Great post Ronald, you cover some important points clearly.

I think youre right, Stan–its because they’re keeping their lips relaxed and squeezing the aperture from around the air column (not clamping top-to-bottom like a clam).

I think they’re just using slightly different muscles or not engaging certain other muscles to keep that from happening.

It happens to me from time to time but I try to…[Read more]

Well worded question, Miguel.

That is the “$1 million” question. It cant really be answered any more clearly than Greg outlines in WindWorks, it just takes time for each of us to realize it our own way–as you noted, its impossible to really know what our lips are doing in the mouthpiece precisely.

But there are clues that we can pay…[Read more]

You’re welcome. For me, what worked the best is when I try to keep the most natural feeling and take a less-is-more approach and focus on getting the best sound, most resonant, possible. Also, the exercises involving changing pitch on the leadpipe with a slight inward movement of the aperture corners (i.e. think oooh) and doing harmonic slurs…[Read more]

Welcome! I’m a comeback player too, but with a longer break and I’m older…

You should check out the Trumpet Chats Greg has posted on YouTube and other threads (…”only dummy” and “overcoming a negative psychology”).

The basic premise is to treat your playing as if you’re living in your current house while building a new house. The two are…[Read more]

Some of us have had issues with over manipulating our lips, including rolling under our bottom lip.

But there are great players, Dizzy Gillespie comes to mind, who play all sorts of ways successfully.

If someone has the range, sound quality and endurance they desire and they roll under their lip, then so be it–good for them.

I had issues…[Read more]

Yeah, that doesnt sound like a good thing. Youre probably stretching / thinning out your lips and pressing the mouthpiece against them. I think it helps our endurance if we do the opposite, pushing the corners inward/forward towards the mouthpiece.

I havent encountered the smile (pulling the corners backward) too much, but have caught myself…[Read more]

You’re very welcome, clarnder; I sincerely hope it’s helpful.

I’ve posted this before on other threads, but I am a comeback player who owes a lot to the online community–especially WindWorks. Despite years of private lessons from reputable teachers and countless hours of practice through all the method books (i.e. Clarke, ARban’s,…[Read more]

Welcome back, I think you received good advice to come back. It really does work, but it does require patience, focus and a complete surrender of expectations during your experimentation to what works for You.

Have you seen the Trumpet Chat videos Greg has posted?

In particular, Trumpet Chat 6 features a concept Greg talks about in which…[Read more]

Awesome, glad to hear you’re having success!

I understand regarding consistency, that seems to get better with time. Patience and focusing on Process, the sound and feel–seems like its best to keep things as natural and free / relaxed as possible.

Bless her. I showed my daughter a bit, just simple scales and basics. I think she was 8 or 9. It didnt stick, she lost interest but seemed to have a better start than I recall having.

At her age, you may want to just make up a little bit to practice on based upon WindWorks and other method books. I’m sure you’ll do fine. Best of luck!

You’re very welcome, hope it’s helpful.

I was thinking about you / this thread this morning as I was doing some flexibility exercises.

FWIW, it doesnt take much at all for me to flex from C to E on the staff or even higher when I am playing correctly, things feel right. In fact, I sometimes skip a harmonic accidentally and go too high.

It…[Read more]

No need to panic.

The person in that video is an amazing player, and playing the leadpipe is harder than the horn.

Playing the mouthpiece is harder than the leadpipe.

Free buzzing is harder than the mouthpiece.

The farther removed we go from playing the horn, which is designed specifically to slot in the harmonics, the harder it is.…[Read more]

If you’re trying to keep constant volume, then yes–youll need to step on the gas and give it more air.

What I found most effective for me, was getting the pitch as easy (less air) as possible to learn the shape, then working on crescendo / decrescendo exercises to build up my dynamic control on each pitch.

I had a tendency to overblow high…[Read more]

It takes some people longer than others. To be honest, I didn’t spend a lot of time on the leadpipe. I get it’s benefits and use it occasionally, but it’s not the same thing as playing the horn–playing the horn is easier.

The key thing is to make sure you’re engaging the corners as you start releasing air into the leadpipe/mouthpiece then…[Read more]

When you say even sound, do you mean the same volume? Or just quality of tone?

Optimally, the only thing that changes to ascend to higher pitches is shape, primarily through a tightening of the corners while leaving the middle of our lips relaxed. Abdominal air support isn’t needed to hit high C.

Less air is required the higher we play, so…[Read more]

Thanks Eckleberg. Played a bit today. I think that answer is that the 1 1/2C is a great mouthpiece, but endurance is probably where the issue lies… If we try to play much above High C for very long on the 1 1/2C, it’s harder than smaller / shallower mouthpieces.

Switched around amongst 1 1/2C, 3C and 3E today a bit. I could play all of…[Read more]

Playing the leadpipe isn’t the same as the horn, nor is buzzing the mouthpiece or free buzzing.

If possible, I would try to bring your horn with a practice mute or something.

But if that’s just not possible, then the leadpipe and mouthpiece and going through WindWorks courses is probably your best bet.

Remember that playing isn’t not about…[Read more]

Youre very welcome, Francis. I hope something I posted helps point you to something useful.