Pedal C

It sounds like you've already started playing again, but if it's only been a day or two and you feel really messed up, you might want to just take a week or so completely off and let your face get used to how it feel not to have all that metal in your mouth.

Do you have a teacher? Now is a good time to check in with a good teacher to make sure your starting out with the mouthpiece in a suitable spot. When your lips and mouth are still feeling weird, sometime you can end up with the mpc really high or low or something without realizing it. I know I did...

You can use your time off to practice breathing excercizes, ear training and such. It's a great time to do some listening, breathing in time along with your favorite recordings.

Once you get embouchure happening consistantly, your practice can begin to return to normal, but don't get in a hurry to "get it back." You don't want to start doing weird things, adding tension, pushing to hard, etc, just to try to get your upper register back. If you're playing in the mid register with good fundamentals, the upper will follow in time.

Some people have no trouble at all after the braces come off...but for every one of those, there's someone else who has a harder time and need to come back a little more slowly. Right now you may not get the results you want, but if you keep going at it with good habits, the results will be there pretty soon. Don't sacrifice good habits for an extra third of range with a screwy embouchure!

Good Luck!

One more thing...Spend a few minutes at the begining of your practice sessions playing easy tunes (stepwise...not big leaps) on the mouthpiece. It's a good way to breathe and play in time, with your new excellent embouchure, without having to worry about how it sounds.

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"The oboe's A is to make sure we still play it 1 and 2" - Bud Herseth

"One way or another, every patient stops bleeding." - Scrubs