Posted by Bob on March 03, 1999 at 09:30:47:
In Reply to: the mechanics of playing posted by Matt on March 02, 1999 at 18:13:44:
I am an amateur who has played for a long time and I just spent about a year breaking that
habit. The results have been spectacular. The mechanics are simple; the toungue is
reducing the airflow and starving the horn. When I broke the habit, the tone improved
greatly and I gained flexibility I never had before. Incidently, I play a Cerveny
"piggy" which has a fairly large bore so it takes a bit of air.
While I was breaking the habit, I did quite a bit of experimenting with mouthpieces. I
found some of them to help since the habit is a psychological problem and anything you
can do to alter your mindset helps. I used both Schilke and Bach mouthpieces, ending up
with a Bach 12. It gives the piggy a nice dark sound that I can control. The Shilkes
(66 and 67) produce a brighter sound that (particularly with the 66) tended to crack
when I tried to play louder.