Switching

[Gene]

Any tips for blowing hard on sax and picking up the flute and finding your lips take a while to adjust bent out of shape from lack of blood maybe vibrateing my lips helps but maybe I'm playing with to tight an emboucher or maybe I need to pace myself between songs somehow?

[Gordon (NZ)]

Lots of practice at changing - alternating.

In a typical Broadway show a player has to change instrument, involving say 2 or 3 reeds + picc + flute, up to 60 or more times. and often in only 2 or 3 seconds. It seems impossible initially, but as with all things, practice makes perfect.

I found clarinet to flute a lot more demanding than sax to flute, especially if the clarinet part was dancing in the top octave, or ppp for 5 minutes.

But changing quickly from a long bout on clarinet to a piccolo solo was hardest. It has now become easy.

One thing to think about is not to EXPECT any accurate feedback from the feel of your lips. Listen to the SOUND for feedback, and send 'feelingless' messages to adjust the embouchure accordingly. The feedback sensations from the lips, if they exist, are very unreliable, so I had to learn to ignore them.

Just like I overcame vertigo at the top of coastal cliffs by learning to ignore the movement of the air, the movement of the clouds, and the movement of the sea - which all made me feel I was about to fall - and take messages from my FEET, which were stable on the ground.