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@peterbas

Don't believe for a minute that I thought you were gone for good.



Just in case I didn't annoy you, I will remind you that I posted this at the end of one of my posts in this thread:

EDIT: ANYONE and/or I can think all sorts of wrong stuff about what's occurring, as long as we DO good things that need to happen to make GOOD sounds.

People that have had trouble with their playing (and whether they label it "focal dystonia" or whether they choose to not label it), if I start touching on the topic, some of them occasionally become a bit annoyed, because they think I don't understand it. I've actually suffered from it, but not for extended periods of time. I've had times when my mouth would quiver and - believe this or not - I began to itch all over when commencing practice sessions... These symptoms were years ago, and they would come and go, but they would always come when I was really trying to concentrate on what I was doing physically, instead of concentrating on the sounds that I was pursuing.... which (candidly) is probably the reason why I eschew delving too deeply into the mechanics and the so-called science of producing music. Put a different way, I do really (really) well when I concentrate on the what, and I start stumbling and falling when I concentrate on the how.

.

The first two letters of "air"...





...and - dammit - this is REAL, so shut up all y'all haters.

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"Lime and slime" are precisely why I have found extremely low cost sources of oils (lamp oil and mineral oil), and oil the freakin' piss (semi literally) out of my horn every day.

Not only the interior but all of the moving parts on the exterior. I actually have to take a scrap hand towel or washcloth and wipe mineral oil off the outside of my (currently played at a given time) instrument every few days, because I'm always oiling the ends of hinge tubes, links and - in particular - slides that are regularly on the move.

(I can do chem-clean jobs on my instruments for basically no money, but it's a lot of trouble, and these strategies prevent that trouble.)

Many others are more interested in my repair skills, but I'm more interested in really enjoying playing music, and not (while using them) being aware of the pieces of machinery that I'm using to do it.
Besides all of my instruments being just about distraction-free - in regards to how they function for me, this is actually what prompts me to explore mouthpiece designs that do the same thing ... mouthpieces that produce the sounds that I like to hear out of my instruments, yet with very little effort. I don't like to hurt, and I don't like to sweat.

... Back to the original topic >>>