Embouchure

Embouchure, what is it? If you played a woodwind instrument in middle or high school, or even now, you know what it is. If you play or played guitar, you know what it is.  I can hear some guitar players right now, ‘I don’t know what that is.’  Give me a minute, you will.

I played alto saxophone, my junior year of high school.  I was not that great, but my dad thought getting me involved in band would somehow make me well-rounded.  Some of you may not be shocked by this, but as hard as I tried, I never fit in.  It was hard for me to make friends.  I don‘t know how much music helped, I was in marching band and stage band, maybe it did a little.

Next time you see someone playing a saxophone or any other wood wind instrument, look at their bottom lip.  Notice how it is curved back over the musician’s bottom row of teeth.  Ever imagine how painful that might be? Me either, until I started taking saxophone lessons.   I tried everything not to suffer the pain of my bottom row of teeth cutting into the inside of my bottom lip.   Webster’s Dictionary defines an embouchure as ‘1. The mouthpiece of a wind instrument. 2. The way in which the lips are applied to an embouchure to produce a musical tone.’

One day at practice, my saxophone teacher caught me red-handed! He was an elderly gentleman and he had probably seen this a million times.  I had folded a sheet of paper towel into a small square, and put it inside my bottom lip.  Bottom line, no pun intended, he said that I could not do that; it would not allow me to play the instrument properly.  Yes, it was pretty gross as I removed the piece of paper and tossed it into the trash. I proceeded to build my embouchure.

And build it I did.  I built a callous on the inside of my bottom lip which allowed me to properly play the alto saxophone.  Yes guitar players, the same callouses you build on your fingertips, are what woodwind instrument players build on the inside of their bottom lip. 

In life, we need to build a callous.  We do not build a callous as a way to become hard-hearted, heartless, or mean; but to strengthen us against the relentless waves of life.  Life can be horrible, mean, and downright disrespectful.  You know the saying, ‘we will either sink or swim’, or what about this saying, ‘if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything’.   I don’t know who the originators of these sayings are, but they have continued down through time because they are true!  We need to build up our strength to do battle against the wiles of the devil and the craziness of life.  When we are weak, we fall for anything, we allow life to assail us and sink us.  If we allow ourselves to be strengthened, to build our embouchure, we will have a better chance of surviving our journey through life. 

I played saxophone for the senior graduation march or procession, that year.  The music for the graduation procession is pretty easy, although I probably could not play it now.  The callous inside my bottom lip is gone now too.  It took some time to disappear actually.  But I have a nice healthy one that I have built up over time, for the craziness of life.  Yes, life can hit us out of left field.  Life can send us reeling in a downward spiral.  But I am convinced a proper embouchure, and a healthy callous, will help us survive.