Glad to hear things are working better, Paul.

It sounds to me like you’re very attuned to what’s going on physically in your embouchure and I think awareness is a good thing.

I have found it helpful to keep Sound in mind and observe how changes I make while I’m releasing air through the instrument change the sound, better or worse, and how I…[Read more]

Hi there,

My understanding is you want to avoid what you’re describing, you want to free the air such that the only thing holding it from escaping is the tongue sealing the opening by touching the back of your teeth/roof of your mouth.

It sounds to me that you have identified that there is tension elsewhere in your body that is holding in the…[Read more]

You’re welcome, Paul, glad if my thoughts were any help.

I am playing relatively effortlessly compared to how I used to, but it is still a battle of mind and body.

I wasn’t able to play at all the other day and cleaned my horn today. I caught myself at times over exerting.

I have found it easier to catch myself earlier on when that…[Read more]

Hi Paul,

Welcome to the WW forum!

Removing deeply embedded habits / tendencies takes time–be patient with yourself and hopefully you realize that the fact that you know this is an issue is a very good sign! Being aware of that is very important.

I haven’t dealt with any asymmetric embouchure issues, so I don’t know if I’ll be any help;…[Read more]

Thanks Steve, Happy New Year! I hope things are well in Helsinki. Things in the U.S. are interesting right now…but I am hopeful that the worst is behind us, for the most part.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying the ride I’m on quite a bit and am more and more connecting various dots of things I’ve learned done, it feels very much like it’s all…[Read more]

It definitely is a circular process, one we’ll never be done with.

I saw Tom Hooten ( LA Phil) and other great players (Phil Smith) talk about watching out for tension creeping in.

I myself seem to have it less and less often now as I replace it with more and more memories of playing relaxed and experiencing the amazing freedom and resonance…[Read more]

Glad to hear you got your horn! Congrats and good luck. Yes, my posts usually wind up being very long… I have just given it a lot of thought over the past couple years. I had a great end pf 2020 and this morning again was a new high for my playing.

I’m very grateful for what I have learned on this site and hope I can help others while I…[Read more]

Awesome Colin! Congrats! Just watched an interview last night of Eric Myashiro last night–he said Maynard told him he never worked on range with range exercises, he just kept raising the key of the music he was playing till he was playing above the staff, etc.

Thanks Bo.

Had a slight setback yesterday, but it was brief and turned out to be a positive thing.

I thought again how the most important part of our body / piece of equipment involved with playing this instrument is between our ears–our brain.

I was tied up with work and didn’t get around to playing until later in the day. Rather than…[Read more]

Thanks Steve, that’s very good to hear–that my ramblings helped in any way.

It is interesting how the lips just need to be present to vibrate and to remember that the air column travels through the center of the aperture–so that is where the air interacts with the lips.

Someone else on this forum, I don’t recall unfortunately, mentioned on…[Read more]

Nice! Congrats. Happy Holidays to you and yours. You’ll enjoy playing in 2021! The Silent Brass system is pretty neat. It’s best to play without a mute, in my opinion, as much as possible, but handy when you have to keep the noise down.

Great info Steve.

I can relate to that “pushing away” feeling / concept and the result Michael describes in the post you refer to above. It can feel and sound amazingly good and that feeling is most noticeable above the staff up to and beyond High C.

I recall Greg talking about that pushing away of the mouthpiece by the lips in one of his…[Read more]

Great posts / interesting thread. I’ve been playing well with what feels like a very compact embouchure / setting. I remember experiencing this before, when I moved back to a 3C from a 1 1/2C and 1 1/4C mouthpiece. I’ve broken my tendency to tense up and blow more air as I play higher, for the moat part. Keeping things centered and compact /…[Read more]

I’m not familiar with that specific Yamaha model, however I would doubt you could go wrong with any Yamaha horn–great quality. Greg plays Yamaha, as do many of the world’s greatest players. A pro horn is fine for a beginner, pro horns aren’t harder to play theyre just higher quality. If anything, they’re slightly easier.

I won’t copy the whole course on this thread, but this video from Greg is really applicable to this as well, especially starting about 4 minutes in.

I really like what he says / how he explains WHY “buzzing” the lips helps us build range–it’s really more about learning what the tension needs to be in the corners as…[Read more]

I think many people struggle with trying to use more air in order to play higher.

It’s not something I recommend anyone do as, in my opinion, it’s more than likely not going to work for them and will lead them to experiencing the same frustrations as I did.

Here’s another video from Greg that touches on this topic a bit until such time that…[Read more]

Welcome, Aleppane! Sorry to hear that money is tight–you’re not alone during these difficult times. It’s going to be tough without an instrument–have you considered renting an instrument? I did that years ago when screwing around with saxophone. Or, you could buy one of those Tromba/pTrumpet plastic horns, but renting one would probably be…[Read more]

Great question, I think there are many aspects to a centered sound or a great, resonant sound.

If I recall correctly, I believe Greg describes in one of the videos that resonance is the optimum balance of Air and Shape / optimum efficiency–it’s when things feel and sound the best. Since it’s the optimum efficiency, it’s when playing is the…[Read more]

Here’s a video from Greg which explains how to change pitch on the trumpet.