TromboneChat

I've noticed that my playing isn't as flexible/as responsive as it normally is due to my embouchure, the upper lip especially.

This stems from my playing this morning. I'm working on an audition piece (Cavatine) and while I was practicing with my accompanist today. I found I was making new and unexpected mistakes, more specifically with partial shifts and detached playing.

The reason I'm wondering if it's an embouchure issue is because I am doubling on euphonium for one of my school bands, and I have had zero instruction on how to play it. I currently am playing a Yamaha 321 w/ a Yamaha 48 mouthpiece.

Reviewing the last month, I have noticed a trend where I notice that my upper lip is consistently taking longer than usual to warm-up to where I can play the more difficult repertoire of the other school band I play in. (I play a 42BO w/ a 6S mouthpiece for that and youth orchestra)

I also play lead in the jazz band on a 2b w/ a Stork T3 mouthpiece, and a mix of 1st and 2nd in the youth orchestra - I've not had any problems with either of those yet.

My audition is on January 13th and I have a lot of practice to do to fully memorize by audition piece, so I'd rather not take a break unless that's what's necessary.

I've read some people will take breaks if they hit certain chops-related issues to try to let the muscles rest and recover - but I'm not sure if this is one of those times when pulling back would help or if this is just a weird quirk that I need to figure out.

So should I:
Take a break?

Double down - but focus less on intensive playing and more on long tones or slow scales for winter break?

Take a break from euphonium for a while until after audition season is over?

Any other advice?

Sounds like you may be putting too much pressure on the top lip- perhaps an ergonomics thing with the euphonium.

That's the kind of thing that I help people with in Skype lessons. When you start playing significantly more, like preparing for an audition, things that worked pretty well with less playing can start to fall apart. Also, all of your symptoms - overshooting, accuracy, articulation, and excessive mouthpiece pressure - can be from using a mouthpiece that's too small for you, especially as you play or practice more.

Good luck

Thanks! I'll keep practicing and pay more attention to my lip pressure. I might reach out if I get stuck, Doug, for a skype lesson.

For euphonium, one of my good friends primary instruments is the euphonium - I can ask him for pointers to make sure I'm not doing something dramatically wrong that's going to make things worse, and for this week at least I'll take it easy with that one.

I also have some other mouthpieces I can try that are a bit larger, such as my stork T4, so I might experiment with them.