TromboneChat

I’m a high school junior in Arkansas and am looking to pursue a degree in music performance; however, immediately after Christmas break my tone became very airy, my articulation was fluffy, and playing felt uncomfortable. It didn’t hurt it just didn’t feel right. I’ve been giving a lot of thoughts to the cause and I think that it could be either the fact that I was preparing a lot of hard excerpts for an audition or the fact that I had bad chapped lips. I’ve been doing all the long tones I can but I can’t get the purity back into my tone and attack. It feels as if my embouchure is stiff and that some places I. The embouchure are vibrating causing the fuzz. I understand that a small aperture will help with the airy tone, but I never changed my embouchure it just sort of happened. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Sounds like you may be a candidate for a Skype lesson with Doug Elliott.

I suspect you are doing something wrong and you don't know what it is (and neither can I from your description).

Exactly

Chapped lips shouldn't hurt your playing - it's just annoying to get flakes of skin sloughing off into the cup of the mouthpiece.

The first thing I'd recommend is to take several days off. Minor injuries like muscle strains sometimes aren't accompanied by actual pain.

Injuries like that are caused by playing incorrectly for your face. You can rest and recover but that doesn't fix why it happened.

You know, to have Doug start you on the right path while still in high school..........wow! You might avoid years of frustration, even if you stay a hobby musician. If you really are playing wrong for your face, it will bite you sooner or later.

Doug Elliott wrote: ↑Mon Apr 29, 2019 2:06 pm Injuries like that are caused by playing incorrectly for your face. You can rest and recover but that doesn't fix why it happened.

Yup! I was going to recommend also to get a lesson to get more mechanically sound to lessen the chances of injuries.