BRASS
Since joining Canadian Brass in 2009, trumpeter/arranger Christopher Coletti has performed hundreds of concerts, TV, and radio appearances
around the world with the group, recorded eight Billboard chart-topping/award-winning CDs, filmed multiple music videos, and arranged a
plethora of music that The Brass has recorded and regularly performs. Chris is also adjunct professor of trumpet at the Brooklyn College Conserva-
tory of Music and offers private lessons from his studio in Brooklyn, NY and on Skype. www.trumpetchris.com.
By Chris Coletti
Dealing
with Jaw Pain
B
ack around the early summer of 2005, during my
undergrad at the Manhattan School of Music, I was
more than thrilled to learn that for the first concert
of the next semester, I would be playing principal
trumpet on Bruckner’s “4 th Symphony” with Kurt
Masur conducting!
Unfortunately, I had been experiencing jaw pain around the
same time and it was quickly starting to affect my trumpet play-
ing. With a hard deadline in sight, I had to figure some things
out.
Below is a letter I wrote to a trumpeter in a similar boat. Many
people have come to me about this same issue in the time
since, so I am sharing the letter with you.
I know how scary it can be when pain creeps up on you
while playing your instrument! Hopefully this helps alleviate
some of that worry.
When playing, be sure you are consciously making your most
beautiful sound as effortlessly as possible. Without hearing and
seeing you play, I can only say that it is very common to “over-
play” the trumpet instead of letting the instrument “play itself.”
A great trumpet player is a master of wind.
The “ideal” amount of air is often more than we think, but
not too much; the perfect usage of air will yield an exceptionally
pure tone, requiring little to no effort.
The only pressure needed to play the trumpet is the precise
amount needed to create a seal between the mouthpiece and
the lips (so little/no air escapes), which is not a lot (though it
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does increase with range and volume). Pressing any harder than
this causes a chain reaction of tension: First, by flexing our arms
and shoulders, forcing the trumpet into our face, we blow much
harder to compensate and meet this pressure, thus encouraging
us to push the trumpet even harder into the lips, pinching them
between the mouthpiece and the teeth. This unrefined use of air
causes an endless internal fight to make a sound while keeping
a seal. It hurts! Plus, it doesn’t usually sound good.
While I am not a doctor, my guess is that this is happening
to you on some level (we all do it!) and it’s causing you to flex all
sorts of muscles, including your jaw.
It is also very possible that you are grinding your teeth at
night (your dentist should be able to confirm this). I know quite
a few trumpeters with teeth grinding or clenching issues (myself
included), which is easily remedied by wearing a mouth guard
at night. (The cheap $30 one at drug stores works fine; a dentist
will charge a few hundred dollars.)
Final Thoughts
Of course, don’t jump into extremely high or loud playing.
Continue listening to your body so that you can become aware
of what is causing the pain before it becomes unbearable.
Your practice sessions should be exercises in self-discovery
where you dissect trumpet playing into its most basic parts. As
simplistic as it sounds, 99.99 per cent of trumpet “issues” are air-
or sound concept-related. Keep it easy and beautiful and you
will come back better than ever before!
This article is based on a post from Chris’s official blog
at www.trumpetchrisblog.com – a valuable resource for
anyone interested in becoming a top performer.