A Descriptive Comparison of Oral Cavity Movements Between Brass Instrumentalists Performing Large Interval Slurs

We have previously described patterns of oral cavity movement in advanced French horn players during the performance of large interval slurs. The current study expands upon that work by reporting comparisons between horn, trumpet, and trombone players performing similar large interval exercises.

Real-time MRI (RT-MRI) films at 20 msec resolution were simultaneously obtained in the sagittal and coronal planes in 10 trumpet players, 9 horn players, and 10 trombone players as they performed 2 repetitions each of slur sequences spanning 1 octave and 1 octave + 3rd (interval of a tenth) at a mezzo forte dynamic level. Nine profile lines were overlaid on the sagittal images allowing the measurement of dorsal tongue edge movement using a customized MATLAB toolkit. Image J (FIJI) was utilized to measure the cross-sectional area formed between the dorsal edge of the tongue and the hard palate as depicted in coronal images.

In horn and trumpet players, but not in trombone players, sagittal and coronal views demonstrate patterned tongue movements that narrow and widen the air channel during ascending and descending slurs, respectively. The magnitude of these movements is greater during larger intervals, though not perfectly consistent within each slur sequence. The sagittal views revealed these patterns to be most prominent in the anterior oral cavity rather than the middle and posterior oral cavity across all instruments.

Conformational changes of the oral cavity (vocal-tract tuning) during large interval slurs in the upper register may assist performance in trumpet and horn players. Trombone players may also employ these strategies when the extreme upper register is involved, but future study must verify this.