

Photo | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ![]() | |
Description | Ultra thin top lip - No red and no fleshiness either | Thin bottom and top lips, very little fleshiness | Thin top lip - no red showing but fleshier than previous | Thin side of average | Thin sideof fleshy - even though the bottom lip is full, the top is very thin...and short! | These are fairly average lips, in general the bottom lip is fuller than the top... this is standard | |
Rim recommended | Recommended ID: 15.25mm or less | Recommended ID: 16mm and less | Recommended ID: 15.25 - 16mm | Recommended ID: 16 - 16.5mm | Recommended ID: 16.25 mm | ||
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Description | These lips are fairly unusual in that they have barley any inner red showing, but they are very fleshy front to back | Fleshy side of average. Note the "V" shape of the top lip. This lip can be compressed easily. | Fleshy side of average, not a lot of inner red showing. Again the shape of the top lip allows it to be compressed quite a bit. | Even though these lips can appear to be faily average, the amount of fleshiness present front to back bumps them into the a larger ID size. | Decideedly fleshy lips. A good deal of inner red showing and lots of fleshiness. | Ultra fleshy - These lips belong to a very successful player who has the ability to compress them down to nothing! Well, almost... Note the formation of the top lip! Even though these lips are fleshy they are efficiently drawn in. | |
Rim recommended | Recommended ID: 16.5mm This is an interesting case. As a very successful commercial artist, this player does play on the ID listed above. However, if he had been a classical player, he almost certainly would have played on something between 17 - 17.5mm. | Recommended ID: 17.25 | Recommended ID: 17.25 - 17.5mm | Recommended ID: 17mm to 17.5mm. These lips need to be free to vibrate! | Recommended ID: 17.5 - 18mm |
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Description | thin / average thickness | average / thin - You can clearly see here how there is significantly less fleshiness to this top lip, even though the bottom is full. | average / thin top lip is thin in every way | average/ thin top lip shows little inner membrane and has less than average thickness | average/ fleshier top lip has medium thickness, full bottom lip | Average - thin top lip | |
Rim recommended | Recommended ID: 16 - 16.25mm | Recommended ID: 16.25 - 16.5 Anything bigger would be pushing it. | Recommended ID: 16.25 - 16.5mm | Recommended ID: 16.25 - 16.5mm | Recommended ID: 16.5 - 17mm | Recommended ID: 16.25 - 16.75mm | |
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Description | thin top / very fleshy bottom - a real study in contrasts! The top lip is very short. | average to fleshy - long top lip! medium thickness | average - even with the fleshy bottom lip I would guess that the top lip virtually "disappears" when compressed so... | fleshy side of average - The top lip has some fleshiness to it. | fleshy side of average; the top lip is just as full as the bottom and fairly fleshy. | ||
Rim recommended | Recommended ID: This is really going to depend on how well the bottom lip is drawn in. If it compresses well, perhaps 16.5mm, if not 17mm, but this embouchure will have to be driven by the flexing of the bottom lip. The top should compress quite easily and naturally. | Recommended ID: 16.5 - 17mm Special note* The top lip does not show a lot of inner membrane and might be able to compress easily down to a 16.5mm ID. To go larger might be too much. | Recommended ID: I would probably stay around the 16.5 range. This player would have to "show" me something to convince me he could go larger. | Recommended ID: 17 - 17.5mm | Recommended ID: 17 - 17.5mm |
The first 3 pictures in the picture gallery below show examples of people with short top lips. This type of lip structure can be a problem because it can seriously impede a player’s ability to compress down the aperture. (See fig. 1 -2 below)

(fig. 1 -1) lips in relaxed position

(fig. 1 -2) lips in compressed position
A short top lip can make it very difficult to bring the lips together enough to create a seal below the top teeth so that the air has a clear path to the lips without having to first hit the teeth.
The next category of pictures below demonstrate a type of lip that I will label as “upturned”. Rather than having the obvious and much more common “V” shape down the middle. (see fig 1 -3)

(fig 1 -3)
These players have a long, upward sloping arc shaped lip structure. (see fig. 1 – 4 below)

(fig. 1 -4)
It has been my experience over the years that players with this type of lip structure are generally unable to compress or “roll” the lip down to close the aperture. For every player that has been forced to try to adapt this traditional style of compression playing, but has the type of lip structure that I have described, let me introduce a ray of hope into your lives. This style of playing is not for you. There are other ways! Rather than trying to affect a type of playing technique that is unnatural and physically impossible for the majority of players with this type of lip structure, this type of player needs to learn to use a “controlled pressure” approach. This would be along the lines of using the weight of the mouthpiece to hold the aperture in a closed position (combined with relaxing the lips into a closed position) while learning to become a master of using one’s internal mechanisms (tongue-height and syllables) to manipulate the speed of the air.
Short top lip
This is an extreme case of a short top lip. The teeth are not terribly long, but the top lip is quite short. Check the distance that the lip extends from the base of the nose. The concern in these cases is the ability of the player to be able to close the aperture.
Upturned lips
These lips belong to a very famous and successful player. Yes indeed! He plays with the controlled pressure approach. It is possible!