Mouthpiece or embouchure problem?

[dutch-trumpet]

I do not know what the proper English word is for the technique I want to refer to.
I am trying to improve my technique and have discovered a problem with playing legato exercises.

i.e. starting at the low c and then play the d legato, without breaking the air-stream. Then subsequently continue the entire scale: c-e, c-f, c,g, etc. until c-c. (binding the notes fluently together)

On my flugelhorn this is easy. I can fluently bind the notes together over an octave without any 'bumps' between the notes.

On my trumpet I have some difficulty. It is not always fluent. When binding the c to the c one octave higher, then it is tricky to be fluent without briefly playing a g in between.
I think with practice this would become more fluent.

The big problem however is that I can not seam to bind notes from the middle register to anything above the d.
Then the tone becomes airy and cracks up as if my lips can not deliver enough tension.

When playing the same notes in that interval individually without legato there is no problem.
Also when playing it on flugelhorn I have no problem and everything is clean and fluent.

What could be my problem? Does the trumpet require more lip tension?
My mouthpiece on flugelhorn is quite a bit smaller then my trumpet mouthpiece. Could that be the reason?

[horntooter]

I think you are referring to lip slurs. You might be doing any number of things, so I won't even try to guess. Instead I'll suggest trying one of two things to try to help fix it without knowing what "it" is.

1. Try starting the low note with a breath attack (do not tongue the note, but just blow in the mouthpiece until you produce the tone). Then do the lip slur (or binding). It may come out better.

2. Try starting on the high note, going down to the low, and back up. This will "set" the chops to the higher note even though you are playing the lower. You mentioned you could play it, so this might also fix the problem. Then in the future when you need to do this only starting on the low note, remember the setting and set that way before playing the low note.

I wouldn't worry about changing mouthpieces yet. It's likely not the lip tension either. Based on the description, you may have a lot of lip protrusion (more lip inside) in the mouthpiece. The flugel will allow for this since it's so deep, but if the trumpet mouthpiece is shallow you may be "bottoming out" and having your lips hit the bottom of the mouthpiece. In any case, since you can play these notes without the lip slurs, it sounds like an embouchure issue that can be fixed with practice. A lot of people do like to match rim sizes on different instruments though. It's up to you to change, but doesn't sound necessary from the description.

[John Mohan]

You need to practice what most call "Lip Flexibility" exercises. And note, that it is not really just the lips that do the job. To slur up we blow stronger and arch our tongues, in the same way we arch our tongues when whistling up to a higher note. "Aw" as when saying "saw" for low notes; "Eee" as when saying "sea" for higher notes.

If you you currently play easily to G on top the staff, a good Flexibility book for you would be "Twenty-Seven Groups of Exercises" by Earl D. Irons, published by Southern Music Company. If you have trouble finding this book in Holland you can order it from Jeff Purtle and he would ship it to you:

https://www.purtle.com/earl-d-irons-twenty-seven-groups-exercises-for-cornet-and-trumpet

If your range ends at or below G on top the staff, a good Flexibility book for you would be "Fundamental Flexibilities" by Matt Graves. This book is available as a PDF download here:

https://www.purtle.com/matt-graves-fundamental-flexibility-studies

I hope this is helpful for you.

Best wishes,

John Mohan
Webcam Lessons Available - Click on the e-mail button below if interested
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[Pops]

Lip setpoint has already been mentioned.
It really helps.
If we are already set to play a middle C then it is easy to slur from low c to middle C.
If we set the embouchure for low c then we have to work much harder to slur up that same octave.

A great many players also use a tongue arch (like the motion we make when we whistle) to help these slurs. Whistle the 2 notes before you play and then try to do the same tongue motion when you play the slur.
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