The Balanced Embouchure for Horn: I'm Back and Feeling Grateful!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

I'm Back and Feeling Grateful!

Six years studying The Balanced Embouchure. It just keeps giving me more & more. The progress never stops unless I stop. I'm not the greatest horn player in the world, of course. I'm just a little old lady, come back horn playing grandma with a chronic neurological disease, who plays in community ensembles and gets the occasional paid gig. But, there are so many things I can do now that I wouldn't have been able to had it not been for BE. I'm thankful.

Once again, BE has come to the rescue. I injured my upper lip in an accident December 2nd, driving my front tooth clear through the center of the under side of my upper lip. Five days later a little blob of dead flesh sloughed off leaving a small hole, then a scar right where the aperture forms. (It reminded me of the injury Adrew Joy described that prompted him to find help, and eventually BE.) http://beforhorn.blogspot.com/2011/08/joy-continues-on-balanced-embouchure_07.html After taking few weeks off, I found myself with severely limited range and endurance, not to mention horrid tone. It was definitely a déjà vu experience. My embouchure function was eerily similar to what it had been 7 years ago before I started studying BE!

I thought it would be a quick fix, but progress was slow because my lips would swell at the slightest provocation severely limiting practice time. It took a full four months before I had recovered the range & endurance I had before the accident. Thanks to BE, I'm back & enjoying playing again.

Three cheers for Jeff Smiley!

2 comments:

SharonApril 8, 2013 at 5:56 AM
Good heavens, Valerie! Was it a car crash? That's terrible. I'm so relieved you've recovered.
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BEforHornApril 8, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Oh no! Nothing serious like a car crash. Like an idiot, I bent over in the middle of the night, in the dark to reach for something on the floor. On my way down I collided with the corner of a wooden chest. In medical terms it was a very minor incident, but to a brass player, any injury to the lips is a BIG deal.
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Welcome to The Balanced Embouchure For Horn

Hello and thanks for stopping by. I’m Valerie Wells, a horn player starting this blog to share my success using The Balanced Embouchure (BE) and to provide a place for other horn players to share their positive experiences with BE. The Balanced Embouchure is an embouchure development system originally written for trumpet by Jeff Smiley. BE is now helping an ever growing number of horn players improve their embouchures, too. To learn how I came to BE, see this. There is only one BE book. The same book is used for both horn and trumpet.

For additional information about BE in general, please see the following links:

Jeff Smiley’s website
http://www.trumpetteacher.net/
The Balanced Embouchure Forum http://www.trumpetherald.com/
Michael Camilleri’s website
http://users.actrix.co.nz/mcamilleri/BE/BEFAQ.htm
Bert Loch’s website
http://bertlochs.com/

Ko de Rooj's website (Netherlands)

www.balanced-embouchure.eu

Skype lessons available

Bruce Lee: teatro333 "at" gmail "dot"com

Valerie Wells: ValerieW78 "at" gmail "dot" com

Common Misconceptions about BE

For various reasons that seem inherent in our approach to the instrument, French horn players (self included) often develop misconceptions about The Balanced Embouchure that can potentially impede progress.

Misconception #1: BE is written for trumpet, therefore much of it will not apply to French horn.
Some exercises need transposition or adaptation for French horn, but the principles and techniques taught in this book are as applicable to French horn as they are to trumpet. (I learned this lesson the hard way.)

Misconception #2: BE is all about rolling the lips in and out.
Lip rolling is only part of BE. There are tonguing exercises, snaps, zips, breathing exercises, etc. All these elements combine to form a development system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Misconception #3: Roll-Out exercises are for developing the low register. Therefore a horn player with a secure low register, need not practice Roll-Out exercises.
Roll-Out exercises are designed to develop tone, flexibility, endurance and balance in all the registers, not just the low. A balanced embouchure has elements of roll-out in every note of every register.

Misconception #4: Roll-In exercises are for developing the upper register.
Roll-In exercises are designed to develop tone, flexibility, endurance and balance in all the registers, not just the high. A balanced embouchure has elements of roll-in in every note of every register.

Misconception #5: “Doing BE” means rolling out for low notes and rolling in for high notes.
“Doing BE” means practicing the BE exercises and following the program as designed. Directly applying lip rolling to your regular embouchure is not BE and will be of limited value.

Misconception #6: The correct BE embouchure has a bunched chin and puffed cheeks.
There is no, one correct “BE embouchure.” The balanced embouchure you develop following the BE system will be unique to you. There is no way to predict what your final embouchure will look like. Horn players need to avoid preconceived ideas of what their balanced embouchures will look like.

Bert Lochs has taken the above #6 misconceptions and elaborated upon them for trumpet players.