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What books or studies do you folks recommend for embouchure building?

Are there any sort of "gold standard" books that are really good?

Thanks in advance!

http://www.editions-bim.com/books/instr ... ieces.html" target="_blank

This would be a solid choice
(Arbans)
http://www.hickeys.com/products/036/sku36313.htm

and so would this
(Bell Scales)
http://www.hickeys.com/products/087/sku87361.htm

The following is a quote from my response to another thread on Tubenet earlier today.

A close freind of mine who is a free-lance trumpet player in the Washington, D. C. area was doing a master class in Las Vegas when he was asked by a student attending the class, "What is the best tone intensifier (metal sleeves to put on the shank of your mouthpiece) on the market?" His answer was, "3 hours of practice per day."

My friend is correct. To improve your sound, spend much practice time each day working on relaxed, deep breathing and playing LONG tone scales with good sound production techniques. Other aspects of your playing such as finger technique are are also important and should be a part of your practice time budget. But, even if you have such great finger facility that you can play the Minute Waltz in 37 seconds, no one will want to listen to you if your sound is poor.

The old saying that practice makes perfect it not correct. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. Put in a lot of QUALITY practice time. There are NO short cuts.

This!

bloke wrote: Playing band music for two or three hours really gives the embouchure muscles a workout, ie...

PLAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PLAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>(rest) PLAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PLAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (rest) PLAY>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (etc.)

bloke is absolutely right on the money and I would add that you can up the ante by concentrating extra hard on "perfect" playing (thus making it into a practice session). It can often be easy to get a little too relaxed and just play along in a community band where players of various different skill levels are all honking away.

I've been using the Emory Remington Warm-up routine on Trombone and Euphonium, for decades and it transfers well to Tuba. I have been using it on Tuba to start my practice sessions (just play it down an octave). My copy is pretty ancient but I think it's still available. That and Exercises from the Arban's Book are the only thing I've needed to keep my chops, and technique up to the level I require for the type of playing I do. The Remington exercises include long tones and flexibility studies, etc. That seems to be the only thing I need to keep my embouchure in shape besides lots of playing with various bands, and almost daily practice at home (some days it just doesn't fit in, but daily practice is a goal I shoot for).

swillafew wrote:This would be a solid choice
(Arbans)
http://www.hickeys.com/products/036/sku36313.htm

and so would this
(Bell Scales)
http://www.hickeys.com/products/087/sku87361.htm

+1!

Throw in maybe 30 minutes of Schlossberg long tone exercises and I'd say daily application of those three will have you in the realm of steel in short order.

I have 5 books on the table where I practice that I use most often.

For technique
Arban (for trumpet - just play it in treble clef and the fingerings are the same as for the trumpet)
Clarke Technical Studies - these will, if you practice diligently, improve just about every aspect of your playing. I also use the trumpet version of this book

For lips slurs
Emory Remington Warm-ups. The 9 page Acura Music version.

For range
Rochut Bordogni Studies for trombone - in the octave written, down 1 octave and down 2 octaves

For all around:
Kopprasch 60 studies

Note: My chops were never stronger than when I was playing in the Blast Choir at Indiana University. Two hours, twice a week at often extreme dynamics will do a lot to increase your chop strength.

Just my $0.02.

Roger