As promised in my last post, "A Small Huge Equipment Change," I'd like to offer a quick update on how the change to a wider internal diameter mouthpiece rim is going.
I must say, the change has been more challenging than I expected! At the time of my original post, I had already been playing on the new rim for about 3 weeks, and had only reached a very modest level of comfort on it. In some circumstances, on some days, it felt great. And on other days, in other circumstances, it felt like I had made the wrong decision. Really, what the last 2 months has been about, is getting to the point where I was comfortable in (almost) every circumstance.
Throughout the process, I was reminded of the difference between how something feels and how it sounds. I would say last week, I finally reached a very high level of comfort with the new rim. But before then, I had already played several successful performances on it, including a brass quintet concert, a solo with piano on a faculty recital, and a few orchestral programs (including Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2!). Even while I didn't "feel" entirely comfortable on these performances, I'm thankful that the audience didn't seem to notice!
Of course it's nice when it feels good, but the most important thing is that it sounds good, no matter how it feels.
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