The Three F's For A Fabulous Trumpet Embouchure - 1080P 

This is exactly the explanation I could have used in high school and college. I found this answer about 12 years ago while searching for it on RU-vid. Changing my embouchure, taking time off to reset my muscle memory, coming back to the horn with a mirror and hours of long tones and scales, making sure my corners and chin stayed firm. I could barely get to a D in the staff before my chin would cave, pushing up. Working on strengthening them has done wonders, and I'm still moving forward, killing old habits. Loving the way I'm improving each day I touch the horn. It's amazing.

Tito, I am 77 years old and have just started to learn how to play the trumpet. My grandson started band this past year and chose the trumpet. I began playing so that he and I could play together. I am taking lessons, and am having fun. However, when I work on pieces that have notes starting with C and above, I look like I am trying to force myself to hit them, you can see the pressure in my veins when I try these. Thank you. Reg Adamski

Tito, all outstanding videos! Simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. I’ll bet you are a terrific professor!!

Hi Tito. As a trumpet player for68 years-forty of them as a 'pro' it was like a great refresher course watching your video. Thanks-Ian

Thank you Tito! You Always provide great information!

Great vid my friend!!…exactly everything I talk about with my Youngbloods!!…even down to the horn angle! Three F’s!! Keep it up!😎🎺🔥

Good morning Tito. Thank you for posting this video indicating the embouchure and a very nice refresher on how to keep the corners tight the airflow good and the entire group of the three F’s. In addition, it’s great that you gave Carmine Caruso some credit for this. Keep the great videos and the excellent concise, clear, teaching coming.

That intro to this is crucial !

Brilliant info...thanks so much 👍

Yeah I added in lip buzzing, mouthpiece buzzing, and leadpipe buzzing many years ago. I think it's really beneficial, but I have no illusion that it resembles real playing. And all of those combined is less than 5 minutes a day. I think it's just a good embouchure builder. It helps make tone production easier when you add the horn. Some people try to go psycho with it and spend like 30 minutes doing all that.

Many thanks for sharing this brilliant and informative presentation. Respect 🎺

Thank you for sharing your knowledge Tito, From Scotland.

Three FFF's - I have been using this for the past 32 years of my teaching. It makes sense to me and many of my students. In fact, this can also be used for most wind playing instruments. Students need to understand that you must first start with a firm foundation and make it one that can be strong. Once the foundation is set, it can be built upon, by adding the stories, floors or levels. Whatever the terminology you are comfortable teaching. I earned my MEd from VanderCook College of Music, Chicago, of course. So, it is very possible I heard this being reinforced, by many band directors. Love your RU-vid channel. You do a great job breaking down the concepts you are teaching. Thanks for your inspiration, education and encouraging words. Keep up the Great Work.

Nice job Tito for this elder comeback. Struggling with the usual range and endurance. Real PITA. Thx for the tips.

tremenda información Tito gracias and I subscribed ...so looking forward for more info 😉

Love the 3 F's!!!

Expert knowledge is one thing, but the ability to engage listeners is quite another. Tito obviously has the first. But he has both in equal measure. I could listen to him for hours, whatever the subject.

Thank you for sharing 👍

Thank you for posting this video. One Hallmark of a great teacher is to not only to possess valuable knowledge but to communicate to students in a way that they can incorporate your knowledge and benefit from your past experience. You demonstrate this beautifully. I relax my embouchure too much in the lower register and have difficulty ascending back into the middle and upper registers without resetting. Watching you describe your approach and then showing us your set-up by free buzzing has given me an example to visualize as I continue to work. I'm incorporating your concepts of maintaining a high setting and beginning scales and exercises in the mid-upper register then descending. Man, that's so brilliant! Sometimes the best concept is a simple concept; as trumpet players we already spend hours on exercises. I'm always happy for chances to engage my mind while playing, to do double-duty and really make the exercise work for me. Again, thanks so much for posting, I hope your channel continues to grow!

Thank you!!

easy to understand(good teacher)

Hey Tito. I’m really enjoying your videos! I’m a 60 year old retired band director looking to recapture some of what has been lost over the years from playing so many instruments daily in my classroom. I never heard of the term, “mouth environment “ for changing registers with tongue placement. Thanks for the inspiration as I try to get back in the game. Thanks!

In turning 76, last blew my horn in 9th grade, 1961. I have to start over. Lol. Watching youtubes to learn about proper embouchure before I try to play again. I don't recall our junior hs orchestra teacher explaining all this technique

Fantastic video Tito! Really helpful info! Especially when you explain that the lips are to actually come toward the teeth and not pucker out into the mouthpiece. I still battle that "pucker" syndrome and I firmly believe it was that "monkey" picture so many of us grew up, thinking that that is how you want your embouchure to be! I look forward to your future videos! Thanks again!

no habia entendido la embocadura hasta que vi este viedo y hoy ya pude tocar mis primeras notas de manera adecuada, sin hacer esfuerzos para sacar aire.

