[TPIN] Off Center Aperture Questions

[Mike Boyd]

Dave Arndt wrote:
> Note that most players play a *little* off center.  And... One question is
> "centered with what?"  
> 
> Your lips?  Your teeth?  Your jaw?  Most people (and their parts) are not
> perfectly symetrical!  When I line up perfectly in the center of my lips, I
> notice that I'm a wee bit out of line with my two front teeth, etc.

It's to the left of my lips, teeth and jaw to a greater extent than my 
lack of symmetry :)

> There are and have been great players that play WAY off center.  Nick
> Marchione - a monster lead player/1st trumpet, plays way off center.  He
> also appears to play to with great ease.  Roger Voisin, infamous principal
> with the BSO for years, played way off center, and VERY downstream also.
> 
> While I do believe it is theoretically better to play centered, it's clear
> that this isn't a show-stopper given the company you're in.

Yeahbut, my lip buzzing is naturally far more centered and I can't lip 
buzz where I used to play.  So I tend to think that if I learnt to play 
more where I naturally buzz I'd eventually have more control.

>                                                             Changing ones
> embouchure is dicey business (I did it years ago with some success, but I
> admit that the wisdom of doing so is questionable).  It's hard if you're a
> young player - and VERY hard if you've already developed some real
> expertise.  Work with what you've got, unless you're very young.

Sounds like very good advice.  I still can't really get anything but a 
fart out trying to mimick my lip buzz exactly.  I am now trying to 
slowly move the horn around, get some top lip in the mpc and reduce the 
aperture while retaining some of what I had.  I think I can feel the lip 
buzzing helping there to develop a new feel.

> Regarding the lip buzzing:  A lot of very fine teachers/players don't
> believe you should attempt to play with the same feel that you lip buzz.
> i.e., lip buzzing is an exercise that might do some good, but it's not to be
> applied literally.  I *tend* to agree with this perspective - I know there
> are folks who can lip buzz double high C's and pull the horn on/off while
> maintaining the pitch, etc., but I'm not sure that most great players would
> rely on this.  Some pressure seems to be essential to getting (and
> maintaining) a big sound - especially up high, of course.

I'm hoping that's true or I've got a very long way to go :)  I suppose 
ideally we'd use just enough pressure to maintain the seal - if I could 
get that far on a g above the staff I'd be chuffed.  The difficulty I'm 
having is that I'm just not used to my upper lip buzzing at all - it's 
like trying to write with my left foot.

Luckily I don't have much in the way of skill to sacrifice in my old way 
of doing things :)