Embouchure

The embouchure is the shaping of the lips to the mouthpiece of a wind instrument. Less frequently, it is used to mean the mouthpiece itself.

Woodwind embouchure

Flute embouchure

A variety of transverse flute embouchures are employed by professional flutists, though the most natural form is perfectly symmetrical, the corners of the mouth relaxed, the lower lip placed along and at a short distance from the embouchure hole. The end-blown shakuhachi and hocchiku flutes demand especially difficult embouchures, sometimes requiring many lessons before any sound can be produced.

Related Topics:
Transverse flute - Shakuhachi - Hocchiku

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Reed instrument embouchure

With the woodwinds, aside from the flute, piccolo, and recorder, the sound is generated by a reed and not with the lips. The embouchure is therefore based on sealing the area around the reed and the mouthpiece. This serves to prevent air from escaping while simultaneously supporting the reed allowing it to vibrate, and to constrict the reed preventing it from vibrating too much. With woodwinds, it is important to ensure that the mouthpiece is not placed too far into the mouth, which would result in too much vibration (no control), often creating a sound an octave (or harmonic twelfth for the clarinet) above the intended note. If the mouthpiece is not placed far enough into the mouth, no noise will be generated, as the reed will not vibrate.

Related Topics:
Flute - Piccolo - Recorder - Reed

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With single reed woodwinds like the clarinet and saxophone, there is a controversy in the United States and in some other countries concerning the use of a single-lip or double-lip embouchure. With a single lip embouchure, the reed rests upon the bottom lip of the player, which is placed on top of the bottom teeth. The top teeth are then used to bite down on the mouthpiece, and the top lips are wrapped around them in order to create a seal. With the double-lip embouchure, the top lip is placed under (around) the top teeth. This is the more natural method, which employs human bisymmetry to ensure that both lips are pulled back equally over the teeth. Though the perfect single-lip embouchure is far more difficult to achieve, it is also more frequently taught. The double-lip embouchure requires more lip strength, and promotes better technique as it prevents the player from biting too hard on the mouthpiece, muting the sound. Because the double-lip embouchure is more natural and easier to develop, it is beginning to become more popular as a way of correcting the embouchure of students who cannot achieve a proper single-lip embouchure. When using a double-lip embouchure, because it requires more strength, some students may need to play sitting or with their instrument rested on a knee, until they develop the lip strength necessary to hold their instrument.

Related Topics:
Clarinet - Saxophone - United States - Teeth

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The double reed woodwinds, the oboe and bassoon, have no mouthpiece. Instead the reed is two pieces of cane extending from a metal tube (oboe - staple) or placed on a bocal (bassoon, english horn). The reed is placed directly on the lips and the played not unlike the double-lip embouchure described above. Compared to the single reed woodwinds, the reed is very small and subtle changes in the embouchure can have a dramatic effect on tuning, tone and control.

Related Topics:
Double reed - Oboe - Bassoon - Cane - Bocal - English horn - Tuning - Tone

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