Bad Lip Day

[funkymonkey]

This has been happening at some random times... I seem to be having bad lip days, meaning my lips feel too big to play on the mouthpiece or the sound sounds really stuffy... and i feel so much tension in my lips even if i over exaggerate to un-tense them... what are some tips out there to fix this?

Thx

[_Don Herman]

The latest ITG Journal has an article about "good" and "bad" days. Basically, the conclusion is that much (not all!) of it is mental. For the physical part, sometimes an Advl (ibuprofen) or aspirin helps me, but others have testified that it can hurt so try it and see if it helps or not. Another thing that sometimes helps me is to do a few isometric exercises -- not to the the point of fatigue, like for a workout when driving to work and hours before I'll touch my horn, but just a few to help"work" my chops. Some examples:

(1) Pucker like whistling, or blowing a kiss, then relax or even pull back into an exaggerated wide-mouth clown smile. Repeat fairly quickly several times.

(2) Try saying "we", starting with a forward pucker or bunched chops and drawing back to the "we". Do several times fast. Repeat saying "wow" instead just to get the whole face into the act.

(3) Compress your lips hard (but not _too_ hard) in an "mmm" or playing position. Hold like that 10 - 60 seconds, until the burn just starts. Repeat.

(4) The Pencil Thing. Put a pencil with the dull end (not the point -- duh!) against your teeth and wrap you lip around it more or less in playing position. Don't press too hard; we don't want bruises, we want to build muscle and control. Using lips only, raise and lower the pencil several times.

For a workout, I may do all these, spending a minute or two on each. For a warmup (or wakeup) I usually do just one or two and only for a very short time (5-10 seconds).

HTH - Don
_________________
Don Herman/Monument, CO
"After silence, that which best expresses the inexpressible, is music." - Aldous Huxley

[trickg]

Lots of water. Sometimes my chops get swollen if I eat too much salty food and endurance and range is definitley affected if you are dehydrated. Also, if I'm dehydrated, my chops swell.

Also, I ALWAYS have ibuprofin in my bag on a gig. That seems to work really well for me, also because when I used to play in a Latin band, playing that hard would sometimes give me a headache.

Other than that, something that I have found over the years that helps a lot is to warm up for about 15 - 20 minutes with long tones, flexibility things and articulation stuff, then just leave the horn alone for about a half and hour. The down time lets everything settle and you don't go into a practice or performance with any fatigue from the warm up.

Good luck!
_________________
Patrick Gleason
- Jupiter 1600i, ACB 3C, Warburton 4SVW/Titmus RT2
- Brasspire Unicorn C
- ACB Doubler

"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP

[Pat]

You might try the Stamp/Hardenberger lip bends approach in your warm-up. I think they are very helpful in getting the tension out very early in your practice session. In fact Hardenberger thinks getting the stuffiness out of the sound is critical before you go on with your playing for the day. The October 200 ITG journal had a report of Hardenberger's masterclass on the subject and it is also on the net somewhere.

[Quadruple C]

[ This Message was edited by: Quadruple C on 2003-12-18 13:27 ]