In my personal experience, most professionals I see use heavy to very heavy pressure.
Try playing the short call with the mouthpiece floating above your lips and you'll either:
1) Blow the horn off your face.
or
2) End up with people making fun of you because you have fart chops (you know... when you hear fart sounds out of the person's lips when they play)
The difference is that proffesionals have strong lips and can push back at the mouthpiece with their muscles. The stronger your lips are the firmer you can be with mouthpiece pressure and consequently, you'll sound better.
A firm grip on the mouthpiece provided the embouchure muscles are supporting it = pure sound, flexibility, and clear articulation.
No pressure = No sound.
Are their exceptions? Yes. Peter Damm for one. But I'm not Peter Damm.... and neither are you, so...
About the red ring, I personally have one after playing for just a minute, but I don't have problems with endurance.
I'm gonna get flamed for this one...
Aleks Ozolins
IM: Good King Punto
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: The Horn List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: The Horn List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Hornlist] Re: mouthpiece pressure
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 17:01:02 -0500
My current views about mpc pressure is that it varies a lot from player to player, and the range of pressure among successful players also varies from low to high. Good players can be found at all pressure levels.
Too much pressure is being used if:
1) lack of endurance due to pressure
2) lack of playing flexibility due to pressure
3) lack of range or volume due to pressure
4) lip (and/or jaw or tooth) pain or injury due to pressure
5) etc. - other problems that are due to the pressure
Too little pressure is being used if:
1) poor seal of lips to the mpc
2) lack of range or volume
3) problem with articulations
4) problem holding a steady long tone
Depending on the player's teeth and lips, mpc rim size and shape can be critical to being able to use the amount of pressure that is 'appropriate' for them. I feel that a player's endurance should not be limited due to the pressure of the mpc - the limit should be due to the embouchure muscles being tired (but not injured!).
Using less pressure is fine unless it prohibits you from playing as well as more pressure would allow. But do not allow excessive pressure to cause injury.
Jay Kosta
Endwell NY USA
-----
Jared Miles writes:
I've read all the articles on hornplayer.net. I've been debating if I should try and play with less pressure. So maybe someone out there can help me out. If I have a red ring on my top lip after about 7 min of playing especially high range stuff. Am i using too much pressure? And should I bother to try and change how I play as far as pressure is concerned
Thanks
Jared
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