I love what Yehuda Gilad says from 1:00 to 2:00–“Muscles are dumb…and must be trained…And we’re taught all our lives to clamp down in the middle of our lips…not to tighten from the sides…”

You don’t need a Wind-O to figure things out. I ordered one last night because I’m curious, but $120 seems a bit rich…

I saw Tom Hooten with the LA…[Read more]

Bill,

You sound great! I wish I had your ability to play that strong. Right now, I’m still just trying to master the passive air approach. I have developed an ability to ascend easily and can play longer and higher up there than ever before, using the WindWorks approach.

My $.02 is that your normal lip setting on the mouthpiece doesn’t look…[Read more]

Actually, I think I was incorrect. Greg mentions that the tongue is not necessary to change pitch, only the aperture corners; the tongue arch effects the resonance of the sound but doesn’t determine pitch. I think basically the tongue is secondary to the aperture corners tightening–without the tightening of the aperture, arching the tongue…[Read more]

Thanks Bill, I would be thrilled if something I posted was helpful to you or someone else on here and I’m sure Peter would feel the same way. I have found Peter’s posts very helpful. I’m sure your Skype with Greg will be very helpful; Greg’s gone through exactly what you’re going through.

“I have no idea what my lips are doing inside the…[Read more]

Wow, thanks Greg–that means a lot. If I am able to help Bill or anyone else, that would be amazing. Been tied up at work and limited on practice time. Found myself sliding backwards a bit, losing my way but actually I think it will help me solidify my understanding even more. Doing harmonic slurs (C on the staff to E on the staff), then…[Read more]

Steve,

Great idea about putting all of Greg’s pointers on a print out on your stand. I’ve been thinking of doing that and did something similar prior to my finding WindWorks and it seemed to help. I think it would be a big help.

I’m not sure I understand your concern regarding support being at the aperture corners rather than the middle of…[Read more]

Just kidding 😁. I believe it’s both. Not much tongue arch is needed for smaller intervals, but more helpful with larger intervals, IMHO/experience, etc.

Yes

Nice Steve! Definitely looks like it was much more focused/structured and great you played some music with metronome–keeps us honest, in my opinion / helps us gauge how our execution is. Sometimes I just like to play freely, but I think it’s important to spend some time with the metronome.

The harmonic slurs sounded good, seemed like you had…[Read more]

Great video, Bill and thanks for posting and sharing your experience. Some of the audio kind of cut in and out, but it was helpful. It was hard to hear you clearly when you played, but I could tell you are a great player, as Greg mentioned.

It seems to me that you’re probably not too far away from where you need to be; it’s probably more of a…[Read more]

Was thinking of this thread this morning as I was warming up.

I’ve been facing a bit of a backslide into clamping down top to bottom rather than tightening from the aperture corners / sides and overblowing.

I think I’ve been focused more on results than process as I had been having great results and progressing towards a strong loud double…[Read more]

Sounds good, Steve. I think some more structure would do us both good–I need to do it too. I understand what you mean about buzzing feeling good, but I think there’s a high chance that buzzing before the whole aperture corner engagement thing “clicks” for you is risky as you may be reinforcing the wrong thing(s) when you buzz your lips /…[Read more]

I like to occasionally do that thing where you pull the mouthpiece out of the horn as you’re playing to make sure your lips aren’t buzzing (low C, G on the staff) / that things are open / relaxed.

Had a mixed practice session tonight. I don’t think my head was quite right again. Going to try to take tomorrow really easy and focus on better…[Read more]

Great post, Peter!–that is the same sensation I have when I am doing well.

Bill, you might be over doing the pucker a bit. The key really (I think… correct me if I’m wrong…) is open lips and engaging the corners, it’s not really a pucker–its more important that (I think…) you have the psychology/sensation of a bit of a pucker from…[Read more]

I’m glad you posted an update, I’ve been thinking about you / wondering how you’re doing–which is odd, because I don’t know you but I care and relate to what you’re going through. While I may in some ways be farther along on my discovery than you, I’m just an amateur / comeback player and I have limited time to devote to practicing.

And I’m…[Read more]

Watched a bit of Part 2. I recognize the Paul Mayes thing you’re doing, but I don’t think that’s what you need to be doing. That, coincidentally, did help me a lot this weekend rebound from a funk I was in and re-focus myself on the WindWorks fundamentals (i.e. engaging aperture corners, relaxing, etc.).

But it seems like you’re not at that…[Read more]

Steve,

I’m not an instructor, Greg is the master, but I am confident in saying that that was way too much lip buzzing. And that’s what gave you endurance problems.

I have a relatively long commute and there was a little extra tonight. I listened to your practice routine on the way home (Part 1) and you were primarily lip buzzing, mouthpiece…[Read more]

Click on link in first post above, or look on Youtube Mystery to Mastery Chat#7

Watched the whole thing as well, thought it was great. Wow, that book is amazing.

I’ve been having a little difficulty again the past few days. I’ve been busy at work and have been just sort of rushing through a warm up, harmonic slurs and some scales each day.

Not sure if I’m losing muscle/endurance or going too fast through my practice…[Read more]

Great question, I’ve wondered the same thing and have had the same experience with whistling.

I’m not sure and I could be wrong (anyone correct me if I’m mistaken), but my take on it is that there are direct similarities in how we engage/tighten the aperture corners, arch the tongue and perhaps control the air (and not over-blow) when doing…[Read more]