Here you can find some hints recommended for brass players resulting from questions I got from the net. Have fun!
 

Swollen lips, heavy arm pressure, range, sound, endurance problems

Some musicians reported (in some cases a sudden) loss of condition and range, sound quality, and endurance. Symptoms came along with swollen lips. There were no hints for injuries of lip tissue or other accidents. In most cases it were trumpet players suffering from these findings, using too much arm force/ pressure and ( lip muscle and /or overall ) tension while trying to compensate lack of air support.

Using too large a mouthpiece

If the mouthpiece is too small, you´ll find out the disadvantages easily and very soon: Narrow sound, lower range suffers, improper grip, hard backpressure and so on.
The large mouthpiece is a different beast and included disadvantages can be subtile: While it offers a big sound in the first run, some players (esp. the Angle Class 2 type ones) may tend to compensate for poor air support this way. But:
IMHO, it´s difficult to get a reliable centered tone, there may occur intonation issues, let alone endurance. The range seems not to be affected, but the brilliance of the high register will suffer. The sound in general will be touched since poor air support on the large piece results in an edgy sound in ff. I second Dr. Karl Sievers, who prefers mpcs around 3C size for general purposes.
My mouthpiece safari ended up with a 3C, which gives me a fine, easy to handle range, nice flexibility, even, full-bodied sound throughout all registers, good endurance. F´´´ and G´´´ is secure. You ask, if this plain 3C isn´t actually a mpc I started off with? Answer: Yes and no. I never could manage playing on unless my posture / air support was corrected.

Trumpet

Keeping the straight posture, I like the cornet better than the trumpets with forward positioned valves ("balanced"). These horns make my shoulders coming forward too much, haha, short arms, well, sort of, for trumpet purposes. The King Silver Flair´(´70s) is fine also, but the Martin HC Imperial with its frontal positioned valve block requires more efforts to hold it, but it´s all about getting used to.

Prevention # 1

To kick out a front tooth there are different funny but very easy methods available: sports, trouble, cars, bikes etc. You should know,that there are possibilities of replanting teeth into its place. But the dentist needs the tooth, and he needs it in good condition. Now, if you have a little box about, called *Dental Safe* ,pick up the tooth, clean it by licking it off and put it into the box then.Hurry for dental treatment. If you do not have the box, put the tooth into your mouth and place it under your tongue.Do not replace the tooth by youself after it had been out of your mouth and has become dirty.You can push it back into the bone if it is loosened only and just is dislocated a little.A splint has to be applied after for fixing.

Prevention # 2

When you see your dentist ( at least twice a year ) have him make impressions of upper and lower teeth once a yaer. If you should have an accident with front teeth involved, you have a detailed situation of the time before the desaster happend. It sure will make the reconstruction much easier for both the dentist and the musician. You should collect these plaster models by yourself, in case you change the dentist!
 
 

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