| Play a church gig - where there is usually NO pitch center - between the organ, the choir and the orchestra - and it will kill your chops in ten minutes.
Play duets with someone else with good ears where you get resultant tones throughout, and you can play for hours. (or even doing the drone exercise someone brought up in another thread. Stick a pencil in the keyboard of an organ or keyboard that sustains and play intervals against it.) There were times in school when I was having a crappy chop day and would then play a pick-up duet session with one of my colleagues. By the end of duets, my chops would feel fantastic, not tired. Playing in physical harmony with all those sound waves bouncing around (in your horn as well as outside) makes a world of difference. Your sound fills with overtones and carries. Blowing your brains out without being in "harmony" with comfy soundwaves to bounce off of just causes fatigue. |