Thanks Wouter. I was just replying to Greg’s comment that HE moved his jaw forward slightly. Of course one must always be concerned with tension anywhere in the body.

As Greg often says… I’m not really inventing anything new, just presenting it now with science behind it”. I’m a comeback player with pedagogy from the ‘70’s. In Roger Sherman’s book The Trumpeter’s Handbook he stresses aligning the upper and lower teeth which for an overbite means moving the lower jaw forward. Feels weird as you start to ascend…[Read more]

Three things I’ve found helpful to loosen up the chops:
1.The ‘lion’s breath’ yoga pose. Just the facial part. You will feel a stretch in the upper lip. As with any muscle stretch dont go too far- just enough to feel the tension. https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/types/pranayama/lion-pose/

2.The Dizzy Gillespie ‘puffy cheeks’ with your lips…[Read more]

Thanks for the thread. I’ll add my 2 cents…
I also have done the safari thing. Once I started studying with professional orchestral players/ teachers (45 years ago), I played exclusively on a Bach 1 1/2C (pre-Selmer acquisition) because that’s what they did and recommended. Since coming back to playing, I have experimented as you describe. My…[Read more]

While Greg’s use of a balloon is beneficial to model the effect of chest expansion on the establishment of positive air pressure (relative to atmospheric pressure), a balloon is not the chest wall- meaning there is intercostal (between the ribs) musculature which enables the expansion of the rib cage when those muscles are activated. If those…[Read more]

Not sure what you mean by ‘asymmetric’ but if you’re referring to air sometimes ‘leaking’ out one side compared to the other especially as you ascend in range… I experienced the same issue and then realized my front teeth are not even- that is one is a little more ‘recessed’ than the other. By altering the angle of the mouthpiece with my lips…[Read more]

Good question, Bill. I believe the idea is to use ‘earlier’ sections as warm-up for the later sections. So I pick certain exercises with which I still have trouble as the warm-up ~10 mins (usually in the lower range), and then dive into the later sections on which I’m currently working. I try to keep the total time of each practice session to…[Read more]