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Do You Use a Lip Guard?

  • Yes

    Votes: 44 34.4%
  • No

    Votes: 63 49.2%
  • Sometimes

    Votes: 21 16.4%

"Lip Guards"

28K views 58 replies 46 participants last post by  Achristocrat 
#1 ·
Me and a lot of my other Saxophone buddies use these things I dub "Lip Guards." Which is basically medical tape that covers your bottom teeth so your bottom lip is a bit more protected from being too worn out too quickly. I've seen some people use wax or special paper.

I'm curious to see what other peoples experiences are with these. I find that using it makes me bite a little harder than without it, and even when I do use it my lip gets worn out eventually. It almost seems like it's not worth it to use a lip guard. Does anybody use any other material perhaps? I've almost never seen a jazz player use one of these things, it seems like a classical kind of thing.

-AP
 
#34 ·
Since your mouth will be slightly more open, it will make your sound a little darker/more open or whatever affect opening your mouth will have on the sound. That's exactly what I want anyway. A tooth guard for your top teeth does the same thing.

SteveP and Drake, you can make those yourselves without the help of a dentist. It's easy to do. Instead of placing the heated and stretched football guard on a plaster mold of your teeth you just place it directly on your teeth. Form fitted everytime.
 
#38 ·
Instead of placing the heated and stretched football guard on a plaster mold of your teeth you just place it directly on your teeth. Form fitted everytime.
I did that for some time, until I tired of placing boiling hot bits of plastic in my mouth repeatedly!
 
#35 ·
Ciggie paper, but it often disintegrates and I end up practicing, unaware, without anything covering my teeth. I tend to not use anything during performances, though. I've had paper (and EZO) shoot out of my mouth or fly back into my throat, almost choking me while making air noises.
 
#36 ·
I use floral paper found at any arts and crafts store. I fold it against itself (a piece about an inch long) about 8-10 times, tear the piece off from the roll, then fold it over my bottom teeth.

The rolls themselves last a while, and the pieces that you make can be reused as necessary. I like to store it in my hygrocase. No problems so far.
 
#37 ·
I don't ever feel the need to use anything, although my lips are pretty big and cushy, so I guess I have enough padding in there to eliminate any discomfort. I'd have to be biting down really hard to feel like I was biting my lip.

My teacher uses a Band-Aid folded with the adhesive sticking to the pad inside.
 
#41 ·
I have used EZO in the past, but I also have a thin plastic tooth guard that was made by my dentist. I use it particularly when playing a lot of altissimo, but I usually don't need it until I've been playing 6 hours or so.
 
#44 ·
I had a major problem with this when in high school, Playing A LOT and having a poor 'pinching' embouchure, caused me to rip the crap out of my bottom lip which caused all kinds of nasty ulcers and stuff on the lip.

The idea which what my classical saxophone teacher gave me at the time, was to learn the proper embouchure, support should not come from the lip resting on the teeth but from the lip, the face muscles should come around the mpc, like a noose equally from all sides, (I think of an elastic band). my problems cleared up fast. But for her someone who played countless hours in a day, she used pieces of paper, (or so I noted).

I'm currently fighting to get my classical saxophone embrochure back I find I can alter my mouth so many different ways when I play its hard to stay constant. .

the short of it: Try dropping your jaw when you play but holding the saxophone up with your lip, like you were frowning. I find this tends to alter your tuning, but equally, once you get it all worked out, and a constant tone using your lip as a rest not your teeth, then well you just tune with a tuner and away you go.
 
#46 ·
I just stumbled onto this thread...interesting to see so many accomplished players on here actually using lip guards or whatever you call them...I remember back in the mid 90's when I was working at Interlochen one summer, EVERYONE was practicing like 7-10 hours each day so people all had those lip guards and I used them for a couple years in college too...I kept mine ezo mold for about 1 week and then made a new one...i kept it inside my bay ligature case...the small square ones...but when I started studying with Kelland Thomas he told me the "michigan players NEVER need to use those things man...we play with super cushioned embouchures :) " I never forgot that because all the northwestern cats were blowin with those things and my teacher was a northwestern grad as well...but anyhoo...i'm surprised because there are some really cushioned embouchures on here but they still need those...just goes to show that each persons teeth and embouchure is different...

BTW--At the Shibuya yamaha store the other day and the Yamaha corp actually MAKES lip cushions now just for woodwind players...it's the same small packaging that the mouthpiece patches come in...Look into it!

Cheers....

Nitro
 
#48 ·
but when I started studying with Kelland Thomas he told me the "michigan players NEVER need to use those things man...we play with super cushioned embouchures :) " Nitro
ROFL

I came to this thread and was so confused because I never heard of anyone using a lip guard... and now I know... I've ony been around sax players from michigan.

LOL we don't need the lip guards :D
 
#47 ·
I hadn't heard about Yamaha making them. Somthing new to check out!! People here have also had some success with sports mouthguards, but it takes a lot of time to make them. I think EZO's are the best unless you leave them in your car during the Texas summer. I've made that mistake a bunch of times. They melt into an ezo brick
 
#55 ·
I am still on the Copydex guards I make by dripping it over a model of my bottom front railings ......front left as you look at me is missing completely cept for a stump ..but you can still play if you are dedicated enough ...think of Trane ,Getz all of ,em
PB
 
#58 ·
Wow... didn't think so many people would need lip guards...
Until about a year and a half ago, my lip would start hurting after about 45 minutes of practice; but then, I played on average 15 minutes per day, had a 'biting' embouchure, and completely rolled back my lower lip over my teeth. Quite often, the muscles supporting my jaw would also get too painful to play!
Practicing over an hour per day and working on my embouchure helped a lot. My lip almost isn't pulled back at all anymore, and really supports the reed by itself now, though still with quite a bit of pressure.

By the way, developing a double-lip embouchure might be a nice way of getting past the 'biting' part of the problem: if you bite, your upper lip immediately hurts :D
 
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