Rehabilitating A Severely Overused Brass Embouchure

2020: What a year.

Global pandemic.

Lock-down.

Masks.

And oh yeah, I completely trashed – and then rehabilitated – a severely overused playing embouchure. So, if you feel like things aren’t quite right – or are dealing with long-time damaged chops – this one’s for you.

Lucinda Lewis’ ‘Embouchure Overuse Syndrome’

A number of years ago, a friend of mine was struggling with some muscular dystonia. As a result, he had Lucinda Lewis’ book ‘Broken Embouchures’ recommended to him. Knowing of my healthy obsession with the trumpet embouchure, he lent me his copy to check out.

I remember reading through the book, learning of the various symptoms of embouchure overuse, and thinking, ‘isn’t this just what trumpet playing is?’

Ah, BTB. You stupid, stupid man-blogger.

You see, for yours truly, trumpet playing has always been a rich stew of involuntary muscle spasms, shooting nerve pains, funny, tickling sensations in the lips, stiff chops, difficulty with response and articulation, jaw swelling, and of course, ringing in the ears. But, at least we were swinging. 😉

Beyond these symptoms – when I was really beat up – the chops would be completely lax and unwilling to contract. They just felt flabby and lacking in muscle-tone. At its worst, my lips would burn when I simply touched the horn. And at total rock-bottom, merely at the thought of playing. I believed this all to be par for the course. 

Welcome Back to Embouchure Hell!

Things started getting really screwed up toward the tail-end of 2019. 

In some ways, that year was kind of a game-changer for me as a player. I was dedicating a lot of time to the pedal range, as well as practicing in the upper register daily. Things were happening, and that summer felt like some of my best playing yet.

At the end of the summer, I took 8 or 9 days off the horn. And upon returning dove straight back into playing hard every day. This was September of 2019. By October, things were getting bad.

I started feeling a vibration along the top ridge of one of my two front teeth. To this day, I have no idea what was rattling around in there. And while it wasn’t the first time I had felt the brunt of playing on that tooth, this was a new sensation – and one I found very disturbing.

I idiotically kept playing. Things got progressively worse and I was beginning to stress about an approaching tour. As such, I tried to rest as much as I could. However, the tooth thing was hanging around. My thinking at the time was to do the tour, knock my tooth out, and then spend the money on an implant. Seriously. 

Then, two days out, the tour got cancelled.

Reinventing My Chops Into Oblivion

With the tour cancelled, I decided to lay off the high-notes. But then – naturally – my curiosity got the best of me. I dove head-first into some more practice experimentation and promptly screwed myself up even worse. 

All of the recent pedal tone practice majorly changed my concept of the embouchure. I was beginning to think much differently about the aperture, and how the chops relate to the mouthpiece. Basically, I was learning to relax into –  or blow the chops into – the cup of the mouthpiece.

Cat Anderson Burnout

This minute change in aperture concept opened up a lot for me. For example, I could suddenly buzz on the mouthpiece – something I had struggled with before. Then, I remembered the Cat Anderson teeth-closed method of trumpet playing, which was beginning to make a lot more sense. 

Since I was laying off the high notes, I invented a little chop ‘workout’ which consisted of playing a G in the staff for five minutes. I did this with the teeth closed – à la Cat Anderson – with the chops set, and breathing through the nose. I would also ‘push’ my lips toward the mouthpiece rim which burned – a lot.

Embouchure #4

I started playing the trumpet every day when I nine. And like many, I just kind of went for it without direction. This led to the development of some funny habits along the way, and at some point I figured out that it was easier for me to get a tone – and some range – with my lower jaw set off to the side.

However, it always bugged me that I did that, and it felt like a crutch. For example, it seemed nearly impossible for me to play on a ‘wet’ embouchure. I also had trouble keeping the pitch down, and struggled with articulation for a long time. I also experienced a lot of discomfort with jaw-swelling and would have extreme flare-ups of tinnitus and sensitivity in the ears.

Even with all the changes I have made over the years, this habit stuck around for a long time. But then, one day while playing with the teeth closed, I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if I can do this with the mouthpiece set on my chops ‘in repose?” It worked.

In that moment I switched to the new set. It felt more anatomically-correct – if that’s a thing – and the muscles were funneling more evenly into the mouthpiece. The articulation was instantly improved, and core sound from note to note was more connected. The only snag was that I could barely play a C in the staff.

Yeah. This note:

The ‘New Normal’

I kept up the teeth-closed practice and fully transitioned to the ‘new’ chop-setting. The plan was to practice like this at home, and then switch back to the ‘old way’ if I had a gig.

However, things didn’t quite work out that way. All of this happened during 2020 – the year live gigs came to a screeching halt. What this meant for my chops was that there was no ‘going back’ to the old playing set – ever. 

