cleflyer

Hello - I'm an older player that came back from having some time off. I've taken a couple of auditions one blind the other not and have found that I'm getting more nervous than when I did this back in the good old days.

They are also manifesting themselves as dry mouth which I've NEVER gotten before. How does one combat dry mouth?

tpter1

Dry mouth can be dealt with by either chewing lightly on the inside of the cheeks, chewing the tongue or by having a bottle of water handy.

Tooter Tutor

Here are some things to think about regarding dry mouth at your recent auditions:

Were you taking any medications that you hadn't taken before? It could have been related to the medications that inhibit the secretion of saliva.

Dry mouth can also be part of the normal aging process and so your salivary glands may just be secreting less saliva than when you auditioned at a younger age.

Were you properly hydrated going into the audition or were you dehydrated? We secrete between roughly three-fourths to one liter of saliva a day. Considering that it is 98% water, it makes sense to stay hydrated just to help the body replenish what we secrete in saliva.

Here's where my advice may be counter-intuitive, and may stimulate more discussion among trumpet players. I don't recommend drinking water for trumpet players to cure dry mouth in performance situations. Here's some reasons.

1. The mouth is amazingly self-regulating and saliva plays the big role in that regulation. Even though it is mostly water, saliva also contains many enzymes, mucus and electolytes. Every time we drink we disturb the oral environment by washing all of that away and the salivary glands have to start from scratch, so to speak, in order to re-create the the proper balance of pH and mucus lining on the tissues. We're not doing it any favors particularly in the scant minutes just prior to beginning an audition.

2. Many times the water is cold, or at best, room temperature, which is still many degress less than the temperature inside of the mouth. That introduces yet another variable that the body has to deal with in order to return to its, "normal" condition. Again, I think that is asking too much of the body just before a performance or an audition!

3. Drinking water within one half hour is not really contributing to the overall state of hydration so my thought is that musicians- particularly vocalists- do it more for psychological reasons than anything.

My recommendation is to either to substitute the saliva with something that will line the walls of the mouth, or stimulate the salivary glands. If you anticipate this may crop up again, try small sips of something with citrus. Chewing or the action of chewing will also stimulate the glands.

Additionally, you can work on the associative nervousness at another time which may help alleviate this condition.

Wow, much longer than I thought, hope this helps.

Greggie

masterfulmusic29

My Ultimate Dry mouth cure is Chewing Gum. It works every time and I just slip it into a tissue before I go in for a jury or audition or performance.
James

cleflyer

Had an audition today and used the chewing gum - worked like a charm. No dry mouth and just a little bit of nerves.

Played well but they didn't advance anyone - I think I played the Heldenleben too loud. Next time...

6pk

Very lightly biting the thicker part of your tongue can also help. I believe it gets way easier with experience too. I always say to myself, "this is way way way easier than playing it live with the Orchestra". Many people think auditions are harder than playing in the Orch, personally I do not agree. Remember the pressure and nerves are coming from yourself. There's no audience, no sponsors, no recording equipment, no conductor, no colleagues, so there's nothing to worry about really, no ones gonna die. BTW, when one finds their balance between focus and composure things like anxiety become part of the performance, almost exciting, the you won't even know whether you have a dry mouth or not, you'll just be performing.

Alex Yates

For dry mouth, put a swipe of lemon juice on your left hand between your thumb and forefinger. You can cover your mouth to lightly cough and take a small lick with your tongue. Guaranteed to work. All of the cheek and tongue biting never worked for me because I naturally bite them a bit while playing. This one has worked well for me.

trumpetnick

Good one, Alex. Heard the same from Maurice Andre, but never had that problem. For me is rather the throat which sometimes suffer from that problem...

daveythewavey19

Wouldn't advise chewing gum before playing. Ever heard of sugar anyone? Not the brightest idea to fill your horn with sugar.

Solar Bell

Sure, you chew some gum, the sugar goes in your horn, it settles in your Amado water keys and crystalizes, they freeze up and then you complain that the cheap Amado water keys are no ____ good.

-cw-