Air vs Lip... vs tongue?

It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I would discuss a few things inspired by a few posts in the Soprano Cornet group on Facebook. I have always felt that people focus too much on the lips. When we get tired it is our lips that hurt. Thats is probably where the obsession comes from. There are three areas that are important in playing a brass instrument:

1. The air
2. The tongue
3. The lips

I believe that their importance is in that order. The air is most important because it is our engine. The tongue affects so much more than articulation, though a lot of people seem to forget about it. The lips are a vibrating set of flesh reeds that transfer the air into the instrument to produce sound.  In a previous post I have mentioned Claude Gordon's book "Brass Playing is No Harder Than Deep Breathing". I highly recommend it for those interested in becoming a good player. He has seven areas of focus, including fingers, hands etc... but he also emphasises the importance of the three elements I mention above.

We must blow correctly, which means a supported airflow, with the air channeled towards the front of the mouth by the tongue and the lips vibrating without too much pressure.  The tongue position affects the pitch we play.  A high tongue ("EE") makes a high pitch, while a low tongue ("AW") makes a low pitch.  Whistling helps us to find this for ourselves. Lip Flexibility studies (which should be called Tongue Level studies) help us to experience this feeling on the instrument.

There is a lot of information out there to read and material to practice from that develops our understanding and awareness of the importance of the tongue and the air, so look around. This is an introduction to the idea that the lips are less important than we think, I woll hopefully post a more in depth discussion soon.

Happy sopping,

John