Chops: Coming In for a Crash Landing

As the months went by, the overuse symptoms kept getting worse. Looking back, this made sense as I was essentially using the muscles in an entirely new way and continuing to beat the shit out of them. The tooth vibration wasn’t bothering me anymore, but I had soreness in the gums and was convinced the teeth were shifting. At its worst, the gum soreness extended all the way back to the back molars – on both the top and bottom teeth!

All-in-all, I thought I was done for. I wasn’t using any more pressure than normal – and – I was only playing up to this note!

Enter, Mark Zauss

After a lifetime of overused chops, multiple embouchure changes and these new problems, I was getting pretty depressed and thinking that my trumpet playing days were done. Then, an ‘Awesome BTB Subscriber’ reached out and suggested I check out Mark Zauss’ website. He thought the info and approach would help (thanks, D). And if you aren’t familiar with Mark’s playing, he’s this guy:

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Zauss On Embouchure Fatigue

I found Mark’s articles – which are linked below – extremely helpful. And his writings on embouchure fatigue hit close to home. In a nutshell, if you keep playing on tired, beat-up chops, the front muzzle area of the face stops contracting against the mouthpiece. This is in an attempt to ‘protect’ the muscles from further abuse.

Physiologically, this may be all well and good – except for us trumpet players. Because we happen to be cramming a metal mouthpiece into our face. Suddenly, all the dental issues made sense. With an embouchure refusing to contract, any amount of mouthpiece pressure is going to be felt on the teeth. After devouring Mark’s videos, I settled on a trifecta of his concepts and got to work.

#1. Learning to Play Relaxed

One of the most helpful ideas I gleaned from Zauss was the concept of playing a low C while listening for steady air and actively relaxing the shoulders. The point of this is to suggest to the body – and mind – that all of trumpet playing can be this easy.

Even if we consciously know that’s an exaggeration, coming back to the low C in this way does coax the body into finding an easier balance for playing. I think of it like a mantra. You just keep the brainwashing going until you start to believe it. Then, one day, you find yourself a bit more relaxed while playing. In my experience, the natural byproduct of this is a more engaged embouchure.

#2. Learning to Wait

The other idea I put my faith in was the suggestion to just perform the exercises  – as prescribed – and be content to wait for about 90 days without noticing improvements. I think Mark describes this as being the time it takes for new neurological pathways to develop. I’ve heard others refer to it in terms of cell mitosis. Either way, the main idea is to practice the right things with no expectations of anything happening for about three months.

#3. Daily Routine

In the three or four months I spent rehabbing my chops, the only playing I did was the following routine – and only ‘warmup part I,’ at that. I’d go to the park in the morning and first play it on the mouthpiece. Then, later in the day I would do the same thing on the horn. 

Link to Mark’s website and pdf download: Zauss Warm Up Exercises

Notes On The Routine

During the entire time I did the routine, I sucked at the mouthpiece portion. Some days, I just barely focus a pitch. But, I kept my focus on relaxing the shoulders and maintaining a steady flow of air.

If you haven’t tried the pedal range much, you may find that odd as well. Don’t be concerned. I think of the pedals as the notes that want to blow the chops wide open. When you can play them softly – while controlling the pitch – the muscles of the embouchure are getting really good at focusing the aperture. For me, this eventually lead to a strong idea of aperture ‘form.’ When I began practicing them a few years back, it took about 10 months to start getting comfortable.

Reboot, Complete

I sucked at the routine for about 99 days straight. I did what I was supposed to, but the entire time my face burned, and I was depressed. Then, on that 99^th or 100^th day, I woke up and all of my overuse symptoms were gone! No dental pain, no twitching, no shooting nerve pains. I couldn’t believe it.

Granted, I still was barely playing a C in the staff, but for the first time in a year, playing felt normal again.

Major Takeaway

The main thing that I have taken away from these past two years – and I suppose the 24 of playing before them – is that I will not play through these symptoms again. I sometimes notice them cropping up, and take that as a cue to rest.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague. At the time, he mentioned something about, ‘…learning to play on tired chops – and that’s not good.’ This struck me as an odd thing to say as I considered ‘tired chops’ to be synonymous with ‘trumpet playing,’ I figured you needed to be good at playing on tired chops. I now have a better understanding of the sentiment. These neurological adaptations are for real – and you can only push the muscles so far before they start learning patterns that don’t help.

Takin’ It Easy (For Awhile)

After rehabilitating the chops, I took it easy for a few months. Then, toward the tail-end of October, I woke up at 2am in a sweat. If live tours pick back up in 2021, I only had a year to get some lead chops on the new embouchure. It’s been a tough road, but things are slowly coming together. More on that next time. 

-james

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Check out Mark Zauss’ teaching website here: https://www.markzauss.net/practice.html