I had a good friend in college who became an accomplished professional, who told me I needed to learn to play with a wet embouchure. I tried it and I couldn’t stand it. I use very little pressure, just enough to hold the mouthpiece against my lips, and if my lips are wet the mouthpiece slides off my face. I realized that you have to weigh advice relative to your own playing, and sometimes you have to be your own teacher and discover your own solutions. I developed my endurance the opposite way. I learned the Caruso “six notes” exercise, which really helped with endurance.
Dear Tito 🤗 I too was taught by Ray Crisara to play with wet lips! During the 70’s….now at 82 I’m trying to rebuild my chops and YOU are my teacher! Thanks mi hermano! 🙏
Here is a dry player turning wet story. I stopped playing trumpet after I graduated college. I was a dry player, I played lead trumpet for many years in school orchestra. I remember trying to switch to wet playing because anyways due to playing my lips would get wet and that would feel very uncomfortable (would result in my lips not being close enough to make a sound). After I stopped playing (for around 4 years) I recently decided to pick it up again because I’d like to land a job in an orchestra (seriously missed it) and therefore contacted couple professional friends of mine to get decent fundamentals. I started doing everything from the beginning. Long tones, falsefingered lip bends, moving long tones, Arban. And this time (one of my friends have warned me about being extremely careful with avoiding pressure as much) while blowing longtones I actually felt if I didn’t moisture my lips, the pressure would increase and my lips would also stop vibrating due to lack of moisture. So I started licking my lips quite often and keeping them wet as long as I practice. As someone who played with dry lips over a decade and now comfortably playing wet, I can tell you the difference from my perspective. Playing dry involves more pressured and non-flexible contact between the rim and your lips, may sound and feel great at first but ultimately your lips may get tired faster. The wet playing on the other hand, is a little different to get used to but makes it almost impossible to play with a lot pressure but rather a very firm embouchure and air supported resonance. I’m not saying when you play dry you don’t have great air support or firm lips (because when the rim contact is constant and part of your lips that face the rim doesn’t move around you’ll need even more firmness) but when playing wet, the sound you get from trumpet is more dependent on how firm you can keep the embouchure with muscles rather than applying pressure with mouthpiece and keeping it together against the pressure and your air support. In short, when dry you need muscles to fight against the pressure that make it possible to create sound, when wet you need muscles to keep the lips together to create sound without much pressure because if not, everything may fall apart. But definitely there’s a change in the amount of pressure applied by the mouthpiece in my honest opinion. And I like less pressure as it feels lighter&easier so I’ll keep building up my endurance playing wet.
Oh yea! M.A. the G.O.A.T for sure. I can play on either. When you wet the mouthpiece at the beginning you wet your lips but then after a short time the wetness dries up and the mouthpiece sticks to the mouth. either way you are playing 'sticky' eventually. I bought almost every single thing Maurice Andre did growing up. I was fascinated by him. His sound was so pure and he would add breath accents at key moments in the music and I had never heard anyone before or since do that. His sound to me defines what trumpet is. probably still is the best piccolo player ever, even eclipsing todays greats. Wynton was great too but he didn't have the extra finesse of the pure classical style.
I don’t know we ever talked about this Tito but I had the same experience! I tried to turn myself into a wet lip player during my time at Northern and it was a disaster. I love this idea of taking the mp off and immediately putting it back. I know for a fact I can’t do this right now!!
I studied with Bud Herseth as a young kid for 11 years. He played and taught with wet chops but he did say that his cohort Vince Chichowicz played with dry chops.
Maurice Andre was a teacher at the Paris Conservatory, but when his two sons had problems with their trumpet playing, he took them to Switzerland for lessons with James Stamp. The air pressure on a trumpet is of course higher than on a trombone or a tuba, but if a tuba played a high C (that equals a low C on trumpet and a middle C on trombone) the pressure in ounces is about the same for all brass in the same octave. When Arnold Jacobs played a high C, they measured 6 ounces (a test in 1960 at the University of Chicago - Bud Herseth also did the test at that time). For simplicity let's say that a low C on tumpet is 10 ounces (10 oz/in²) that equals 0.625 psi. Next octave on trumpet is 20 ounces = 1.25 psi. So what the liner note in that CD with Maurice Andre says about air pressure is bunk. (Btw, I have that CD) I heard Maurice Andre live two times - he was fantastic!
Great video Tito. Didn't Philip Farkas say in his "Art of Brass Playing" - that dry players have far more problems with the maintenance of their lips - than wet players do. Just for the record - I think it's possible that I am the wettest player ever to draw breath. I'm dripping.
