Mouthpiece placement

Jonny Boy · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 4:46 am Post subject:

Hi there,

This question is manily aimed at PH but please feel free to add anything to the subject.

I have a student I recently took on, who has been taught pretty badly for the last 6 years, and decided to switch teacher after I showed him some Adam stuff (leadpipe mainly).
The problem is that he puts his mouthpiece really high up, almost touching his nose and his bottom lip tucked in over his teeth. I got him to (pretend) to play on a mpc visualizer the other day and noticed that there is only a fraction of bottom lip visible and loads of top lip falling into the mouthpiece. What is the best way for me to tackle this? I don't won't to just make him move it, but it's going to need a big change!
I know Mr Adam would adjust things using certain exercises (focusing on sound).
PH do you know what sort of thing he would use?

Hope you can help.

Jonny Boy

PH · Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2003 6:45 am Post subject:

Well, first of all...
There is no correct angle or placement. Everyone is different. To be certain I would have to see and hear a student play. Here is what I would probably do (obviously inspired by Mr. Adam). Remember that these things are therapies and I wouldn't necessarily continue with them once the problem no longer persists.

1) Make sure his/her posture is good and the elbows aren't squeezed into the body excessively. To do this I either use the visualization of being a marionette hanging by a thread from the top of your head or by having the student back up to a wall or door placing the heels, buttocks, and back of the head against that surface. This will often cause the student to adjust the angle of the horn to the plane of the face in a more natural way. Raising the height of the music stand can also be a help for some students. Remember, there is no correct angle or placement. Everyone is different.

2) Play with a pretty fat, dark sound and have the student copy your sound. Have the student think a syllable through all registers that keeps the tongue relatively low.

3) Introduce a limited number of pedal tones for a few weeks and see if that helps.

4) Work on lots of legato pronunciation with a "Doo" syllable to bring the lips into a slightly more forward feel.

5) Don't worry about any of this too much, since it will probably evolve into a better placement simply by playing a balanced routine, using a lot of airflow, and constantly pursuing a great tone.

Let me know how it works.

[ This Message was edited by: PH on 2003-11-17 09:48 ]