How Much Pain Can You Take?

I see a podiatrist every couple of months -- I have some issues with my right foot.  Once it was diagnosed my podiatrist asked me "how much pain can you take?"  You see, there is no one singular fix for the problem; it has to be a combination of shoes and arches and pads that will produce the amount of pain that I can consistently handle.  So it seems there will always be pain.

This more or less describes my horn playing experience.  There is no horn that plays perfect out of the box -- or at least I don't have one of them.  And there are so many variables that there is no one solution for anything.  So it's all about finding the right combination of mouthpiece and slide positions and hand position and embouchure and any little gadget I can find that will make the horn bend to my will.  So it seems there will always be pain.

I'm settling into the 8D.  I am definitely finding the points of concern - like the high F and high A-flat.  Neither are as clear as I'd like them to be.

I continue to employ the Epstein tips, and they are proving to be quite successful for me.  Again, it's not black-and-white, but I'm getting the feel for which syllables work for which notes.

Lately I've been thinking about my right hand position.  As a Farkas disciple, I was taught to play with the bell on the knee.  It was only in the last couple of years that I picked the bell up.  The advantage is that it gives me a bit of freedom in how I move.  But I'm starting to think that it's this very thing that's killing my accuracy.  Even when I was in High School my accuracy was better than it is now.  So for a while it'll be back to the knee.  I got a Femenella bellrest for those times when it might be necessary (fortunately the chairs at Grand Street are a bit low, so I don't need it just yet).  So now comes that time of adjustment to get used to something new again and to see if it actually helps or not.

And after that I'll try yet another tweak or tool or adjustment to find the exact combination to produce as little pain as possible.