Coming back from a lip injury
Two years ago I injured my lip due to hard playing without rest and using too much pressure. This resulted in a permanent swollen callus on my top lip. Soon after the injury I could hardly play at all where prior to this I had consistent range above the staff to G/A flat and good endurance. I'm interested in hearing from other players who have experienced a lip injury and what has helped them in recovery.
I found Lucinda Lewis and embouchures.com and using her methods was able to slowly begin to rebuild my playing. Today I have a consistent B natural and can usually play high C when playing 1st trumpet in community band or 2nd trumpet in big band. I also play weekly in a small jazz group and brass quintet so I'm doing a lot of playing. My endurance is improving but still a challenge. I still have the lip callus, which hinders response and endurance, but have found going with a larger diameter but somewhat shallow mouthpiece has helped me a lot. Also going back to basics in warming up and playing technical studies daily is essential.
Before the injury I was playing on smaller mouthpieces - Callet Solo for jazz and Curry 30M for classical. Now playing on a Schagerl Apredato Gileno Santana mouthpiece which allows great response and very free blowing.
Would like to hear from others who have come back from lip injury and what has worked for you. Thanks!
7 replies
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Hey Steve! Thanks for your question, and congrats on the rehabilitation! Not easy at all. I'm not an expert at medical topics, but I would highly advise getting in touch with Kayla Solomon. She's a terrific hub of knowledge when it comes to embouchure recovery and can direct you to an appropriate medical specialist. You can email her on her website!
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Great! I did email her so if you see her again and if you have a relationship with her maybe prompt her to take a look at it after she returns from ITG. Will appreciate it.
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Hi Steve,
The callus will take medical advice.
This approach might help you a little. Two play along cd,s I use for some of my students is Tones of Tunes, beginner and classical .
The beginner book has all the tunes you knew before you were 5 and the classical tunes don,t go above the staff.
So the approach is play the tune and rest about a min. between tunes,
no stress. You don,t worry about your chops but it basically gives you the chance to play what you hear. ie the tune with the correct articulation and breathing.
Another approach is to play chorales. Check out David Newells Bach and before band book.Here is the trick. Chorales can kill you but if you as a trumpet player play the E flat alto clarinet part you are playing these tunes down a 4 th. No chop problems. Use a metronome, play a phrase ,let the metronome dictate the 2 or 4 bar rest. Continue. At the end of the tune you have played, rested, listened and most likely sounded good without thinking about all the technical stuff that jumps into your brain.Get comfortable with this book then play the trumpet(b flat book)
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sid Arnold
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Hi Sid,
Thanks for your comment. I have gotten medical advice and continue to seek additional medical help for the lip callus.
I'm an advanced player so don't feel the Chorales book which I did look at is a fit. If you have any suggestions for advanced players I'd like to hear them. I'm using Earl Irons, Schlossberg, Clarke, Stamp, Laurie Frink Flexus, and Bill Adams books for warm ups and range/endurance building as well as Chichowicz Flow Studies.
Best Regards,Steve