Sore lip playing saxophone

Hey, so I've been playing sax a couple of years now and am around grade 7/8 standard but as I've been playing more and more recently my bottom lip has become really dry and keeps bleeding when I play. I think it's partly due to the cold but if I don't play for a day or so it starts to heal a bit, and then BAM the next time I play the scab comes off and we start again.

My question applies to reed instrument players really- how do I get around this? It feels like I'm in a bit of a vicious circle with it, but I have a couple of concerts coming up next week and really need to play well in them, which would be greatly helped if I'm not bleeding all over my reed!

Anyone got any ideas how to deal with this, either to help it heal quickly now or to stop it happening again once it has fully healed? Thanks!


Posted from TSR Mobile

Don't clamp down on the mouthpiece too much. Because this is easier said than done, when preparing for grade 8 I made sure that my practice sessions were as constructive as possible in order that I wasn't playing for a long period of time.

There might be a technique you can use to reduce the stress on your mouth but I'm not directly aware of one.

I used to get a bit sore but it would never turn into a scab. If you can afford a few days rest and then go onto playing in smaller bouts, I recommend this.

Hey Thanks, I'd completely forgotten about this! It's getting a bit better now, I've actually started to come to the conclusion it may not be the sax playing causing it as I've noticed myself a couple of times recently biting my lip when I'm stressed and it didn't help any when I didn't play for a week or so (for a different reason). Obviously the sax playing doesn't help though!

Those tips are really useful though, I've started practicing scales and pieces in a couple of different sessions across an evening when I can as this makes things a lot easier (I'm badly asthmatic), and it works as a bit of a break from revision as well


Posted from TSR Mobile

Nice one I also found that sitting down to play helps me due to health reasons. I've supplied a doctors note for any exams I've done to clarify this.

try putting a cigarette rolling paper over your bottom lip. This is a well known prevention for sore lips

I'd heard of this for drying out the pads under keys (more flute than sax) but not for protecting lips, thanks! Loving the username by the way, I'd love to play tenor


Posted from TSR Mobile

no problem thank you! it's a reference to a Sonny Rollins song. I used to play alto but I find it a bit too small and squeaky for my liking. Tenor is just perfect .

P.S. The way I use the cigarette paper is by folding it and putting it over my bottom teeth (the paper sits between the teeth and the lower lip)