| Well my former teacher Mike Miller always stressed that you'll never get any better if you don't push yourself to the limit. The way I always interpret that is push yourself hard, as if running a race. If you are racing for a million dollars for example, you would run hard until you couldn't anymore, but you also wouldn't run yourself to death. I never play to the point that it hurts, unless it is a particularly stressful performance. In daily practice, I play until I am not exactly comfortable, but I never play if I am having to fight my lips to produce sound.
I hope that makes a little sense...
-Julian |