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For those of you ( should be everyone ) who advise to avoid a puckered chin (as opposed to flat) embouchure, what do you suggest I do about an issue I just discovered.

I pucker my chin in the pedal range! ..I can't seem to help this as I push my lower jaw out to reach those lower tones. Should I keep doing as I do? Do you think my pedal range would improve if I flattened my chin?

Hmmm

Thanks

It won't hurt you to do that in the low range, but you probably would get better results if you could keep it flat.

The bunched chin is not a "problem" of its own... it's a symptom that other things aren't right. You don't have good voluntry control over that muscle while playing, so "trying to flatten your chin" usually doesn't work.

Right , which is why I didn't notice it until actually seeing it visually.

What is the normal for a student to do this? I always thought It was a result of simply "not knowing" how to properly form an embouchure.

A good start is to form the embouchure firmly and completely BEFORE placing the mouthpiece on it. And use the muscles below the corners.

So many players put the mouthpiece on first, then blow, with no thought to forming the embouchure. That creates instability and almost guarantees that you will have excess motion in your corners and jaw to get around the horn. Pushing your jaw way out for low notes works, but creates its own problems.

Doug Elliott wrote:A good start is to form the embouchure firmly and completely BEFORE placing the mouthpiece on it. And use the muscles below the corners.

So many players put the mouthpiece on first, then blow, with no thought to forming the embouchure. That creates instability and almost guarantees that you will have excess motion in your corners and jaw to get around the horn. Pushing your jaw way out for low notes works, but creates its own problems.

Everyone is different, and I could be doing it all wrong, but it seems to me that things go best for me if I try to just drop my jaw. If I think of just dropping the lower jaw, it will go outward very slightly, but if I think of pushing out or pulling in, problems emerge. Pulling in is worse than pushing out, in my experience.

I should be in Newberry on May 11 if you want to meet. Come hear the Artie Shaw Orchestra at the Opera House that night.

Doug Elliott wrote:I should be in Newberry on May 11 if you want to meet. Come hear the Artie Shaw Orchestra at the Opera House that night.

Without a doubt, I will be there.

I figured it out. My Chin "Pits" simply, when I roll my lower lip out. I will experiment, but I dont think I will let this technicality get to me