No 1 son hasn't played his trumpet all week because of a cracked lip. He's just tried again and is clearly in quite a bit of discomfort. Any clues as to what to do other than wait and see?

(btw whatever happened to brassforums.co.uk?)

THIS FORUM IS NOT DEAD - it's just there aren't many sustainable topics

I get a cracked lip after visiting the dentist. I make sure I use plenty of lip balm, way before perhaps an hour before and let it soak into my lips. Also, I make sure I drink plenty of water to help my lips stay lush to avoid these annoyances. Does he lick his lips. I always do to put back some moisture on the lips. I can't play with cracked or dry lips.

If it persists, your medical adviser can prescribe a cream that will reduce the discomfort, but recovery will depend mostly on the body's own resources. I had severely swollen lips last January that were bad enough for me to ask for this. The cream made the lips feel better, but did nothing to improve my playing. I regained my lost top octave over the next six weeks of gentle practice of the register I still had and now have slightly better range than I had last December.

Particularly during the winter months, I have lips balm sticks everywhere. In the car, coats, case etc. They are in constant use to avoid dry and chapped/cracked lips.

With regard to your son, I should think it best to wait for them to heal completely then buy a load of balm sticks!

Me too - should pass this advice on, you're right!!! He played for 10 minutes yesterday, as it had healed, but the stamina is now gone again...

Flute not brass, but I use Blistex/Blisteze (the name changed from one to the other and I can never remember which way it changed). It is more expensive than lip balm, but soaks in and is much more effective. You can also play pretty uchy straight after you put it on, which you obviously can't do with lip balm because the lip balm is too greasy/slippy.

Thanks all!

for the record, the fab Nuxe stuff is called Reve de miel... I used to have the coloured version. Think DS might object to that though!

Another brass question - trumpets, to bath or not to bath?

Sorry, I got the name wrong earlier. I should have gone up to my daughter's bedroom and checked but it is very good. My daughter's is honey-coloured in the pot but colourless when it's on the lips.


We bath the trombone slide from time to time but have no idea about trumpets.

We do, though cautiously and not too frequently. At first we didn't, and then one day I took off the tuning slide and peeked through the lead pipe Large accumulation of grot, which needed quite a bit of brushing out; and it played rather better afterwards. We use just warm water and a small amount of very mild washing-up liquid (Ecover), and don't immerse the valve pistons.

It would never have occurred to me to ask if it hadn't been for the night that all of a sudden the 1st trumpet in the orchestra I played in sounded 10 times better - train strikes meant he finally had time to give the trumpet a bath instead of going to work!

Yes, we have bathed the trumpet, although treat the valves with greatest respect. Sonny Jim's teacher recommended lemon juice to clean out the crud, but we've never been brave enough, so it's usually a solution of washing up liquid.