I wanted to see if I was moving my jaw up and down while playing, so I looked around my office for something I could use to keep my teeth a distance apart. Greg said in a video that he used pen caps at first and then dental putty to keep his teeth apart. That wasn’t going to work for me, so what now? Dental putty isn’t something I have laying around, but maybe a piece from of one of my white erasers (Staedtler Mars Plastic — rectangular block style)?

I sliced a piece off the end of one and it works great. It doesn’t crumble and fall apart like the pink erasers do, has no taste and cuts easily with a straight edge razor blade. It’s comfortably soft on the teeth, but doesn’t mash flat. You can find them in the USA in many larger food markets, office supply stores, Target? They are sold world wide – made in Germany.

This is also the best type of eraser to get for cleaning pencil marks off of music charts — doesn’t damage the paper. Slice a bit off to go between your teeth and throw the rest of it in your trumpet case for your charts. If you already have one, well there you go. Cut a piece off and give it a try,

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