When we play and practice saxophone for a long time, we will definitely feel tired. Our facial muscles, especially the mouth muscles, may be stiff and sore because we need to keep the embouchure for a long time. In fact, this situation is common to most people, and it is not a rare phenomenon. This is mainly because we can only train the muscles around the mouth in a few hours at ordinary times. In most cases, our facial muscles are in a very loose state. Of course, almost every musician who learns saxophone has ever felt the pain caused by the broken skin on his lower lip. What can we do to avoid or reduce the occurrence of these problems?
Why is my lip sore when playing saxophone?：https://youtu.be/Ia-S4jmkCAg
The reason why we feel pain or skin damage on thelower lip:
1. Strictly speaking, the correct embouchure of saxophone needs the lower lip to cover our lower teeth. Especially when beginners play, if they use the correct embouchure, it will be easier to play a full, warm, three-dimensional sound. However, since we need to wrap the lower teeth with the lower lip to play, it is inevitable that the lower teeth bite our lips.
How hard are our teeth? As we all know, diamond is the hardest material in nature, and its hardness is rated as Grade 10. The surface of our teeth is a substance called enamel, and the hardness of enamel is rated as Grade 8! If we use our lips hard to cover the hard and sharp lower teeth for a long time, our lower lips will definitely be damaged.
2. If it takes a lot of effort to play saxophone, or you feel that you can only play saxophone with great power, you may need to adjust the instrument or its accessories. If the tip opening of the mouthpiece is too big, more breath and power will be used: many students have seen a certain performer use a mouthpiece and chose the same accessory in order to pursue the timbre effect. However, after buying it back, we found that we could not control it at all, and then used several times of our strength to play it, which led to physical discomfort. Therefore, we should remember to choose what was suitable for us and not blindly follow the wind. At the same time, if the reed is too thick, or the sealing of the instrument is not good, the instrument will leak, and so on, which will lead to similar problems.
Pain on bottom lip? What to do to play saxophone for longer：
https://youtu.be/jbjFzZrlcGk
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How to avoid lower lip pain?：Play with the right force
When learning about saxophone at the beginning, many people will make a mistake that is too hard. For example, 30% of the correct strength should be used to play well, but 70% is used. This will cause excessive muscle tension, especially our lips will suffer more damage. This is just like when we suddenly go hiking for a whole day. The next day, we will definitely feel pain all over the body. In fact, this is also a muscle strain.
Therefore, when playing, we should actively look for the playing strength that suits us. When practicing, we should not just practice how not to make mistakes. When we get to our performance status, we will get twice the result with half the effort.
How to avoid skin damage on the lower lip?：Choose gum or other protective measures
Many students notice: My teeth are too sharp, no matter how I practice my lower lip, the skin will break. When this happens, we can take some protective measures.
For example: use special dental gum
The special gum can be shaped according to the shape of your teeth, and the material is soft and can be reused. And the material of this kind of gum is thick, even if it is used for a long time, it will not be damaged or invalid. But the only problem is that this kind of gum is too thick, and students who have strict requirements on playing comfort may feel uncomfortable.
For example, use oil blotter instead of special gum
Many students suffering from the lower lip don't like the thick texture of gum, and think that the use of gum will affect the performance. So you can choose oil blotter to replace gum. You can try to fold and wet oil blotter and put it on the lower teeth, and try to put it at the right angle. This method can also relieve the pain or skin damage of the lower lip, but the oil blotter will be damaged after being wet for a long time, so we need to replace it in time.
