Air Support

I feel like the past few weeks all I have concentrated on is aspects of my embouchure. I believe I thought that the perfect embouchure would fix all of my issues with sound, but when I still had squeaks especially in the upper partials of the dominant 7 chords, I realized I wasn't really supporting the air I was putting through the instrument. I've noticed a difference now that I am also thinking about how I'm supporting the air and how that relates to the embouchure.

With the Sutermeister, I have been thinking about finger position and making sure my fingers are in the right position to play the next note. This has come along some, but I'm still working on continuing that with musical phrases.

Expression on Autopilot

This week was trying to find ways to make my expression on autopilot so that I'm not having to concentrate on notes and what I want/need to do with a line. I did this in two different ways: 1) by listening to recordings and fingering along with the recording, imagining myself playing that way and 2) singing and fingering along with certain lines. I felt a little silly at first, but that comes with doing new things sometimes. While doing these activities certainly helped me to understand a little better what I would like to do in the music, I'm not quite there yet. There are still some finger roadblocks I am continuing to work out, but working on only one or two pieces a day is helping with that. I will continuing to do the listening and singing along with my music to grow my ideas about expression.

Stopping

This week has been about stopping during my practice and asking myself if I'm doing enough with my embouchure, making smooth connections. I've been continuing stopping frequently and resetting my embouchure to make sure I'm always playing with the best embouchure that I can. I know when it is set properly, because the sound is purer and the connections between notes smooth. A good exercise I've been using to determine this is the dominant chords. If my embouchure and tongue position aren't correct, I cannot play these smoothly or without squeaking. Some days I can fix it, but I am not successful everyday. This leads to some frustration, but I try to just keep going, focusing on the proper set up and good sound.

How Much is Enough?

This week, my practicing has been focused on my embouchure and making the top lip more "squishy" and less tight on the mouthpiece. I feel like I have been fairly successful with this throughout the week. In the days following my lesson, I was having some difficulty breaking the habit of the way I was playing. I became frustrated when I would squeak or playing just didn't feel comfortable. I realize though it's all about the attitude. I had a day off of playing on Saturday and I went back to my practicing with a new attitude of how I wanted to play. The embouchure came along much better when I thought more positively about the progress I was making. I still have to reset my embouchure a lot to make sure I am playing correctly, but I am able to recognize the progress I am making. My music comes out a lot easier and it's actually easier to be more musical when I know my embouchure is correct. When I play correctly, I praise myself mentally for a job well done. When something doesn't come out just right, I pause and think about what I could have done differently, reset, and go on. I remember this is a learning process and the more times I play correctly, the faster it will become my habit. I hope my preservation shows throughout the next few weeks of my practicing.

So how much is enough? I have really tried to incorporate my embouchure development into all of my playing. If there is a tricky note passage, I will take the time to just concentrate on technique, but I feel that embouchure plays a big role in learning these tricky passages, so I still try to concentrate on both embouchure and technique.