I can't play lead mouthpeices anymore
Last summer, I bought a Yamaha 14a4a, and it worked on me great. Until it didn't about 3 months later. Sure it gave me stability in the upper register, but it so suddenly wrecked my endurance, I'd come to rehearsal and within 5 minutes (no kidding. 5) my chops were wrecked.
So I've been playing on something a little more neutral since and it's worked fine. Even the transition out of the 14a4a was rough, like the effects of me using it were lingering over or something.
But it's now about a year later since I first used it, along with other lead mps, and I just can't use them anymore. I used to be able to play them, and get a good sound in all registers. Which is so weird because I had heard that you needed some strong fundamentals before stepping into lead mouthpieces, and that's what I feel I've been working on all year. And now, I can even reach into the upper register, no matter how I decide to approach the horn, whether it be relaxed and soft, or punchy and a little more firm, it just sounds bad, and I can't play nearly as high as I can on my regular mp.
The reason I'm saying this, is because a lot of people have given me the advice to start using lead mouthpieces and say to me that they're a "necessary tool to playing high" whenever I'd tell them about my upper register issues. They just don't work for me. And I'm not going to ruin my chops again like I did last summer, because I had some really embarrassing moments recovering from what that mouthpiece did to me.
Maybe I need to make an approach to lead mouthpieces over a long period of time??? Or should I just forget about it, and If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.