What is it about?
How a person manipulates their mouth is as important as how they manipulate their lips when playing a brass instrument. Experienced players use their mouths as Helmoltz resonators to drive their lips. Experienced players also use upstream and downstream playing techniques to reduce the lip mass that vibrates, allowing higher frequency notes to be played.
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Why is it important?
Most scientific studies on brass playing focus on the horn, assuming the player's lip drives it by adjusting the tension in the lip. Brass players have successfully developed techniques that allow them to play a much larger frequency range than can be achieved by just adjusting the tension in the lip. This work applies a physical basis to the things brass players do and teach and shows how it enables brass players to play their instruments over a wide range of frequencies.
Perspectives
A common problem for brass players is extending their high ranges. It is a subject of much discussion among musicians. However, the scientific community has not addressed it beyond saying something like "Brass players tighten their lips to play higher." This work is an attempt to apply physical principles to what brass players say they do and analyze brass playing from their perspective.
Michael Strauss
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A lip vibration model using mechanical properties of flesh, Journal of Applied Physics, April 2025, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0250279.
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