The Brass Embouchure and Air Stream Direction

This short video discusses the differences between an upstream and downstream brass embouchure and shows some examples on trumpet, trombone, and horn. It also covers two opposing viewpoints by Philip Farkas and Donald S. Reinhardt and shows how Farkas discovered that his hypothesis in "The Art of Brass Playing" turned out to be incorrect.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• upstream
• embouchure
• downstream
• trumpet
• trombone
• french
• horn
• tuba

[eaglerat1]

I've tried to find upstream performers in classical music but they seem to be quite rare. Do you know someone?

[wilktone]

@eaglerat1 It's harder to find closeup photos/video of famous classical brass musicians, but see if you can find Dennis Brain, Russell McKinney, or Blair Bollinger. I'm sure there are others.

[SteveFallon1]

Look at videos of the likes of Raphael Mendez and Harry James. They played with a tight mask, the facial muscles tightly contracted. None of the players I see in this video use a professional embouchure. They are using the muscles around the lips to control air-flow, volume and tone. Their masks are loose. There should be a tight smile behind that mouthpiece. I played first chair for many of my 51 years as a trumpet player. Take it from an old pro: these kids will never play at that level

[wilktone]

@SteveFallon1 The "masks' you refer to look different on different players because different players have different faces. Three of the players are professional brass musicians with doctoral degrees on their instruments. One played in a premier DC Air Force band for several years at a very high level. I play "first chair" frequently on my professional jobs. I don't think you can call honestly us three "kids" or unsuccessful brass players.

[wilktone]

You must be a very fine player, bendix5, if you find octave slurs spanning sometime more than 3 octaves "simple." If you can, post a video response of your chops for us to learn from.

Some of my subjects found it difficult to play on a plastic mouthpiece they weren't used to. As far as the tone quality, perhaps the camera mic isn't give us an honest representation.

3 subjects are university brass teachers (one was still recovering from Bell's Palsy), 2 were college music students.

[eaglerat1]

@wilktone Thanks, I check them out. I'm not quite sure but Tine Thing Helseth (who is a Norwegian solo trumpet player) looks a bit like she's a low placement type player. Her mouthpiece placement is quite half and half and from the outside it looks like there's more lower lip than upper lip inside the mouthpiece. Her horn angle is pretty high and her embouchure motion (which is quite minimal) seems to be down to ascend, up to descend. What do you think?

[wilktone]

@wilktone Although I should qualify that I disagree with the very low free buzzing, as it takes the work away from the muscles he would want to develop.

[wilktone]

@yourbrassinstructor Actually, I've found the reverse to be more common, upstream players tend to cut more (probably because of the brighter tone they tend to have). Arturo is a downstream player. A powerful upstream example is Jon Faddis.

[wilktone]

@yourbrassinstructor I agree and that was the general advice I gave him after the single short session I got to work with him. I was doing research, not teaching lessons.

[dewie159]

The last trumpet player is like me. My teacher and private lesson teacher told me to change. Now I'm having problens...