TubeNet

At the end of this month, I'm going on a week-long vacation to South Carolina, and I'll obviously be away from the tuba that whole time (don't have one of those handy travel tubas yet). Anyways, after this vacation I'll have about two weeks to get my chops back in shape and ready for large ensemble auditions. Does anyone have suggestions on how to lessen the amount of time needed to get my chops back after the vacation? I'm going to take my CC and F mouthpieces along and do some buzzing, and I'll probably also do some breathing gym-style exercises to keep things going.

Thanks,
Aaron H.

If I were to advise you, I'd say don't take any mouthpieces, have a good time, and you'll be better off than if you buzz for a while. I always found that every so often I gained more from a break away from practicing, forgetting any recently acquired bad habits, clearing my head for a few days, than I did by practicing in any less than ideal situation. Your chops won't fall apart in a week. But you'll probably sound weird if all you do is buzz for a week.

Vacate, have fun, come back, resume practicing.

You'll be fine. Don't worry so much.

Oh, don't worry, there will be plenty of relaxing going on (as well as some nice ocean-based shenanigans). I just hate going through the process of getting week(s)-old chops back. I also forgot to mention that I just came off of an unscheduled couple-week break from regular tuba playing, and I don't want to go through that process again so soon. Maybe I'll block a couple of days after the vacation for some nice recovery sessions.