I’ve been playing a lot of music that is very high recently, up to altissimo A. I noticed after playing this section the inside of my lip hurts because I am biting so hard. I can even see an indent where my teeth were.
Is there anything I can do to relieve this pain. Would moving up a reed strength help, or is a habitual thing I need to fix? My setup RN is either a Vandoren Blue Box 3s or La Voz Medium (jazz) on a Vandoren B45 mp and Vadoren Optimum ligature
You could certainly try a slightly harder reed to see if it helps. If you want help breaking the habit, I walked through my double lip exercise here for my students who experience that biting issue:
Huh. Interesting. Is there another way!?
my lip hurts because I am biting so hard. I can even see an indent where my teeth were.
This just seemed normal to me. My lip ends up sore for a day after playing a gig with lots of altissimo notes.
Thanks for the tips!
When I am biting, I definitely get a bit sore after playing a lot of altissimo. However, it’s possible to make not biting a habit too and to make it less of an ordeal. Doing some double lip work up there with a tuner helped me. I have a tendency to be too intense with my embouchure and I do better when I focus on the air instead.
