Open your Mouth

“Music to me is like breathing—I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.”- Ray Charles

At the end of last semester, I had an “ah ha” moment during the final lessons with a couple of my students. You never know when you are going to have one of these moments and I want to share it with you and get your thoughts.

Have you ever sat in an audience in a recital and started to feel uncomfortable about the performance on stage? Other than the occasional memory slip or stick drop, I think we have all experienced this moment (some more than others). We all know, Tension is always a bad thing! It is bad for our bodies and makes any performance less musical. There are a lot of factors that go into a stiff performance (poor preparation, lack of rehearsal time, new room, etc). But, as I watch these tense moments begin to happen, I always notice that the performers mouth is closed. This was also true as I watched my students play through their pieces for juries. At that moment, I ask one of them to try something: “just open your mouth and play through that phrase again.” It was like a different player had walked into the room, picked up the mallets and played the same passage without tension. That got me thinking, do we tend to close our mouth when we play and does this lead to tension? Time for some research!

First stop: YouTube. Sure enough, my hypothesis held up. Of course, YouTube is a collection of all kinds of players, but it may not be the best place to test this out. Then, I tried it with some more of my students. About 85-90% of them sounded like a different player when they just opened their mouth. I am not talking about opening your mouth like you are yelling, just put a little space between your lips.

As I thought about this more, I began to hypothesize that when you open your mouth you release the tension from your upper body. Try clenching your face with your mouth closed. You can feel the tension in your upper body and arms. Now, try to clench your face with your mouth open. It feels odd and it is difficult to do. (Side Note: While taking a Lamaze class with my wife before our son was born, we learned that when it is time to push during labor, a woman should keep her mouth open in order to relax. Coincidence?)

Breathing is fundamentally an involuntary action. Wind players and singers are more conscious of their breathing and even work out when to breathe depending on the musical line or pace of the music. Percussionists don’t usually “plan” their breathing (this is a topic for another day) and as a result, generally play with their mouth closed.

OK, now is where I need help from you. I would love to hear your thoughts on this hypothesis. Try it out during your next practice session and let me know if it works for you. Leave your thoughts and comments in the comments. It may not work for everyone, but I do believe that a lot of tension can be eliminated if you just “open your mouth.”

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Originally posted on DrumChattr.com on January 31,2011.

The photo in this post is used under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs 2.0 Generic by Davi Sommerfeld on Flickr.com.