Got teeth?

[bassguy]

I'm a comeback player who has posted here numerously about my difficulties playing flugelhorn above the staff. I got lots of advise to the effect of finding an embouchure specialist; practice on trumpet (not flugelhorn) etc etc. I adamantly stated that I remember exactly what my old embouchure was (when playing my best) and my inability to get my chops back defied common sencw. Furthermore, within the mouthpiece & crnet/flugelhorn forums I drove THF users to exasperation in my search for a good sounding mouthpiece that remedies those range & endurance issues (I now play a Yamaha 11f4). Furthermore, one very credible cornetist advised me to consider playing a small bored flugelhorn (instead of my existing .460 bore flugelhorn. (Now I actually have 3 indtruments: a .413" bored flugelhorn; a .460" bored flugelhorn ; & a very conical, largd belled, rotary valve picket teumpet.)

Finally, in this particular comeback forum, I complained that my upper cheeks puff out when playing, & that never happened back in the day. One user unformed me that my to gue should properly be placed under the upper teeth to block the flow of the air to the side. Bingp , there it was! My upper molars are gone & trying g to guide the flow of sir by raising the tongue to the gum line doesn't work. It's much worse on my right side, not only are the molars gone, but the outer cusp of a premolar sheared off. That's where I have the most teoybke. The clinic where I have all my health/dental needs addressed is very low end. They do crown on a sliding scale, but obviously they don't want to absorb the cost. They'd rather pull the tooth & hget full reimbursement from DentiCal (which doesn't cover premolar crowns). They are kyung yo me when they say there's structurally not enough of the tooth to hold a crown.

So this matter will have to be resolved in small lsins court. In the meantime I attempted to plug up those molar gaps by cuuting up the tooth tray of a tooth whitening system. Effective for the left dide , but not for the right,where that outer premolar cusp us fine. That particular toothtray (like a mouth guard) is a soft rubber & a loose wide fit. Apparently that side needs something tight and solid to hold back the air.

I don't know how Dizzy could play like that. I'm very curious about other players such as Art Farmer who seem to play with puffed out cheeks in photos. Is it because of missing teeth? I fund that if I do enharmonic slurs holding down the valves & instrument with the left hand, and pushing in my right cheek with the right hand the high notes are easier to play, and also in tune (not flat).

So until my dental dispute is resolved I might do some radical experiments such as sculpting an outer cusp out of Bondo. Then try using a mouthgaurd that's custom fitted by means of boiling in water (cut up to just cover those mussing teeth, & held in place with denture adhesive.