I've been playing a lot of music that is very high recently, up to altissimo A. I noticed after playing this section the inside of my lip hurts because I am biting so hard. I can even see an indent where my teeth were.

Is there anything I can do to relieve this pain. Would moving up a reed strength help, or is a habitual thing I need to fix? My setup RN is either a Vandoren Blue Box 3s or La Voz Medium (jazz) on a Vandoren B45 mp and Vadoren Optimum ligature

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[–] Ctb267 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You could certainly try a slightly harder reed to see if it helps. If you want help breaking the habit, I walked through my double lip exercise here for my students who experience that biting issue:

https://youtu.be/PeRMN6TYnT4

[–] jg1i 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Huh. Interesting. Is there another way!?

my lip hurts because I am biting so hard. I can even see an indent where my teeth were.

This just seemed normal to me. My lip ends up sore for a day after playing a gig with lots of altissimo notes.

Thanks for the tips!

[–] Ctb267 1 points 3 days ago

When I am biting, I definitely get a bit sore after playing a lot of altissimo. However, it's possible to make not biting a habit too and to make it less of an ordeal. Doing some double lip work up there with a tuner helped me. I have a tendency to be too intense with my embouchure and I do better when I focus on the air instead.