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I have a "has this ever happened to you" question for the board. Has your pitch center ever dropped by a substantial amount in a short amount of time. To explain a bit, my playing changed a fair bit over the past 2 weeks. I had a bad weekend after playing too high, too loud for too long (chops felt tight, couldn't play for very long for a few days without stiffening up). After that I found that I was constantly tending flat so I played around with a tuner and found that, with my previous setup, I was playing about 20 cents flat. After adjusting everything, I had no more issues though things feel a little different (although overall, I think actually improved). I'm just curious if anyone else has had this happen. Both my teacher and I are a little baffled but the only worry is that my tuning slide on my 983 is now all the way in.

Ian

Been feelin' under the weather lately? I know when I feel a little ill my air slows down every so slightly so the pitch suffers...

Seems like a very sudden onset of the pitch issue, if I read your post correctly.

Aside from the battering of the chops that weekend, has anything else changed with the instrument?
Cork damaged or fall out of waterkey; leak somewhere in instrument that is new (bumped, dinged) damage, or something that was old really "let go?" Valve cork/felt disintegrate and some alignment got messed up?

Does this still take place when playing on another instrument? Does this still occur on your instrument when someone else plays it?

Temperature drop may be a factor, so does a muscular over-tension leading to a more relaxed “normal” situation.

When challenged muscles may go tense, if not treated with the experience of doing such straining work regularly. While I had horses I was used to riding but not for extended hours. Once I should deliver a young stallion to a neigbour town and tied it to one of my riding mares. That lead to a whole lot of hours in the saddle that day, and I became very tired, but also remarkably free of tensions.

Your lowered pitch points towards relaxation, but if you still are in control of musical and technical events, then your sense of improvement may be well founded.

I consider controlled practise in the outer range the best guarantee for a well working midrange.

Klaus

I swear I just read a short post from "some bloke" here just before I posted (above). Now its gone -- but it had merit.

I think it asked if you were playing in a location where the temperature was significantly cooler than before.

I would suggest checking out your equipment, just to make sure that something isn't out of adjustment. When playing daily in Army Bands, I found that whenever my playing seemed to go south despite my best efforts over a couple of days, my instrument was letting me know it needed maintenance. The only exception to this was when I had hammered my chops too much with a combination of over-use and exposure to weather. Rest, lip balm and very gentle, careful practice should remedy chops in a few days.

I hope that no permanent damage was done to your chops. Best wishes for a long playing future!

To clarify, my pitch has been stable for about a week now (at about 20 cents below what it was) and I doubt temperature is much of an issue as the temperature has been fluctuating pretty widely and hasn't effected much either way.

Likewise, the tuning change occurred equally on both my instruments (Besson 983 and a Rotary Neptune is it makes a difference). I can't find anything mechanical on the instruments that would cause the pitch to lower.

Health-wise, I was getting over a cold a little while ago but it's gone now and hasn't changed much. In addition, I find when I back off my air I tend to push sharp (playing too much from the lip).

Overall, I have no real issues with this happening as I've felt I always played a little on the high side of things in general (not out of tune, just slides further out then what would be "ideal"). I did say things were improved, though marginally. A little smoother slurs down to low Eflat/D and a little more resonant in general. Maybe a little smoother throughout the horn. Really, I'm only asking as this seems to be a bit of an oddity more than anything else. Just wondering if it was common or at least not unheard of.

Ian