[Magdalen] Down, or busy?

[P. Dan Brittain]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 3:47 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> In a message dated 9/29/2016 4:34:59 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> pdan.brittain at gmail.com writes:
>
> ​Just  got back to Harrison. A fun trip but am still tired. And, tomorrow,
> I
> am on  to sub for one of the band  directors.​>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>
> How's your lip?
>

​Haven't played in a month. Will have to do at least a little tomorrow and
Saturday as I will have my first brass band practice Sunday.​


>
> For an out-of-the-way region such as this NE Pennsylvania, I had some
> really interesting patients in the thirty years I was at the local  VAMC.
>
> Trumpet players are especially prone to a problem of a deformity of  the
> lips as they got older and secondary to the intense pressure they  force
> on the lips.  Eventually in some of these brass players, there  develop
> redundant lip folds that begin to affect their playing.
>

​Air speed is as important as pressure; if the air's not fast enough some
players will compensate with increasing the pressure. (Then again as you
age, some of that will happen anyway, but you can compensate a little with
the proper exercises such as the work of Emory Remmington)​.



>
> Of course these musicians don't want to stop playing,


​Very understandable; I haven't stopped yet.​ You can last longer if you
don't use the "push and pray" method (push real hard and pray it comes out).



> so I am unable
> to guess if the condition is self limited if there is no more pressure  =
> no more trumpeting.  In the end, some perioral surgery in the  hands
> of an oral surgeon seemed to correct the problem.
>

​Continuing to do the daily flexibility exercises and slurs keeps the
muscle tone up so you don't have to use as much pressure.​



-- 
P. Dan Brittain
Harrison, Arkansas

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