Regarding false teeth….Harry James played with complete upper and lower false teeth until sometime in the 1950’s when he got implants.

The difficulty I’m having is getting my tongue, when playing the trumpet, to simulate the movement that is used when you say KU.

Greg,

In MTMII in the “How to use this book” section it says to “Work through Sections 1,2 and 3 every day to expand your limits.” Four sentences later it says “Limit your technical development sessions to no more than 30 minutes including rest, to stay mentally and physically fresh”. It’s not possible to get through all of those exercises…[Read more]

Greg,

I really struggle with double tonguing. Your really not saying the words TU KU into the trumpet when your double tonguing, your just simulating the action of the tongue when actually speaking TU KU and I can’t seem to get the back of the tongue to raise/lower when playing the KU. Having said this, isn’t the KU really just a breath…[Read more]

I love both books but would like to see the videos and mp3 files associated with the books be put on cd’s/dvd’s. The reason is that you can then print out the books and play the cd’s/mps as you read them. After looking at a computer screen for a long time, it would just be easier on the eyes to read them in print form.

I currently play a GR 65 (.650, number 3 backbore) C* mpc. Prior to starting the course it worked really well for me until I moved up to 1st chair in my community bands. Along with the extend ranges of the 1st parts and learning a new way of playing via the WindWorks course, my jaws and cheeks were getting very sore, to the point I would have to…[Read more]

Greg,
I’ve always struggled with speed with getting harmonic slurs. I can’t seem to get them to go very fast, especially in the upper range when the harmonics get closer. I understand that there are and have been professionals that have/had this problem (thus the Doc hand/finger trumpet shake). Is there a certain speed on the metronome I…[Read more]

Also, I switched to smaller mouthpiece. I switched from a .650 diameter to a .640 and this seemed to help. Also, with the smaller diameter I was able to do harmonic slurs faster…Weird, I know, lol….

I’m thinking that I may have gone through the stages too fast (I’m at the Presto level in 3 weeks) and I haven’t properly trained the facial muscles, embouchure, and aperture corners. So, I’m going to go back to the beginning and take it a little slower and really work on the harmonic slurs and this time use the progress charts, and I’m going to rest more.

I played a Christmas singalong today with my community band and my face and jaws were very sore. So bad at times I had to stop playing and do some soft lip/cheek flapping to keep playing. Is there something I can do, ex. heat, ice, time off, to help alleviate this?

I’m finding that I’m able to pop out double Gs through mouth compression easier than actually playing the note. I’m guessing that’s a good thing as it’s teaching me how to properly use my aperture and tongue. I’m hoping that it will become easier to sound the note.

Great, I just wanted to make sure I’m doing it correctly! I”M LEARNING, YEA! Solid Double G’s here I come!

Is it actually used when playing or just as an embouchure/aperture exercise?

It’s absolutely a valid technique to be used as often as possible as long as the sound of the articulation is appropriate for the style of music being played. I am sitting here running some tunes for a gig I am doing with an Australian band called The Cat Empire and…[Read more]

I’m up to the Ruby level and I’m learning hot to move the bottom lip/jaw forward and blow an upward stream of air. It’s very foreign to me as I have an over bite and never was trained to blow this way. However, I have noticed when I do this I can pop out a couple of higher notes, unusable though. I’m hoping it won’t take long to learn and…[Read more]