Tito_At age 72 and away from my horn for 18 years I just pulled it out of the closet and am looking your way for guidance to make music again. Thanks for the 3 F's. I look to build up slowly with faithful persistence.

Súper Niceeeee, thanks Máster Tito

Thanks interesting info

Amazing video, Tito! I resonate with everything you are saying and want to take a horn lesson with you now!!!

Great video! Nice to see J Mood among those great album covers.

Thanks Tito for sharing your knowledge ! I'm a beginner trumpet player who fall in love with this instrument and your tips help a lot 🙏.

cool

Un fuerte abrazo pa' ti Tito! I hope you're teaching in an institution somewhere so you can share this wisdom with many people as you are doing here.

Nice, first time I came across you. I’m 83 years old. I studied with Carmine and John Costello when I was 18 and I never became a high note player, always the jazz player. Also Art Farmer helped me out. I loved his playing. At 83 I’m still at, with long time dentures. Sometimes me sound just cuts off, I don’t think I use much pressure? Any suggestions. Thanks for the good information.

😊😊😊😊😊saludos masterr from Peruuu

What about the right mouthpiece? Is there a better one for the high registers combined with the other techniques youare teaching?

Tito, thank you so much for your help. This video already has me on a great track, but can you help me better understand the “flat chin” part of this? I’m not exactly sure how to interpret it… Thank you again! You’re a gift to the trumpet world!!

I'm surprised you haven't found more students needing both minor and major ebouchure changes. It's possible to play pretty well at a high school level with all manor of screwed up embouchures, using muscles in complete opposition to the "3 Fs" you describe. I certainly did! Changing to the flat chin, engaging the corners firmly but without pinching them in, and engaging the "sneer" muscles to raise the cheeks and emphasize the cheek folds in order to enable the lips to be thinned out and move in/back to the teeth is not a very natural intuitive thing for most humans. It was a very drastic and most difficult change for me. Am I really that rare?

Hi Tito I am 75 years of age and took up the trumpet 18 months ago. I am struggling with endurance especially at upper f and g on the staff. I have worked hard at strengthening my chops practicing for an hour a day, using lip buzzing, Arban, long notes as well as a pressure gauge attached to a mouthpiece. My teacher suggests that I am trying to go to fast and I am already past where I should be after 18 months. Do you have any advice for an old man who is determined to play well before he pops the planet.

Hey Tito, wrote to you before, Steve Goldberg. How do I get in touch for a private on line lesson?

I've been playing for many years, and have really started looking at lip formation. Personally, the very center of my upper lip sort of protrudes downward. I call it my lip tit. I have oven wondered if that extra amount of "meat' inside the mouthpiece is what has hampered me from attaining a solid upper register.. above High C. Eric Miyashiro appears to me to have a similar lip structure, but it doesn't hamper his range. Thanks for your post.

I'm in my freshman year of high school, so I've only been playing for around 3 and a half years. I noticed in the video you said that the only time you should change embouchure is when you don't have enough top lip, but it seems that I am having the complete opposite problem. As I start to get higher, my bottom lip rolls in, so I can only get to about a G on top of the staff. When I take the mouthpiece off, I notice that I have around 75% top lip and 25% bottom, which I know is a really big problem. I've been trying some things out, like the charlie porter method, but the same issue keeps occurring. I was wondering if you had any tips for ways to fix this?

Aupa Tito! Porque no das clases en castellano

I find it hard to start buzzing a G. Is doing a C ok and working up?

I just discovered this video on RU-vid, been playing since 2020. I practice almost everyday but I don't like my sound. Sounds flat and the embouchure is not balanced from low cloudy low register notes to high sharper notes(high D, high D#, E) I guess my aperture is not precise. When I buzz a G, I get air coming out of many places. Thanks for the video looking forward to more

Thanks for the tips! I recently changed my embrochure. I was playing of-centre to the right. I'm now more centre to get a better seal of the aperture and I getting a little challenge when I descend to the lower register but I'm back to to top of my range and fairly çomfortable at C, two spaces above the stave.myembrochure

Are you a dizzy gillespie sun? hahaha

I like 3Fs and I'd add 4s F...Fu#k lip bussing...I think lip bussing is a good only for worm up...If you can whistle from low to hi sound using lip muscles using right Embouchure, right mouthpiece, strong air breathing into mouthpiece hole like playing flute and brain you can play the trumpet...Make sure do not use too much pressure on your lips...use muscles and air pressure...If your lips turns blue you are in big trouble...you are stopping the blood supply to your lips...stop to play immediately...Good luck!!!

Firm corners, flat Chin, fast air...

Two F's are o.k but imO a flat chin isn't a must!

4th F could be foward lips! Goes along with flat chin