PETE question

[Blackquill]

Okay, so one of the exercises with the Warburton PETE we are supposed to place the disk end behind the lips but in front of the teeth and then gently pull it.

Are we supposed to keep our teeth open or closed with this particular exercise? I open my teeth when I play the trumpet. However, I found that when I open my teeth they were right up against the inside of my lips. This means the disk actually is slightly behind the teeth even though I'm trying to keep the disc as close to my inner lips as possible.

If I CLOSE my jaw/teeth, though, it's not the way I play my trumpet, but I can then keep the disc in front of my teeth.

Which way is right?
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[mcombo]

I keep my teeth closed. I interpreted the instructions this way, and it works really well for me.

[dstpt]

I purchased some of these years ago for students and myself, but I consider them in a "devices separate from playing" category, which can be of benefit, I believe. I feel it is understood that our exact playing position will not (always) remain consistent when using these devices. You’re exercising muscles that will be used while playing the trumpet, but the formation will not necessarily be the same…and this can vary from person to person, I believe, so that some may say it is exactly as they play, and others will say that it is not anywhere close to how they play. Having it sit between the teeth and lips, so that it isolates exercising the lips, is the main objective, I think, so whatever that means for you is how you should use it.

To me this device is much like doing the famous "pencil exercise,” advocated by the legendary Doc Reinhardt:

http://trombone.org/articles/library/viewarticles.asp?ArtID=240

I also use other devices fairly regularly that I’d picked up over the past year:

https://www.amazon.com/ADSRO-Silicone-Tightener-Exercise-Anti-Aging/dp/B07C69G241/ref=sr_1_9_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1546867965&sr=8-9&keywords=big+red+lips+facial+exerciser

https://www.amazon.com/Exercise-Fitness-Workout-Lifting-Tightening/dp/B00QK3MW3O/ref=sr_1_11_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1546867965&sr=8-11-spons&keywords=big+red+lips+facial+exerciser&psc=1

The rest of the world may purchase these latter two products from amazon.com for facial toning, whereas we brass players will obviously look to using these as isometric devices to help build our embouchure. Years ago (1970s), NFL players started unusual cross-training approaches to developing/improving their balance/strength/agility/flexibility/et al by doing ballet! Yep. You read it correctly: ballet. I’m not sure if they do this now, but the idea of sports professionals doing unusual cross training is very common today. It helps to build areas/muscles that typically do not get as much work during their routine workouts and yet prove directly beneficial to their area of concentration afterwards. I wonder how much we can be venturing out to improve our playing.

I will say that I have found benefit from all of them, but probably the Big Lips (as hilarious as they are when you put them in…and freak out your family members, colleagues, students, etc.!) seem to be creating an amazing transformation in my playing, particularly as I rebuild my chops following several years of battling embouchure dystonia. They seem to work an area of the center of my upper lip in pushing downward (contracting toward the center), which is now automatically happening like never before as I ascend into the upper register. IOW, they are helping my upper register by keeping me from doing other things with my chops that have proved detrimental in the past. Can some of these devices be detrimental to our playing? For some, perhaps, but for many/maybe most, I think they could find benefit. Hey, they are cheap, so what’s there to lose? (To all trolls, that is a rhetorical question.)

[dstpt]

Just a follow-up from earlier this year on this subject...

I shared the Big Lips exerciser info with a local university brass instructor a few days ago and realized over the past several months that my playing always seems better when I use them regularly. Plus...

The Amazon pictures do not show the action I use. Those pictures just seem to show putting them inside the lips and leaving them in that same position to stretch the facial muscles and thereby toning the muscles. I guess this is the intended purpose as an anti-aging device. I actually put them in between my lips and teeth (and not over the teeth, so that the lips feel all of the pressure of the Big Lips), and then I move my lips toward an “m” position and back to an open-mouthed position, thus obtaining an isometric event. The point is, you will see both upper and lower front teeth the entire time while doing this. I don’t see that in the Amazon ad pictures. The lady trying them in the following video puts them in the same way that I do, but she is trying to talk while wearing them, which is definitely a good exercise…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYoKw3tPRKY

[spitvalve]