How your lips dictate your mouthpiece choice

This issue of Dr. Mouthpiece deals with qualifying lip type and size. Many readers admit not having any real understanding or true way of knowing what is meant when I have outlined the basic groups of thick lipped vs. thin lipped players. When  doing a consultation, generally the first question I ask is: Are your lips thin, average or fleshy? Most often, the puzzled response is: I really don’t know! Followed fairly quickly by quizzes to wives and /or girlfriends (women usually have a better sense of where they fall with this) until a consensus can be reached.

I consider basic lip structure to be the most critical element in properly fitting a player. The size and type of lip a player has absolutely decides which inner diameter they should be using. Choosing the correct inner diameter is where proper mouthpiece selection starts. Nevertheless, not a week goes by where someone, somewhere will make a desperate inquiry concerning which lip type they possess. I also receive pictures, plotted graphs and detailed mechanical drawings of lips in the pursuit of a resolution to this great issue. The problem with this approach is that it’s not really just one particular criteria that can be counted on to reveal  all. If it were as simple as just measuring some physical parameter, the myths and mysteries that surround the whole issue could have been put to rest a long time ago. Rather, it is more of an amalgam of criteria that must decide.

The collection of pictures that follow attempt to help players get some idea of where they fit into the ‘great chain’ of lip types. Not through measurements, but through comparisons which cover three major groupings.

Lip Width – Which is meant to imply how much inner membrane is present… the classic lip look. Basically going from very little inner membrane like this: 

to something more substantial like this: 

Degree of Fleshiness – A make or break aspect in deciding proper inner diameter! It’s not just how much red shows, but rather how much flesh there is front to back (inside to outside).
Lip Structure – In which we’ll look at some lip patterns that are potentially problematic for a brass player and the reasons why.
One issue that we will not be visiting here is teeth formation and dental occlusions. We will, for the most part, be narrowing our scope to the 3 categories above and how they affect inner diameter selection. However, I will say that I have personally witnessed players with the most severe dental issues, in terms of teeth sticking out at wild angles, play with the greatest of ease. I was lucky enough to learn the phrase from one such player, “If you can feel your teeth, you’re using too much pressure.” Consequently, it has been my experience over the years that most dental concerns can be ameliorated by establishing the right “balance of resistance” for a given player. Briefly, if the internal volume of the mouthpiece / equipment set-up is too great for a given player, he will be blowing harder than he should to try to create velocity. The harder any player has to blow, the greater the odds of having to use pressure to maintain the aperture. Adjusting this balance and educating a player on how to manipulate the air in an efficient manner has been a time tested solution for individuals with this type of problem.

Click on the tabs below:

Lip types:  This page of the gallery features an assortment of lips types ranging from the very thin through to average and on to the very fleshy.

Fleshiness: This page looks at players with thin to average lips with a more qualitative eye, drawing distinctions among the groups with special attention to comparing degrees of fleshiness and how they would affect inner diameter selection.

Problematic Lips: Devoted to the more problematic lip types this page includes a discussion of the drawbacks inherent in each.

The overall objective here is to add a level, perhaps two, of sophistication to the overall understanding of how to categorize these lip types. If there are players out there who are finally able to interpret themselves as being, for example, in the thin lip category, but who are still struggling along on an inner diameter that is way too large for them, or conversely, those with very fleshy lips who are trying to play on something too small, life can be a whole lot happier for you if you make the appropriate corrections. The happiness factor is in direct proportion to how far from the proper inner diameter you’re using now. For the very fleshy lipped player who is still trying to play the Bach 7C given to him in school, your wildest dreams can come true! Well, maybe not all; but believe me, playing a brass instrument can be much more rewarding than it is for you right now.

In closing, I would also point out that it is certainly true that trumpet players as well as French horn players are seemingly plagued a great deal more by issues related to inner diameter size than are the larger brass instruments. For this reason, I have confined inner diameter recommendations to the range of these instruments only. However, the same principles apply to these instruments as they do to the larger brasses in that players with lesser lips would do well to stay with inner diameter sizes that are on the smaller side. It also must be said that overall internal volume and the amount of which a player can sustain is not only a function of lung capacity, but also of lip fleshiness and muscularity, but again, in depth discussions must wait for another day.