embouchure health and recovery

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Bandmaster
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Re: embouchure health and recovery

Post by Bandmaster »

My problem is a little different. I apparently had a very mild, silent stroke about 4 years ago and the only lingering affects are a slight weakness in the muscles around my right eye and along the right side of my nose and mouth. The slight numbness I used to have has cleared up but the muscle weakness remains. The odd thing is that the numbness and muscle weakness came on slowly over time and not all at once when the stroke occurred. The degree of weakness constantly changes from day to day as well. If I don't practise constantly I lose strength in my embouchure really fast. Being that I am not a professional musician this very hard to accomplish. The weakness accually makes it harder to hit low notes below the staff. The weakness seems to translates into tightness in the embouchure and I can not get loose enough to hit those notes easily. It takes more air to get them started which reduces how long I can sustain them.

Any other players have a similar problem? How do you handle it?
Dave Schaafsma
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1966 Holton 345 | 1955 York-Master | 1939 York 716 | 1940 York 702 | 1968 Besson 226 | 1962 Miraphone 186 | 1967 Olds | 1923 Keefer EEb | 1895 Conn Eb | 1927 Conn 38K | 1919 Martin Helicon
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