Posts made by GeorgeB

@Comeback
Glad to see you here. Keep on blowing.

@Comeback

My sincere thanks, Comeback. I am with a great band. I am the oldest. They know it and give me a lot of leeway, including permission to skip some pieces in order to narrow my playing time when my chops are getting overtired.

@Dr-Mark

I can't thank you enough, Dr-Mark, for taking time to offer so much valued advice. The band member physician's help and advice was also wonderful, especially because, like you, she is also a brass player.

I have learned a valuable lesson from this unfortunate event.

@tmd
Thanks for your wonderful response to my posts. The things you suggest fall right in line with what the doctor in our band told me. She is also a brass player so I had faith in what she told me.
And common sense told me I made a mistake in playing the way I did the morning after that tough practice session when my tone went to hell in a basket. I continued to make a mistake right up to the point a few days later when I kept playing thinking I could work through the problem and ended up blowing dead air. NEVER AGAIN. Once I am playing again, I intend to take off the day following practice or tough gigs.
Again, thank you, sir.

I have been talking to a physician who is a member of our band. She doesn't feel it is Dystonia. She asked me to blow a G, and after several attempts I managed it. She could tell my lips were definitely swollen and feels it is an injury that will take a lot of rest time. She also suggested I put ice on the lips 2 to 3 times a day for 5 minutes. I did that last night and was actually able to play a weak A to F on the staff. I tried it again about 20 minutes later but the lips were swollen again. So that is it. I am putting the horn down for 2 weeks and then try a few notes. Age is against me, so if the swelling is still there I will continue to rest until the chops return to normal, then start to carefully rebuild my embouchure. In the meantime, I will attend our weekly practice. The new term starts next Wednesday and there will be new material. I can't play but I can read and pretend to play. That way I will keep up with anything new that is happening.

I don't give up easily...

@Dr-Mark
All good advice, Dr-Mark. It has already been two days since the dead air incident and I still can't make a decent sound, so yeah, I am going to do nothing for a few days and give everything a rest, like you suggest, start back slowly and SOFTLY. I have over played before but I was never wasted like I was this time. Anyway, I am a positive thinker and I will play again.

@Bob-Pixley said in Embouchure Dystonia:

Before going down a rabbit hole, I'd just give the chops a rest and see if that cures it. As I get older, my endurance certainly hasn't improved...I just think it comes with the territory for amateur players who push the envelope.

Yeah, I am 83 and I am constantly pushing the envelope. I agree though, that rest is necessary before taking any kind of action. It just scares me that my symptoms are similar to overuse embouchure dystonia.

@BigDub
I remember this one. It made me wonder what was up around the bend.

@Kehaulani
Yeah I am trying not to overthink it. There are no chop doctors nor are there any teachers in my neck of the woods, but there is a doctor member of the band who I will be seeing.

My endurance comfort level seems to be about 75 minutes. The band I have been playing in for the last six months has a 90 minute practice session once a week. So for me there was always a struggle to get through the 90 minutes but I had seemed to be making gradual improvements. In early June we embarked on what is known as a summer tour, where we played a gig every Tuesday night for 6 weeks, ending sometime in late July, after which the band closed down for the summer break. During the six weeks the concerts were mostly 45 minutes ( at nursing homes ) and the occasional one hour gigs. During this time there were no 90 minute practice sessions, so when we had two back to back concerts to play August 27 and tonight, the 28th, we had our first 90 minute practice session last Wednesday to go over the material for the back to back concerts. For me, it was the first time I had to play 90 minutes in more that two months and it was a helluva struggle and by the end of the session my lips felt like chopped liver.
The next morning during practice ( I play approximately 45 minutes horn on the face technical stuff every morning and the same time playing tunes every afternoon ) nothing sounded good and the mp on the chops didn't feel right. The next 4 days I struggled to get back my tone, and on the 5th day ( Monday this week ) after playing two songs horribly, there was suddenly nothing but dead air coming out the end of the horn. Tuesday and this morning I tried to blow a few notes and nothing but a horrid sound.

I have heard about embouchure dystonia becoming a problem after overuse and my symptoms seem to fit that category. There is a website, I believe it is by the gent who wrote The Balanced Embouchure. it is heavy reading for someone who is not a doctor, so I sent a link to the site to a doctor who is a member in our band. I am looking for answers as to what I have to do to make a full recovery.

If anyone here is familiar with this problem, I would appreciate your input.

Since this is apparently a neurological disorder, I am doing my best to approach the situation with a positive outlook. I will play the trumpet again.

George

@moshe
Yeah Wayne's work has a bit of magic to it.

@moshe
I will pray for you, moshe. Good luck, man.

I still own a Minolta X-370 35mm. I have not used it for a very long time.

@BigDub
I toyed ( yeah toyed ) with water colors for almost 2 years in the late 50s. I did not put in the necessary work needed to improve. I had too many other things on the go at the time: playing trumpet with a busy little 5 piece band, writing fiction for some pulp mystery magazines, some amateur acting, fiddling around with photography, and forming a career in the publishing industry. The latter is the only thing I can truly say I was successful at.

Oh, yeah one other thing I was successful at, picking the right girl to share my life with.

@BigDub
Great work, Wayne. Makes me want to get out my flyrod and head for a quiet little stream.

@administrator
Yeah, I was somewhat confused that it was called a bugle with valves when it just showed keys, but what do I know.

@Niner
I have heard of valved bugles but have yet to hear what one sounds like.

A friend of mine has a Dixieland Jazz Band made up of trumpet, clarinet, trombone, keyboard, drums and tuba. The tuba fits right in.

@BigDub said in Set lists:

@Dr-Mark said in Set lists:

Hi BigDub,
Yes, I would talk to the director. Lugging a NYC phone book sized set list is just crazy. If he/she wants that level of freedom, the set list needs to be digitized so you guys can carry all the songs on an IPad. If it's on an iPad, there's ease of portability, ease for the director because the songs can be pulled up alphabetically, and once its digitized, everyone can have access in case some of the songs get lost or destroyed which frees up the person responsible for getting the sheet music to the people.

To be clear, it’s not the set list that is the problem. It’s the impulsive nature of the director. He gets a stray thought in the middle of the concert and decides we should do a number not part of the set list.
We have probably over a hundred possible tunes we could do, including many marches I have never played yet. That comes up during a concert at times as well.....let’s play so and so march.....I look over to my section mate, "never heard of it", he says, oh, I think we played that about ten years ago, once.

My director and your director must be related, Wayne. What you stated happens now and then to me. But once is enough. I have only been with this band since April and there are many marches and a medley or two in our current play book I have not even had a chance to look at let alone play. But I like the guy so I don't complain.

We get a set list at our regular practice night the week before a gig or gigs. Sometimes we have back to back gigs in different locations that play the same song list. But I always take the complete binder of music and index that changes every year because now and then our director will make a change. Some of our members use those large I-pads. I'm still a dinosaur and play out of the binder.