but doing so will make you very prone to an embouchure breakdown. It's always best in the long term to use one embouchure for the entire range. However, there is a lot more to the embouchure beyond the general category of air stream direction. A very important part of every player's embouchure, and one that is usually neglected, is a phenomenon that for lack of a better term I'll call an "embouchure motion." This motion exhibits itself as the mouthpiece and lips sliding along the teeth in an upwards and downwards direction, often with some deviation from side to side as well. It's very important to note that the position of the mouthpiece upon the lips does not change, only the relationship of the lips/mouthpiece to the teeth. There are two basic types of embouchure motion. One type slides the mouthpiece and lips upward to ascend and downward to descend while the other type does the reverse, pulling the mouthpiece and lips downward to ascend and upwards to descend. Click here to view a MPEG video file of what this looks like. I push the mouthpiece and upward (and slightly to my right) to descend and pull down (and slightly to my left) to ascend. Without needing to to see me play in a transparent mouthpiece it is clear that I play on an upstream embouchure as my mouthpiece placement has much more lower lip inside the mouthpiece. With an understanding of the air stream category and the embouchure motion you can categorize all brass embouchures into three basic types. These are the embouchure types as taught to me by Doug Elliott. While the photographs and examples listed are trombonists, these following embouchure descriptions are accurate for all brass instrument performers, including performers of trumpet, horn, and tuba. In spite of what some popular brass texts state, these embouchure types are only limited by the amount of space available on the lips to place the mouthpiece and not by any particular characteristic of the instrument. Very High Placement Type
A Very High Placement Type embouchure places the mouthpiece somewhere around 90% to 70% top lip inside the mouthpiece and usually play with a horn angle that is close to straight out. The embouchure motion for this type is to push the mouthpiece and lips up towards the nose to ascend and to pull down towards the chin to descend. If you look closely at the above photos you can see that the distance between the top of the rim and the nose appears shorter for the high B flat. Keep in mind that this isn't resetting the mouthpiece higher on the lips (although sometimes players of all types do incorrectly reset the mouthpiece for different ranges). Very High Placement players tend to have a bright and clear sound and an easy high range. John Marcellus, Joe Alessi, Bill Watrous, and Conrad Herwig are examples of Very High Placement embouchure types. Medium High Placement
The Medium High Placement Type embouchure places the mouthpiece with anywhere from about 50% to 70% upper lip. Even thought the mouthpiece placement may be very close to half-and-half, the upper lip predominates in this embouchure type making it a downstream embouchure. The horn angle for this embouchure type is tilted slightly down, although there are some exceptions. The main factor that distinguishes the Medium High Placement from the Very High Placement is the embouchure motion. Opposite of the Very High embouchure, the Medium High Placement type will pull the mouthpiece and lips downward towards the chin to ascend and upward towards the nose to descend. Look closely at the photos and you should be able to see this. Medium High Placement embouchures often have a dark tone and easy flexibility. Jay Friedman, Christian Lindberg, and J.J. Johnson are examples of Medium High Placement type embouchures. Before moving into the final embouchure type it is important to note that mouthpiece placement alone will not determine the actual embouchure type of a performer. Some Very High Placement embouchures, for example, appear to be much closer to a Medium High Placement embouchure but utilize the embouchure motion pushing up to ascend. Regardless of the mouthpiece placement, use the embouchure motion to determine whether to classify a brass performer as a Very High or Medium High embouchure type. Low Placement Type
The Low Placement embouchure type places the mouthpiece with 50% or more lower lip inside the mouthpiece cup and is therefore an upstream embouchure. The horn angle for the Low Placement Type can be close to straight out (like the upstream example way above) to tilted downward (like the examples just above) or any which way that works for the player's anatomy. The Low Placement Type uses a similar embouchure motion as the Medium High embouchure, pulling the mouthpiece and lips as a unit towards the chin to ascend and up towards the nose to descend. Low Placement embouchures tend to have a brighter sound and an easier time with the upper register. When the embouchure form is working consistently everything is easy but when it's not working properly it's a disaster (I can speak from personal experience here). Examples of Low Placement embouchure types include Kai Winding, Rob McConnell, and Dick Nash. One last word on the Low Placement Type. For some reason a low mouthpiece placement has been tagged by many brass teachers as being wrong. While a Low Placement embouchure just won't work for someone who's anatomy isn't suited for it, the same is true of other embouchure types. Unfortunately, it appears to be easier for a Low Placement Type player to play (inefficiently) on one of the other embouchure types than for a downstream player to attempt to play with a Low Placement embouchure. This has led many teachers to assume upstream is wrong and led many otherwise talented students down the wrong path for them. Again, I speak from personal experience. It's very important to reiterate that your embouchure type is determined by what works best for your anatomy. You cannot choose an embouchure type based on how your teacher or your favorite trombonist plays. Everyone has one embouchure that will work best for the entire range, but it can take years to develop the embouchure properly to work well. There are no short cuts, only long delays created by poor choices or ignorant logic. Just as each embouchure type has a tendency for particular strengths (easy high register, dark/bright tone, etc.), players of the same embouchure type often need to work on different things compared with the other types. In addition to a mouthpiece placement/embouchure type that doesn't suit the individual's anatomy, embouchure problems are often caused by inconsistent use of the embouchure motion. For example, it's not uncommon for Very High Placement Type players to ascend by pushing the mouthpiece and lips up and then after a certain point in the range to start pulling down while continuing to ascend. This sort of reversal is usually caused by the player using too much of an embouchure motion in the first place. Dropping the jaw to descend also constitutes a reversal in embouchure motion for all types as the relationship of the lips to the lower teeth is inconsistent. Another common embouchure problem is caused by placing the mouthpiece upon the lips before they are firmed, which causes tiny distortions in the lips similar to ironing a shirt without spreading out the wrinkles. Opening the mouth wide to breathe, forcing the player to reset the mouthpiece after each inter-phrase breath, also causes minute variations in the mouthpiece set that can cause problems over time. As complex as all that is, there are many other issues to deal with embouchures. That doesn't even factor in things like breathing and tonguing, which must coordinate with the embouchure for things to work efficiently and a change in one of those three factors will necessitate an adjustment in the other two. This is why you really should hook up with an experienced private teacher. Lastly, at risk of offending some very fine players and good musical coaches, merely throwing lots of good air at a poorly functioning embouchure is probably not going to be very useful in the long term. A great woodwind player will not sound good playing on a bad reed, no matter how good the air control is. Likewise, a strong mental image of the sound and good air control will only be effective if you're lucky enough to have figured out your embouchure type subconsciously. I think that most of us mere mortals can make noticeable improvements in our playing by becoming aware of our embouchure form and fine tuning how it functions through simple exercises while paying attention to one issue at a time. Just remember that once you finish your embouchure work for the day it's best to forget all about it and concentrate on whatever else you're working on. This embouchure mechanics stuff is for the practice room only. Leave it all behind on the gig and concentrate on music!
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