Should I do anything else with MCFB?

[trying-to-improve]

Should I continue to do lip slurs and things like Chickawitzes flow studies as well as MCFB or can MCFB sub for all this. I am on week to of the getting started thing. Week one was great my high stuff solidifided and I even gained a note but it seems like I'm geting worse now. My lips feel stiff and swolen. I can hit the notes but they sound like crap. Any advice would be greatly apriciated.

[_bugleboy]

I know it sounds a little like a cop out, but take a little time to search thru some of the posts in the Caruso forum. Many of the questions you might have, especially as a beginning student of Caruso, may have been asked already and answered.

If you are unable to easily find any answers then ask away!

In the beginning, be careful not to over do. Give yourself plenty of rest time and if the lips become swollen, take a day off completely, to let them recuperate.

[Laurie Frink]

The Caruso studies are to be used as a "supplement" to your other practice. I agree with Charly--if you are getting stiff or swollen--take a day off. Getting stiff is a natural reaction to beginning a new physical activity. If you haven't jogged in a while and you jog a mile today--you will be stiff tomorrow. As you get used to jogging--you no longer get stiff--until you add that second mile--etc. etc. Also remember that the lip is a relatively small muscle (as compared to a thigh muscle for example)--and the lip is sandwiched inbetween a metal mpc and enamel teeth. Make sure that you are playing the calesthenics when you are relatively fresh--not tired from practicing. A tired muscle doesn't learn anything--a tired muscle "manipulates" to get the note out. So if you do calesthenics when you are tired you are practicing your "manipulations" rather than the way that is most natural for you. Also a tired muscle can get hurt--and that's not what you want to have happen.

[sabutin]

This is a typical overdoing problem.

There are no hard + fast rules for this but...when I am practicing high range work, I make a point of resting at least as much as I practice. (Maybe more...say 5-10 minute's practice, 10-15 off. )

I also follow ANY Carmine high range interval exercise w/its opposite...flexibility, low range, easy melodies. ppp work in the low range...for a minute or so.

Further, I never do high range interval exercises more than 3 or 4 times tops in any given practice session, and I do not do them AT ALL whenever I feel as if my chops are stiff or swollen. In fact, if at the start of a practice session my chops do feel swollen, I usually either lay off that day or do extensive soft low and low-middle range playing until they feel better. If they don’t get any better, I wait until later in the day or the next day.

Once again, the weight lifting analogy. I guarantee that if you have never lifted weights and and know next to nothing about how to do so, if you pick up some manageable amounts of weight and start lifting, the first several days or so you will be amazed at how pumped you are. Exercises that you might barely be able to do at 35 lbs. will rapidly become easier at even higher weights and repetitions, and you will begin to feel that "Superman" vibe.

I also guarantee that if you continue doing more reps w/higher weights, you will eventually get stiff and sore and you will probably strain something as well.

Human nature. "Ahhh, that was too easy. Let's try THIS!!!"

"OUCH!!!"

-Old vaudeville routine-

Patient walks into Doctor's office, raises his arm above his head, and says "It hoits when I do dis. "

Doctor says... "Don't DO dat !!!"

Well...don't DO dat.

Moderation and contrast works best w/Carmine's stuff.

Overdo it at your peril.

Later...

S.

P.S. And believe me, I'm telling you this from direct experience. TOO MUCH direct experience.

P.P.S. Evereybody eventually has one of those days when the chops feel swollen + stiff...too much playing, maybe a little sick, allergies, tired, playing just a little "off"...

Buy a spare m'pce. (At least the rim should be exactly the same size as the one on which you're playing, or for that matter you can use your regular m’pce.)

Put it in ice until it’s quite cold.

Use it the same way boxing corner and cut men use the tool called an "Enswell"...a cold piece of metal which is used between rounds to reduce the swellings on a boxer's face.

It’s best to use it as soon as you feel swollen (if you have to use it very often, you’re doing something wrong when you play, by the way), but it will help the next day after the injury as well. (Swollen chops ARE an injury…bruising beneath the tissue, broken blood vessel + capillaries…)

Just play on it gently in the middle range for a minute or two. This brings the cold directly to the point of injury, reducing swelling by driving the blood out of the blood vessels. When it is taken off, new blood comes back in and flushes the whole area out. Recooled and repeated several times, it works wonders.

Any ice, if applied as soon as possible, helps to reduce both the immediate and the residual effects of swelling. The cold m'pce is much less messy than drippy pieces of ice, and very specific in terms of where the cold is applied.

Personally, when I've overdone it, my playing is usually not bothered much by it until the next morning. By then cold is much less effective, although it will help to some degree. Learn to know when you’ve overdone things, and use this idea then.

And then, "Don’t DO dat!!!" anymore.