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Just make sure to have them apart for a focuesd the airstream. I think two fingers apart is almost painful (though I do have pretty big fingers) it's all about how it feels to you, and if you are producing a good sound. If those two things are good, then you're set.

$0.02 from me to you, don't spend it all in one place

Rules like these cannot possibly work for everyone because our mouths are not all alike. It does (usually) help to create a large open space inside your mouth when you play down low, but we each have to find out for ourselves where the limits are. Somebody once did a study by taking x-ray images of just what several good tubists did with their jaws and tongues while playing in various registers. Some went one way while making great sounds, others did the opposite. No general rules could be observed.

I see this in a lot more of the trumpet forums than anything else. Especially in embouchure discussions.

There are rules that are used by some of them...

1. Take the mouthpiece out of the horn.

2. Turn the mouthpiece around and put the shank of the mouthpiece between your front teeth (do this at the largest point of the shank).

3. Remove the shank from your mouth and put the mouthpiece back in the receiver without moving your jaw.

4. Put your mouth to the mouthpiece, finding your perfect setting.

5. Breathe thru your nose and without a suspension at the top of the breathe play the artificial fundamental of the instrument you are playing. (this is a term that is confusing to me... but basically they mean second harmonic series of the horn i.e. low BBb on a BBb tuba, not the pedal)

This is supposedly the "perfect jaw setting". I'm not quite sure how much I buy it. Way too many variables, especially in the tuba world. Shank size can be the same on bass and contrabass tubas, plus a bunch of other stuff. I am not sure if Carmine Caruso (trumpet pedagogue) came up with this technique or not, but I have seen it paired with the Caruso technique. It works well with "six notes" specifically. Use this technique to determine jaw seperation and then proceed to the six notes exercise, breathing only thru your nose, keeping the same setting.

http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/exercise/th ... caruso.pdf" target="_blank

Another reason for no firm rule:

I was taught by my teacher (who was taught by Bill Bell) to use Jaw Vibrato so that you can control when, the speed of, and the width of same.

During those exercises one naturally settles on the best sounding cavity for themselves, and the embouchure strength to reproduce it in any range or situation.

When a person thinks of an "oh" or "ah" relaxed oral cavity to get good intonation and air flow over the embouchure, the jaw can naturally relax to provide the space necessary, and it can change depending on the register and the articulation needed.

bloke wrote:These decibel adjustments effectively negate trumpet players' already-tiny/nearly imperceptible jaw position adjustments for various ranges.

Indeed, I agree completely. I did not address the movement specifically, just the distance the jaws are opened at a certain pitch. The starting position is not a static position it is just a position from which to move. I was not attempting to imply that the jaw is static, nor am I implying Caruso thought that either.

All this being said, just as I stated above, I think these techniques ( just as the finger technique is, too) are a bit of hogwash. I think the great majority of us just facilitate jaw distance to sound good and play in tune.

I began in beginner brass class learning these "Caruso" things, but don't follow them much. I think the same things can be pretty much achieved with working on the breath and focusing on the sound. The caruso rules specifically seem to be a little too restrictive given all the variables we have in place as musicians.

Wes "my first post was obviously not concise enough to emphasize my viewpoint"

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It's not rocket science...try dropping your jaw with your teeth together. See?

Unless, of course, you believe that it's not necessary to drop the jaw in the lowest registers. If so, never mind.