embouchure

Embouchure (English: /ˈɒmbuˌʃʊər/) or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument.

Why, though, is embouchure so gosh darn important? Well, embouchure determines whether an instrument plays in tune, at its full range, and with a clear tone. It's a very exact process that can result in your instrument making either a beautiful crooning, like a warbler's song, or a horrid honking, like a dying goose.

For brass instruments, the embouchure firmly holds the corners of the mouth and lips so that the center of the lips can freely vibrate, yet still be under control so that poor tone and blasting is avoided.

French Embouchure is a French word that means "river mouth" (from bouche, "mouth") and it used to actually refer to the mouth of a river. "Embouchure." Vocabulary.com Dictionary, Vocabulary.com, https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/embouchure. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.

So to review we're going to first say M or M M to bring all this together. Then we're going to firm our corners and lastly flatten our chin. The general shape of your embouchure.

Origin of embouchure 1. 1750–60; <French, equivalent to embouch(er) to put (an instrument) to one's mouth (em-em-1 + bouche mouth <Latin bucca puffed cheek) + -ure-ure.

Off off the top of the mouthpiece. Now in case you haven't realized. This looks absolutely ridiculous. So the theory is that if you can reverse muscles that you normally use to clamp down.

ˌäm-bü-ˈshu̇r. 1. : the position and use of the lips, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. 2. : the mouthpiece of a musical instrument.

Playing with the correct amount of embouchure pressure is a very important aspect of saxophone performance since too much or too little pressure will have an adverse effect tone production, intonation and response.

In his book The Flute and Flute Playing, published in 1871, Theobald Boehm gave the basic formula and measurements of the embouchure: 10 mm x 12 mm, 4.2 mm wall height, 7 degrees wall, and shape of a rectangle with rounded corners (Type 3 with no undercut.).

The “correct embouchure” as a brass player, is one where I don't use my cheek muscles to pull the lip taut. In fact, not using the check muscles at all (just don't puff them outward like Dizzy). Further, put more mouthpiece pressure on the lower lip when playing. Or not using a lot of muscles heavily.

This. So to review we're going to first say M or M M to bring all this together. Then we're going to firm our corners and lastly flatten our chin. The general shape of your embouchure.