One of the most frustrating things about playing trumpet is working through problems or for that matter – successes. On Saturday I had one of those rehearsals where everything was clicking. EVERYTHING. Range, tone, articulation… anything that was important to sound good on the trumpet was happening.

I had changed two major things in my setup. One – I used less lip roll in. Previously I had my lips rolled to the point where it was unnatural and I had to work to keep that setting while playing. Saturday I basically said “MMM”, set the mouthpiece and played. The second thing I changed was I went back to my old Bach Megatone 2C. In the past few days I've been experimenting with mouthpieces trying to determine which one I was going to commit to and use forever (yeah… right).

ONE of those changes resulted in an improved tone, articulation and range. I'm leaning towards the embouchure setting but I will be careful not to change too many things when playing. It makes it much more difficult to pinpoint what is working or helping — and what is not. For all I know – I could have just had one of those GOOD days. Time will tell but I will stick with this change and mouthpiece for an extended period and see where it takes me.

Anyone who checks out my equipment page will see that I'm making changes there as well. The inventory is getting slimmed down in an effort to make room for something new. I sat back and looked at all the cases in my den and shook my head. It was getting ridiculous. My goal – one horn, one mouthpiece… focus on music.