Singing, Breathing and Braces
Monday, September 19, 2022 by Billy Roberts | Singing
When I was in my 20’s, I had a slight overlap between my two front teeth that led me to wear braces for two and a half years. Since much of my horn playing was going well, I felt that this slight adjustment might make my embouchure even better. If I had fully understood the relationship between overall posture, the angle of the leadpipe, and the various ways that the right hand can be used to support the horn, I might have been comfortable enough with my technique that I would not have taken such a dramatic step to improve my embouchure. However, I learned a lot through this experience and am grateful for every challenge that I’ve gone through as a horn player and as a singer. Having said all that, horn playing is more comfortable for me now than it was before braces. I no longer have the edge of my tooth cutting into my upper lip when I hit the high notes.
I knew that learning a new embouchure for horn might be difficult, but the orthodontic experience also presented two challenges for singing that I was not expecting. First off, I needed a little bit of palatal expansion to correct my crossbite. I actually had never noticed this until I met with the orthodontists. My teeth all lined up well, and I had no issues chewing, but the wrong surfaces were making contact. As my teeth moved into a normal bite, chewing definitely felt different. I also experienced some lisping, which is common when people first get braces. However, these were not major issues and, of course, had no effect on my singing voice.
The two issues with braces that really affected my singing came at the beginning of orthodontic treatment, when I wore a palatal expander for a few months, and near the end, when I wore elastics continuously. The only times that I took the rubber bands off were to eat or play the horn. The palatal expander had caused excessive drooling and made it more difficult for me to use my tongue, but it had no major effect on my voice. The bands, on the other hand, caused several problems that I did not fully understand at the time.
Remove the rubber bands for singing. I can’t say this enough. I wanted to get my braces off as soon as possible, so I only removed the bands when I was eating or playing the horn. However, if I had just worn the rubber bands most of the day, they would have still done their job. Wearing the bands while singing led me to develop a very unnatural vocal technique that made it difficult in subsequent years for me to figure out how to place the voice, understand what a natural jaw position feels like, or breathe naturally when singing or playing the horn. Even if going without the rubber bands for several hours a day had slowed my progress, the patience would have been worth it. Orthodontics is a gradual process, not a race.
Breathing naturally through the nose and the mouth is important for both horn playing and singing. Breathing only through the nose can be just as problematic in singing as it is in horn playing. With a brass instrument, you learn early on to take air in quickly through the corners of the mouth without dropping the jaw too much. As the embouchure develops and your lip muscles are able to keep the corners of your mouth firm but not rigid, this quick breath becomes second nature. Although the air comes in through the mouth and not the nose, the jaw position needs to be such that you could just as easily breathe through your nose if you were to put the horn down and relax. Singing is similar. Your jaw should be able to open naturally, but never in an exaggerated manner.
I remember one particular lesson in college where my horn professor had me breathe in slowly through the nose and then play the horn. This exercise helped me understand the natural jaw position for playing the horn. Incidentally, this also helped me see my need for sinus care, which eventually led to ENT appointments and nasal surgery. I was not able to truly feel comfortable with singing or the horn until those issues were taken care of. Ultimately, the whole journey of finding my voice, both through the horn and through singing, was a process that took me beyond music to better health and greater confidence as the roadblocks to better performance came down one by one.