I’m going start working on this today🎺🎺 I think it will create a greater muscle memory and I love to experiment 🕺🎶🕺🎺. I was always amazed how some great players could just pick up the horn and play instantly without setting on carefully!. Gunhild Carling is a perfect example but she can do just about anything she wants❤😂🎺🎶🎺
I've never heard discussion or thought of wet/dry playing. But I'm like you, I anchor for sure. I've got fat lips, and can't seem to roll them enough to stay inside the mouth piece. I wonder if that affects endurance? I'm also a section player that plays concert band and jazz. But I'm all over the place, ill play lead all the way down to fourth part. I definitely need to take the horn off my face more, and get the flexibility going.
I actually put chapstick on my chops before I put mouthpiece to mouth for as much slipperiness I can get. Don't like to play dry and hate when I forget my chapstick :) I started out playing dry as a bone.
Wet, but I don’t overly “lick” my lips. I feel like I need it to make a seal. I think it’s an individual thing, kind of like an MLB player getting into his batting stance. 😂
I experienced this on a rainy marching day back at high school (2002). From that day i knew i was a "dry lips" player and hated to play on those circunstances. I'm now a come back player (20 years later) trying to be more consistent and is interesting this approach. I've been trying for a month Caruso method which is right the opposite (keep the mouthpiece on the face).mixed with some Arban and Chicowitz studies and is here were I've been trying something similar to your method. Also, I 've adjusted slightly the lips setting and mouthpiece position (not changing it, just a slight movement to the center and a bit more "lip rollin" to assist with that process of releasing and placing back the MP.) Lets see how it goes in the long run. Thanks a lot for this video. I'll bring this into practice.
I had a good friend in college who became an accomplished professional, who told me I needed to learn to play with a wet embouchure. I tried it and I couldn’t stand it. I use very little pressure, just enough to hold the mouthpiece against my lips, and if my lips are wet the mouthpiece slides off my face. I realized that you have to weigh advice relative to your own playing, and sometimes you have to be your own teacher and discover your own solutions.
I developed my endurance the opposite way. I learned the Caruso “six notes” exercise, which really helped with endurance.
Dear Tito 🤗 I too was taught by Ray Crisara to play with wet lips!
During the 70’s….now at 82 I’m trying to rebuild my chops and YOU are my teacher!
Thanks mi hermano! 🙏
Forgot to mention….! IS WORKING! Have a mouth full of new teeth…and slowly I’m starting to play up to high C….
Here is a dry player turning wet story. I stopped playing trumpet after I graduated college. I was a dry player, I played lead trumpet for many years in school orchestra. I remember trying to switch to wet playing because anyways due to playing my lips would get wet and that would feel very uncomfortable (would result in my lips not being close enough to make a sound). After I stopped playing (for around 4 years) I recently decided to pick it up again because I’d like to land a job in an orchestra (seriously missed it) and therefore contacted couple professional friends of mine to get decent fundamentals. I started doing everything from the beginning. Long tones, falsefingered lip bends, moving long tones, Arban. And this time (one of my friends have warned me about being extremely careful with avoiding pressure as much) while blowing longtones I actually felt if I didn’t moisture my lips, the pressure would increase and my lips would also stop vibrating due to lack of moisture. So I started licking my lips quite often and keeping them wet as long as I practice. As someone who played with dry lips over a decade and now comfortably playing wet, I can tell you the difference from my perspective. Playing dry involves more pressured and non-flexible contact between the rim and your lips, may sound and feel great at first but ultimately your lips may get tired faster. The wet playing on the other hand, is a little different to get used to but makes it almost impossible to play with a lot pressure but rather a very firm embouchure and air supported resonance. I’m not saying when you play dry you don’t have great air support or firm lips (because when the rim contact is constant and part of your lips that face the rim doesn’t move around you’ll need even more firmness) but when playing wet, the sound you get from trumpet is more dependent on how firm you can keep the embouchure with muscles rather than applying pressure with mouthpiece and keeping it together against the pressure and your air support. In short, when dry you need muscles to fight against the pressure that make it possible to create sound, when wet you need muscles to keep the lips together to create sound without much pressure because if not, everything may fall apart. But definitely there’s a change in the amount of pressure applied by the mouthpiece in my honest opinion. And I like less pressure as it feels lighter&easier so I’ll keep building up my endurance playing wet.
Thanks for sharing your perspective. 🙏🏽. You’ve made a change that is quite uncommon, at least in my experience.
