Okay....I got my braces put on today,and we start summer band camp tomorrow....and this will be my first year with the possibility of a solo....any tips on keeping a good range with braces?I can barely go higher than a middle C now and it's terrible.Please help!!!!
I will help you but . . . . .
A) you have to do it.
B) you have to report back to confirm it works (which it does).
<Added>
Let me re-phrase this.
A lot of people recently have asked for advice and then bad mouthed the advice given without trying it and/or not come back to say how it did or didn't work.
I love to give advice and I can assure you it works. But in an effort to help others I would like feedback to confirm the fix.
And this way people don't think my over simple ways are too simple and that they do really work.
Here it is. . .
This seems really simple but it works. This is better than those late night TV commercials. I have used it with students getting braces put on and students having them taken off. Do this once in the morning and once in the evening. When done this way everyday it has always worked within a week, often 4 days or less.
Take a middle note and play a chromatic scale up one octave and then back down. For example C up to C and back down to C chromatically. Don't go too fast just a calm even tempo. Then move up a half step and go C# up to C# and back down to C#. Move up a half-step - D to D back to D. Continue this until your lips start feeling uncomfortable. Then play a very low note, about an octave above your lowest note. Play the low note as long as you can with one breath. Move down in half-step increments and play each low note for as long as you can on one breath.
Again, do this once in the morning and once in the evening. It will take but only a few minutes and you will be very happy with the results.
Thats the end of what to do.
Want to know why this works?
When braces are put on or taken off the lips themselves need to adjust. They either need to stretch out to cover the extra hardware, or they need to stretch back to normal. The younger you are the quicker this will happen because of the elasticity of your lips. What the above exercise does is slowly, but medthodically, adjusts your lips to every position you need to put them in to play the notes on your instrument. This can also work as a good warm up and warm down, or as an easy way to increase your range.
Thank you so much for the advice!I have a slight overbite so it was really hard at first to get somewhat of an embochure (i don't think that's splelled right)back.My teeth weren't gaped apart,but they over-lapped eachother so things were really weird at first.Thanks for the help,johnlovemusic!
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