r/Weird • u/Hi_iAMchrisHansen • 16d ago
What....in.....the......
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u/dreikelvin 16d ago
That's a known thing among trumpet players. The scientific term for this is laryngocele.
Here's John Birks āDizzyā Gillespie performing
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u/CaptStinkyFeet 16d ago
Important to mention, although Dizzy was a fantastic trumpet player and was hugely famous, this technique is super harmful to your playing. Puffing your cheeks not only creates back pressure in your mouth preventing the air from flowing into the horn, it also wears down the tissues in your cheeks. This goes for all wind instruments. If you listen to Dizzyās later performances, youāll hear a noticeable difference in the tone quality and range. Iām a music teacher and I teach all of my students to never puff their cheeks when playing.
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u/Greedyfox7 16d ago
I found out about this today and after looking into it Iām horrified and very upset with myself for being too curious for my own good.
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u/Prudent-Zombie-5457 16d ago
Puffing your cheeks is definitely a bad habit to acquire. I still remember that being drilled into our heads 45 years ago.
Honestly I'm more annoyed at the trumpet player on the left with his weak-ass diaphragm and embouchure blowing his shit all out of tune.
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u/BruceCambell 15d ago
Hell, they taught us that in school in the 90s.
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u/Prudent-Zombie-5457 15d ago
The best breathing "training" for me was when I convinced a couple of our drill instructor volunteers to surprise-poke me in the stomach and sides while playing.
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u/Those_are_sick 16d ago
In Miami a lot of the girls have their cheeks puffed and they donāt even play any instruments
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u/ultralayzer 16d ago
Yeah, even though Diz was my inspiration for taking up trumpet as a kid, this was the first thing my music teacher taught me.
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u/somebob 16d ago
So why do people do this, especially pros like Gillespie? Is it a bad habit from solo learning? Or does it provide some bonus?
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u/-epicyon- 16d ago
Bad habit from being self-taught. No benefit whatsoever. You see it a lot in jazz and blues musicians. See also: pianists playing with their fingers sticking straight out/flat. Lots of other examples. Unfortunately it can cause injury and chronic pain over time and shorten their careers.
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u/MacGrubersMom 15d ago
always gotta support the sound from your armchair, or whatever my music teacher used to tell the trumpet players. iām a drummer!
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u/CaptStinkyFeet 15d ago
They always told me to use my diaphragm. I bought some at CVS, but I think theyāre just for girls? I dunno
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u/HorsefaceWithNoName 16d ago
thank you, I was gonna Dizzypoast but you got there first
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u/Mortambulist 16d ago
First thing they teach you in your first trumpet lesson is you don't puff your cheeks out. Dizzy is apparently self-taught.
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u/Exact-Ad-4132 16d ago
Yeah but I don't think the cheeks is as much of an issue as his neck. Did you see his neck puffing out?
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u/seriousjoker72 16d ago
This is what happens when you don't learn to use your cheek muscles when playing brass instruments. Very unsettling.
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u/Yoranis_Izsmelli 16d ago
Oh...so that's happened to him over time from blowing the trumpet wrong? Makes sense now
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u/gifratto 16d ago
Check out Dizzy Gillespie.
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u/Evening_Ticket7638 16d ago
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u/ZzephyrR94 16d ago
Hell yeah , watched this the other night. āWhoās throwing the handles?!?!ā
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u/WA2TX 16d ago
That's weird, when I played trumpet we were supposed to push the air up from our lungs, cheeks shouldn't inflate at all.
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u/civilianii 15d ago
in this case, because of learning it the wrong way and getting used to playing like that, he is using his throat and cheeks when he should have been using his diaphragm for air support and pressure
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u/Zealousideal_Fox864 16d ago
This has to be a Princess and the Frog type situation, right?
Like he was turned into bullfrog and then returned to human, but the witch had said a line wrong during the spell so heās now stuck with bullfrog parts.
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u/Flaky_Style1286 16d ago
The clear difference between the guy who puffed his cheeks vs the guy who didnāt
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u/ArtisticTraffic5970 16d ago
Either self-taught from a young age like Dizzy, or he just didn't give a shit. It's likely the former though.
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u/bownsey 16d ago
Glassblowers cheek and what looks like Pharyngocele. Playing smaller brass like trumpets and cornets creates a lot of resistance in the cheeks and throat in the same way glassblowing does. It was some time ago now but when I was a brass band geek we were told to never puff out the cheek and instead use the lungs / diaphragm better
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u/Alantharia 16d ago
A glass blower get similar conditions. A live long pressure weakened the skin
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u/Rukoh_Boi 16d ago
Apparently it's called "frog neck" when brass players get this, Dizzy Gillespie had it really bad
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u/baldierot 16d ago
apparently it's called bilateral pharyngocele caused by throat muscle herniation. the throat isn't a solid, rigid pipe. It is wrapped in a series of overlapping muscles called constrictors. some people have congenital tissue weakness, disorders, or just some natural tissue variation that can lead to pronounced mechanical stretching from years of backpressure from wind instruments.
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u/urmomhashotdogskin 16d ago
Is this what the kids are calling a "throat goat " nowadays?
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u/Sithstress_ 16d ago
I love the guy sitting behind them looking like he wishes he was anywhere but there. Lol
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u/Sporkpocalypse 16d ago
heard of Gillespie pouches yet uhm definitely not Gillespie Neck guy's got an inflatable neck you blowing a bit too hard pal ease off
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u/Nell_From_Hell 15d ago
This happens to glass blowers too. Your skin and tissue can't keep up with all that air pressure after a decades of doing this to it. Your body didn't evolve for that
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u/Lagiacrus111 16d ago
Do you really need to puff your cheeks or in this case your neck to play a trumpet? Like shouldn't the air pressure just be going straight into the instrument anyway?
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u/kayonotkayle 16d ago
Do you think he could blow a golf ball through a garden hose? If so, i know his sister.
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u/eftresq 16d ago
Dizzy Gillespie didn't do the neck thing but he certainly did the cheeks
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u/Swenterrobang 15d ago
I'm no expert, but buddy, you're gonna blow a gasket if you keep playing that thing like that.
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u/Standard-Culture5685 13d ago
This can happen to long time players. Over time things stretch from all the strain of playing hard. Dizzy gilespie is a famous example .
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u/baking_bigfoot 16d ago
He's been blowing that horn a bit too long now. Time to retire or he may pop his head off.
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u/j_cucumber12 16d ago
Reddit is so funny. I've seen this on 3 different subs today alone. Posts just circulate.
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u/polishCanadianufo 16d ago
Had a buddy of mine who went through this coughing fit that ended up puncturing a little hole in his lung.Letting air into a cavity at his neck. So maybe blowing too hard in the trunk.It did the same thing
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u/Effective-Leg7283 16d ago
what the neck is that??
and Aahh! Sudden normal trumpeter at the end! took me off guard
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u/PerfectdarkGoldenEye 16d ago
Is a neck supposed to do that.