So I have had a cold the past few days and my lips have gotten nasty-dry. Therefore, the embouchure just doesn;t want to work in the second octave. (Or, at least work as well as my normal expectations).
Thx!
Have you tried scraping the phlegm out ?
Of myself or the flute??
Yes, I;ve kept the flute clean. My throat is another matter.
It’s more a problem of dry lips than anything else.
Enduring very chapped lips as I type this. Second octave was less of a problem than the lower for me, but that seems to have resolved now. I don’t normally get chapped lips, and the bits of skin hanging and standing all over them felt like big sheets of debris about the area of a small forest. Yick. Couldn’t stop chewing and pulling at them. It’s getting better, thank you. I think my playing troubles had more to do with my discomfort and preoccupation with it than anything, really. Keep at it!
Is it normal to get dry lips when you have a cold? I think so. My preference in lip conditioners runs to Lip Trip, which contains no drying agents, but has a good base of beeswax which keeps it on for long periods. I think most types of lip stuff actually make your lips more dry and they don’t last, so that you have to keep applying and reapplying them. Lip Trip will last for hours–far longer than Burt’s Bees, as it’s thicker. Even though it is thick, it still doesn’t cake up and tear at your lips like the original Chapstick. It’s excellent in cold and wind, as well as dry heat. I don’t think it dries out your lips at all.
http://www.mountainocean.com/product/broch.htm
Someone on the board recently recommended lanolin. I tried some health-food-store liquid lanolin. It really works well for softening and conditioning. Once it soaks in, you can put Lip Trip on over it.
But you were really asking whether anyone else has noticed their embouchure slipping with dry lips. Yes. Everything, in fact, affects my embouchure. However, as time goes on, I’m becoming more able to adapt so it isn’t as much of a problem.
Do let me sell you a violin, Nanohedron. No extra trouble with chapped lips ! ( To keep as a backup, of course ).
So kind of you, Andrew, but I am also a thrall to the pipes, now. It’s madness enough, and lip troubles are, as with violins, moot.
What have I done??
I was playing the violin this evening, when all of a sudden I got this pain in my neck, which seems to be an occupational hazard for fiddle players. So choose your poison, chapped lips or neck pains.
With regard to chapped lips from a cold, I think that it is worth mentioning that you can help the healing progress by making sure that the air in your home is humidified. Right now my hygrometer reads 63%. It is below freezing outside, so with this inside humidity I have water running down my windows, but at least the mucous membranes in my mouth, nose, and bronchial tubes are not drying out, which is a condition that might help prevent the onset of colds and other respiratory problems.
I never have this sort of problem. Drinking lots of fresh vegetable juices is very good for the skin. I take at least half a litre of it daily rain hail or shine. Increase your fresh vegetable nutrition and take also Peggy’s advice.
After a weekend of playing GHB in the sun and wind my lips are usually pretty well trashed. At that point flute playing is a virtual improbability. So in my experience, Wormy, your situation is pretty normal.
Cheers,
Aaron
i wonder how it is for players in extreme dry conditions, like Arizona.
Do what I`ve been thinking about…learn to play the box.
I have come to the conclusion that after nearly 20 years of playing the blasted flute, I could have saved myself alot of trouble and not to mention heartache if I had taken up the box instead.
No lips involved, all you do is twiddle your fingers alot, and thats one thing us flute players are good at. 