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Re: Double Lipping vs Single Lipping Pros & Cons?

Author: nellsonic
Date: 2023-03-22 10:33

I start most of my beginning students with double lip. I play mostly single lip but am comfortable playing double for extended periods as long as I haven't neglected it. I'd like to have equal endurance with both and am getting closer.

There will be some mild discomfort when playing double if you are unaccustomed to it, but there should be no pain. Pain likely means you are biting (curing biting is often a motivation to experiment with double lip) or trying to play on a set-up that is too resistant to be appropriate for double lip playing. You will also bruise your top lip pretty easily from overuse until you've built up some endurance over the course of some weeks or months. Once your top lip is tired you will start to bite to maintain sound, just as one does with the lower lip when it is tired. Instead of giving up for the day, one can just switch back to single lip and carry on.

By the way, it is still possible to bite with double lip once the top lip is conditioned - it just seems to happen to a lesser degree.

Starting with just a few seconds of low notes and building slowly from there is what most people seem to need to acclimate. Almost all of my students can comfortably play their full range double lip and use double lip regularly during warm-ups. Many play double lip full time, including in marching band.

In my own playing I sometime value stability most (single lip) and other times want more shades of tonal color available, for which I find double lip very helpful.

Anders

Post Edited (2023-03-22 10:36)

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