- Trumpet: 50/50. Some players place the mouthpiece slightly more on the lower lip but very few play with more upper lip. The fleshy or red part of the lips should be within the mouthpiece.
- Horn: 60/40. This is a widely accepted placement for horn. Players’ embouchures should be slightly pursed. This ratio will also assist in setting the more downward angle of the mouthpiece that horn requires.
- Trombone/Euphonium: 50/50. Some players place the mouthpiece slightly more on the upper lip.
- Tuba: 50/50. Some players place the mouthpiece slightly more on the upper lip. For smaller beginners, the nose may present an upper limit on how high a placement they can manage due to the large mouthpiece size. Students should obviously focus on a very open oral cavity as well.
The teacher should place the mouthpiece. Some students will find positions that work relatively well when asked to position their own mouthpieces, but many will not. When a teacher actually places mouthpieces on students’ embouchures the first time, the likelihood of proper placement significantly increases. With good beginning instruction, students will make small adjustments on their own to fit their circumstances. Some advanced students will seek private teachers who can guide them, but the majority depends on the classroom teacher to make the initial placement and monitor embouchure formation. The downside is the time it can take to place every student’s mouthpiece; however, one class period dedicated to this seems a small price for a lifetime of good habits. Good planning and the creation of an activity for students who are not directly involved at any given moment will ensure productivity and good management in the classroom.
In a university course, students may practice placing mouthpieces for each other. While it may be possible for younger students to do the same assuming the guidelines and expectations for the exercise are very clear, the teacher should still make the initial placement.
- Students form embouchures. As the teacher places the mouthpiece, this is yet another opportunity to assess basic embouchure formation. Embouchures should look similar for all the brass instruments, although the corners of horn players’ embouchures should be drawn forward slightly. High brass may also have a bit more compression or firmness in their corners [?].
- Place the mouthpiece in the middle of the mouth. While this seems obvious, it is surprising how many students play with mouthpieces significantly skewed to one side or another. Dental structure may dictate that the mouthpiece rests most comfortably slightly off center, but extreme placements rarely work well.
- Place the mouthpiece on the top lip and roll it down to rest on the lower lip; take the mouthpiece off and repeat. (*It may benefit horn players to place the mouthpiece on the lower lip and roll up given the downward angle of the mouthpiece and leadpipe in playing position.) This starts to develop students’ physical memory for how the mouthpieces feel. Students may also use cell phone cameras or mirrors to visually confirm how the mouthpiece is placed.
- The student places the mouthpiece himself or herself. Students should grasp the shanks of their mouthpieces with the index finger and thumb (or perhaps with two fingers and the thumb on larger mouthpieces). This prevents students from using too much pressure in positioning the mouthpiece. The teacher might ask students to “wave” with their free fingers while scanning the class to assess understanding and technique.
- The student takes a breath and exhales through their aperture to produce a buzz. In these initial attempts, any buzz is a good buzz. A failure to create a buzz requires a resetting of embouchure and mouthpiece. Once a student produces a sound, the teacher can quickly move to the next student.
- As with free buzzing, teachers might consider asking students to take their first breaths through their noses to retain their embouchure placements. Once students understand how to create a buzz on the mouthpiece, they should start to breath from the corners of their mouths and practice how to coordinate their embouchure set with their breath.
- The bore of a tuba mouthpiece allows very fast exhalation of air, which in turn can present a challenge to students learning to buzz. Players might cover part of the opening at the end of the mouthpiece shank with their finger to create a slight resistance.
The teacher needs to monitor each student. When all students in the class can produce a basic buzz, the teacher should have them perform their sounds as a class. Again, the pitches produced are not as important as good mechanics at this point in time. Some common problems that teachers might observe and address include:
- Smile embouchure. Students pull their corners back toward their ears rather than down into a slight frown position.
- Bunched chin. Students do not retain an open oral cavity and pull their lower jaw upward, losing the firmness of corners and compressing their lower lip into their upper lip.
- Incorrect mouthpiece placement. Despite good initial sets, students will sometimes lose good placement without monitoring.
- Puffed cheeks. Students lose firmness in their corners. This is a common problem with low brass players as loose corners ease the ability to create low-pitched sounds. While students can still produce sound, they will struggle with control.
- Too much pucker. Students pull their corners forward, bunching their lips toward the middle of their embouchures and interfering with the buzzing of the apertures.