Steve,

You are ahead of me on your G to C lip slurs. You are fast.

Bluntly, you do not seem to have a focused practice. You randomly play exercises and then do something else and backup and do the same “warm-up” again.

Throw it all out. My opinion: Stop all free lip buzzing, stop doing everything you do as a warm-up. Do not play petal tones (I think these can be good, but for now stop.)

Open up WW and follow the instructions. Stop doing your own thing. Unless you abandon your past, you’ll keep repeating your struggles.

Use WW materials as your warm-up and follow-through each of Greg’s exercises. Do you use the practice charts? Follow Greg’s program without all the extras. Even though the exercises come from great resources and are great. Save them for later until you get the basics of WindWorks down.

I do not call what you did as practice. It is more like doodling.

I know that is harsh. You have heaps of potential.

Use WW exercise as your warm-up. Then practice the exercises. Do the exercises of whatever singing C series you are on. Rest about the same number of beats after playing an exercise. Repeat the exercise or go on to the next. Go to the next page and play it. Resting the same number beats that you just played. Repeat that pattern finishing the page. If Greg demonstrates an exercise listen then play it yourself. You could listen again and repeat trying to match his sound. Listen to his next demonstration and play. Follow this pattern. Now you should be ready for the Practice Progress Charts. You presently could check every box on the Moderato Practice charts. Move on. There is no need for these big gaps of rest and randomly playing. Play what is written in WW. Let’s say you played an exercise of four measures; rest four measures and play the next exercise, repeat this pattern. If you get tired after doing this 20 or 40 minutes, then I bet you have tension that needs to be irradicated.

By the way, when you get back to playing the other great exercise, use a metronome, start slow and increase in time. For now, leave them alone. When you start doing what you used to do, you are more likely to practice bad habits.

You stick with WW and follow-through step by step you will exceed your past, which was probably excellent and definitely far beyond what I have ever accomplished on trumpet.

Finally, skype Greg.