Oh yea! M.A. the G.O.A.T for sure. I can play on either. When you wet the mouthpiece at the beginning you wet your lips but then after a short time the wetness dries up and the mouthpiece sticks to the mouth. either way you are playing 'sticky' eventually. I bought almost every single thing Maurice Andre did growing up. I was fascinated by him. His sound was so pure and he would add breath accents at key moments in the music and I had never heard anyone before or since do that. His sound to me defines what trumpet is. probably still is the best piccolo player ever, even eclipsing todays greats. Wynton was great too but he didn't have the extra finesse of the pure classical style.
I don’t know we ever talked about this Tito but I had the same experience! I tried to turn myself into a wet lip player during my time at Northern and it was a disaster. I love this idea of taking the mp off and immediately putting it back. I know for a fact I can’t do this right now!!
Wow, i don’t remember talking about it back then, but that’s when I was going through it!
I studied with Bud Herseth as a young kid for 11 years. He played and taught with wet chops but he did say that his cohort Vince Chichowicz played with dry chops.
Thank you Great info. Definitely gonna check out some of your other videos
Thank you again. Yes tentative placement. I have been doing breaks in endurance long notes exactly as you describe here. Very useful tutorial.
Thanks for doing these videos. It's very helpful and appreciated.
Tito, great! Super interesting and I'm going to try it. I've used the Caruso-approach for years, which is seemingly the opposite.
Interesting!
Good info😅 15:54
Maurice Andre was a teacher at the Paris Conservatory, but when his two sons had problems with their trumpet playing, he took them to Switzerland for lessons with James Stamp.
The air pressure on a trumpet is of course higher than on a trombone or a tuba, but if a tuba played a high C (that equals a low C on trumpet and a middle C on trombone) the pressure in ounces is about the same for all brass in the same octave.
When Arnold Jacobs played a high C, they measured 6 ounces (a test in 1960 at the University of Chicago - Bud Herseth also did the test at that time).
For simplicity let's say that a low C on tumpet is 10 ounces (10 oz/in²) that equals 0.625 psi. Next octave on trumpet is 20 ounces = 1.25 psi. So what the liner note in that CD with Maurice Andre says about air pressure is bunk. (Btw, I have that CD)
I heard Maurice Andre live two times - he was fantastic!
I totally get it about an uncomfortable two days - I hate wet lips per se. And if I wet my lips prior to playing I have to dry them
Great video Tito. Didn't Philip Farkas say in his "Art of Brass Playing" - that dry players have far more problems with the maintenance of their lips - than wet players do. Just for the record - I think it's possible that I am the wettest player ever to draw breath. I'm dripping.
🤣
Yes I think you’re right about the Farkas book. My own teacher Ray Crisara echoed the same thing. But Louis Armstrong made it work!
I’m going start working on this today🎺🎺
I think it will create a greater muscle memory and I love to experiment 🕺🎶🕺🎺.
I was always amazed how some great players could just pick up the horn and play instantly without setting on carefully!. Gunhild Carling is a perfect example but she can do just about anything she wants❤😂🎺🎶🎺
I've never heard discussion or thought of wet/dry playing. But I'm like you, I anchor for sure.
I've got fat lips, and can't seem to roll them enough to stay inside the mouth piece. I wonder if that affects endurance?
I'm also a section player that plays concert band and jazz. But I'm all over the place, ill play lead all the way down to fourth part.
I definitely need to take the horn off my face more, and get the flexibility going.
I actually put chapstick on my chops before I put mouthpiece to mouth for as much slipperiness I can get. Don't like to play dry and hate when I forget my chapstick :) I started out playing dry as a bone.
Wet, but I don’t overly “lick” my lips. I feel like I need it to make a seal.
I think it’s an individual thing, kind of like an MLB player getting into his batting stance. 😂
I personally play with wet lips, it helps me get a better seal
The one player I think of when this subject comes up is Bill Chase.
I'm a wet-lip player and that is why I have a life-long addiction to chap stick.
I experienced this on a rainy marching day back at high school (2002). From that day i knew i was a "dry lips" player and hated to play on those circunstances. I'm now a come back player (20 years later) trying to be more consistent and is interesting this approach. I've been trying for a month Caruso method which is right the opposite (keep the mouthpiece on the face).mixed with some Arban and Chicowitz studies and is here were I've been trying something similar to your method. Also, I 've adjusted slightly the lips setting and mouthpiece position (not changing it, just a slight movement to the center and a bit more "lip rollin" to assist with that process of releasing and placing back the MP.) Lets see how it goes in the long run. Thanks a lot for this video. I'll bring this into practice.