Advancing Your Trumpet Playing –Mastering Lip Flexibilities Part 1.1

Introduction

I have the opportunity to focus on my practice over the next couple of weeks so I’ve decided to focus on a single area of playing; Lip Flexibilities. I’ve decided to approach it in a training style i.e. making observations and finding what’s effective, why and then drilling them.

This is very much how I approached double tonguing (a former weakness). I decided to play the Green Hornet in a concert with a full symphony orchestra and therefore I had no choice but to master the technique.

Rather than performing a concert full of lip flex’s I’ll be posting about my progress. This should keep me on track and hopefully force me to become stronger rather than look like an idiot (which is the other possibility 🙂 )

My Experience

I was classically trained but have a great potential for playing lead. However, my stamina has always been the issue. I’ve managed to improve this over the years but it’s finally time that I stopped running away from one of the weaker areas of my playing; Lip Flexibilities. These are a must to expand your upper register and improve the general flow and air control in your playing.

I wasn’t introduced to lip flex’s until I was 18 and met John Dickinson (Royal Northern). It was clear to him how he could improve my playing very quickly (tone, range and consistency). He grilled me for months on basic slurring exercises until I started to produce the right sound with a strong technique.

Since my time at the Conservatoire this has been a weak area for me. Although I can play flex’s to a high standard I think it’s time that this particular skill caught up with the rest of my playing as I suspect the ability will have an all round positive impact on playing.

There are lots of things I can discuss because of the research and work that I’ve out into lead playing but for the purpose of these I’ll be focusing mainly on the air flow rather than chop position (although this is mentioned briefly) and I’ll be writing from a perspective of someone who had mastered the basics of lip flexibilities.

N.B – This is a general guide and should NOT be taken religiously (i.e. followed to the letter). I hope that some these observations may be useful when you look at your own technique however without seeing someone play it’s impossible to create an absolute technique guide.