bigtiny

I'm 51 years old and I've been playing since I was 10. Although I don't practice (or play) as much as I used to, I try to keep in reasonable shape on the horn. Unlike a lot of players, I find that I'm very sensitive to the equipment I'm playing. Small changes in the characteristics of my equipment can have really profound effects on my comfort level.

Anyway, recently I beat myself up and resolved to get my ass back to the practice room in a serious way. I started a real daily practice routine - warm up, technical studies, etudes, etc. in order to get back in form.

After a few weeks, I noticed that instead of feeling stronger and more confident, I was actually having a LOT of trouble with fatigue. My chops would burn and I would have to take frequent rests while practicing -- much more than normal. Overall I felt like my stamina and fitness were actually declining instead of improving. I couldn't figure out what the problem was...

Then it dawned on me. I had played a Bach 3C mouthpiece since high school. I had always liked it and felt comfortable with it, and my sound is fine with it. About a year ago, I switched to another mouthpiece with the same general characteristics as the 3C but with a more open 'throat' in order to try to enrichen my sound a bit. It DID give me a bit more richness to my sound, but I was now convinced that this mouthpiece might be responsible for the problems I was having with my chops.

After switching back to the 3C, my chops felt better in 2 days...I'm now experiencing the kind of strenghening and improvement I expected when starting my practicing regimen. It feels like old times and every note isn't a struggle anymore.

So, when it comes to equipment and mouthpieces specifically, here's some advice from a 40+ year player -- if it ain't broke don't fix it!!!!! =

bigtiny