| Lazorphase,
Well, what exercises are you doing in your practice session? Are you warming up and going slow for a good ten minutes? If not, you're chops are really going to suffer. Are you doing lip slurs and quite a bit of interval work? That's what's needed for high notes. Are you doing long tones and working on getting the pitch centered and the tone as nice as you can? Have you sat in a dark room, played just one note at a time and REALLY listened/worked at the sound until it was right? You need to be doing these types of things or you'll never sound good. You also need to know that it's tough working through really tough exercises. Sometimes I get frustrated too, but then I look back over what I've mastered over the last few months and remember how frustrating that looked at the time.
And, if the exercises you are using are good and you are really practicing but still having problems---could it be the horn? The other day I was having a terrible time with my horn. The high register just wasn't there and I was missing slots all over the place. I finally gave up in frustration, went and did something else for a while. I came back and just sat for a while glaring at the horn. Then, I noticed that the third valve slide (the little one) had slid back a ways and wasn't tight. I pushed the slide back on and the problems went away! So, check your horn if this is a recent problem.
Good Luck and don't ever give up....................
Bill
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Gabriel is NOT a woodwind player! |