Roy Stevens Tribute Site
Welcome to this tribute site honoring Roy Stevens—renowned trumpeter, teacher, and co-developer of the Stevens-Costello Scientific Embouchure Method. Here you can explore his life, legacy, and the pioneering approach to brass playing that influenced generations of musicians around the world.
About Roy Stevens
In a cramped Manhattan studio in the 1970s, trumpet players would gather, horns in hand, waiting their turn with Roy Stevens. Lessons weren’t private affairs—they were open sessions, part masterclass, part workshop, where no one could hide. Students sat shoulder to shoulder, listening as Stevens dissected embouchures, explained muscular coordination, and demonstrated how to build a setting that wouldn’t collapse under pressure.
It wasn’t the place for the timid. But for those willing to learn, it was transformative.
In October 2008, decades after those studio sessions, a tribute website was launched to preserve the legacy of this remarkable teacher. Its purpose was simple: to share who Roy Stevens really was—as both a musician and a man—and to provide reliable information in a landscape where too much of what’s said about him today is secondhand or inaccurate.
In 2012, four years after the site went live, Bill Moriarity—the original editor of Roy Stevens’ Embouchure Self-Analysis: The Stevens-Costello Embouchure Technique — was brought in to help republish the book, making it more affordable and widely available. Although Moriarity initially planned to revise the text, a thorough review convinced him that Stevens’ writing was already clear, concise, and technically precise.
Enjoy,
David Hay, 2025
Audio
Roy Stevens recorded a six-tape audio series of Embouchure Self-Analysis, designed as a companion to the second edition of his book, with page references provided for deeper study. Book is available on Amazon.com
Roy explaining the proper embouchure settiing. Discusses the pencil exercise and playing statics on the palm, pp 39 – 40. Refer to Roy Roman’s demonstration at the Video menu.
Roy changing the volume with embouchure aperture and air compression (muscular force). Playing full middle and low tones, using the same embouchure setting for the double high C
Roy discusses use of mouthpiece pressure relative to the air column with the correct embouchure setting. Here Roy clarifies the biggest misnomer of the Stevens-Costello system and demonstrates that it is clearly not a non-pressure system.
Video
Roy Roman demonstrates the basic concepts of the Stevens-Costello method. To use as a practice study guide, page references from the 2nd edition of Embouchure Self-Analysis have been provided next to the videos, which is available from Amazon.com
Equipment
Roy played a few trumpets during his career. Early in his career he played an Olds Super model trumpet. In the 40’s through the part of the 60’s Roy played and endorsed the Selmer (Paris) K Modifed model. There are some Selmer ads with him in the Writings section of this site. After Selmer, for a short time Roy endorsed a Calicchio model that was a ML bore with a 1S bell and 3 leadpipe and the Holton ST-100 which was later known as the Dave Stahl model. After these endorsements and until his death, he played a Paris made French Besson Brevete (pics below). He also owned a Meha which he seldom used. Roy used the Brevete on all of the demo audio recordings on this site. He felt the silver plated Brevete projected well yet maintained its warmth and character.
Trumpet
Mouthpiece
Remembrances
Bill Moriarity
Paul Bogosian
