I feel like the more I practice the All-State audition etudes, the worse the quality of my playing gets. At the beginning of the summer, I remember that I could play the first etude at a fast tempo without blipping or making any mistakes whatsoever, however, the more I work on the sections that I have trouble with or try running it through, the more blips and tone problems I have. This is actually a common problem that I've noticed in both piano as well as oboe. I'm not really sure what the problem is, but I've been feeling this way every year...any advice?
Thanks

I have found with my students what you are experiencing is a result of trying too hard.
Overpracticing? YES!!

Suggestions I might share are:
1- try playing the phrases backwards and then see what they sound like when you play forwards.
2- Posture. I find when I am working a difficult part and thinking hard my posture suffers. When our posture suffers we lose air flow. without air flow notes don't sound, and certainly don't respond quickly (especially on double reeds).
3- Relax. Relax. Try to make practicing a fun and interesting activity.
4- Play it as slow as you can while still making it sound musical before speeding it up. And DON'T stop if you make a mistake. play through your phrase all the way before stopping to go back. Stopping for mistakes tends to become a snowball effect of more and more mistakes. So play through as best you can no matter how poorly you think you are doing. Then look at the phrase thinking about your mistakes before trying it again.