Why do we swell? Chronic issue, medical opinion desired.

[MF Fan]

I experienced a similar issue years ago. I came to realize I had let the mouthpiece slide down to a lower set over time, e.g. more like 1/3 top, 2/3 bottom. My natural set is more 50/50. Once I moved it back up the swelling was no longer an issue.
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MF Fan
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L.A. Benge 5x
Holton MF3
Lead Trumpet - My Basement Jazz Orchestra

[OndraJ]

Here are a few tips to think about:

http://beforhorn.blogspot.co.at/2011/05/lip-swelling-embouchure-performance.html

[JasonB]

I actually encounter these same symptoms: as I play, I can begin to feel a small "lump" over the area that buzzes inside the mouthpiece. I use only enough pressure to create a seal, and I've also tried gold/plastic/etc. to no avail. However, I wasn't aware of "alpha angle," so this gives me something new to explore. Right now I play on a Curry 3C. and it feels comfortable to me, but I know little about how it relates to other mouthpieces in terms of AA.
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Bach AB190S
Getzen 3850

[Richard III]

Here's a question. If you take ibuprofen, does it make a difference? Second question, if you take Benadryl, does it make a difference? I have other ideas but that's where I'm starting.
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Richard

King 1130 Flugabone
King 12C mouthpiece

[JasonB]

[Richard III]

[Jay2015trumpet]

I can second the issues with letting the mouthpiece slide down on the upper lip. I struggled with that all through high school before realizing it was the cause of my inconsistency in tone. Alpha angle has become important to me over the past few years of finding my own mouthpiece size that works by not trying to make the cookie cutter advice from my high school and college teachers fit me. I've found that I like sharp edges like on traditional Bach pieces and gravitate toward modern copies of small pieces in the 10.5C to 7B range. A 3C is the biggest I can go.

There is a chart on the Stork mouthpiece website describing lip size and structure and recommend inner rim sizes; I think there is some truth to that document. I have really thin lips and regardless of how much careful practice I did in college, I could never move up to a 1.5C or bigger. My endurance went to essentially nothing.

But using a smaller piece isn't the end of the world. Mendez played a 10.5C, Lindemann uses a GR piece in that range, and Phil Smith and John Hagstrom use a 5Bish size, so you don't have to play a huge bucket of a piece to be a professional or aspiring pro.

FWIW, I hate Curry pieces and any others with a smoother, inner rim advertised as "comfort rim" mouthpieces. You might consider another brand. If you don't want to break the bank if you decide to try something smaller, I would humbly recommend the Patrick 7.1B. It's very comfortable and a bit deeper than one would think, but it doesn't feel that way.

Food allergies can also play a part as well. Check out the blood type based diet for discovering the foods that cause greater inflammation in your body. I've realized that chocolate makes my lips swell some and hurts endurance, for example.

[Craig Swartz]

Without seeing you play, the part about being pretty much finished after 15 or 20 minutes would indicate to me a pressure problem and very weak corners- at the edge of the mouthpiece, not the far corners of the lips. In cases like this it's easy to try to pin the embouchure together with the mouthpiece since the corners aren't keeping the embouchure set. It works for a very short time, easpecially if there is a lot of rest time between fairly short phrases. Longer ones, with sustained tones, even if not high in tessitura will be killers, though. Then the upper lip starts to protude into the mouthpiece as the corners collapse, sometimes to the point of "bottoming out", so the next thing is to try a larger, deeper mouthpiece, which may work in the short term, but eventually, back to the same thing with an even larger swelling.

Once the tissue is damaged to the point of swelling every time one plays, it'll need some time to heal or it will continue and worsen, especially if the pressure problem and weak embouchure-setting muscles with energized wind are not corrected. Worst case scemario for some is that the point of "impact" will bring on cold sores (herpes virus) if one already has them in their system. Basically, one is experiencing muscle trauma, slight when compared to many injury issues, but trauma just the same.

Learning to "anchor tongue" and using the "ah-oo-ee- ich syllables to help change registers and increasing the sensation of the speed of your wind stream may help you get back into shape. One can push fairly hard against the embouchure for higher tones if the muscles are set properly and flexing against the pressure and the wind is doing it's part. Everything must be in balance- pressure, wind, muscle tension, and one's mental/aural picture. What I'm describing is all somewhat oversimplified, but learing to hold the embouchure together with the proper muscles rather than trying to pin it there with mouthpiece pressure, using a more forward tongue postition that raises and lowers with the change in pitch (as it does when you whistle from low to high, vice versa, or make large intervals) often helps one overcome these types of problems. Continuing on with what you are doing will likely not strengthen you- if what I describe is happening you will likely crap out even faster the more you play. Find someone qualified to help. Go take some skype lessons with Pops, or at least pick up his internet book Tension-less Playing, then, perhaps once you figure things out start into Gordon Systematic Approach to continue your progress. BT, DT. Good luck.