I have that tendency as well, and I think many do. What’s great is that you have that awareness! That is the key to your success.

You might want to try watching your volume closely and focusing on using passively released air, not active air. That helped me better isolate Shape from Air and prevent me from using more air to achieve the speed…[Read more]

Nice to hear, Steve! I’ve had a lot of success playing those mental games with myself–having the confidence/audacity to fail when attempting a pitch, trying to use as little effort (Shape, not Air–we need good consistent Air, but Passively released is fine/good) as necessary. More often than not, I find that I am doing too much when having…[Read more]

Good to hear, Steve–sounds like you’re onto something. I too have been doing something similar to what you describe. I would start with setting the mouthpiece (MP) and horn to my lips, keeping them as relaxed and natural as possible.

I then release a breath attack on a pedal tone–whatever slotted naturally.

There is some inconsistency…[Read more]

Thanks Steve. I agree with you, it’s impossible to be able to consciously make decisions necessary to accurately control everything necessary to play.

I don’t recall if I saw it on WindWorks or somewhere else, but someone made the analogy to explaining to a toddler how to walk–walking is one of the simplest things we do which we take for…[Read more]

I have a sensation at times of achieving a pitch, then opening up the aperture a bit and releasing more air through and achieving more resonance. Actually it may not even be increase in air as much as opening the aperture and the resonance increases as I’m not kicking the air or “blowing” when it happens, the air is relatively constant (I believe,…[Read more]

Sorry to hear that you’re struggling, Steve and that you feel that WindWorks didn’t help you. I understand that you gave your best. But I don’t feel that it’s fair that you blame WindWorks for your struggles anymore than it would be for me to blame my teachers back when I was in high school and college for my failure to figure it out…[Read more]

Very cool, thanks.

But of course there must be tension, it just needs to be in the right place…the corners, not the lips…at least not the top lip (for a downstream player).

When things feel and sound most resonant and efficient, my corners are tight and I feel like I’m increasing and reducing the aperture slightly, sort of modulating the…[Read more]

Thanks Brian! I’ll give it a shot. Amazing how much our mind appears to influence things. Visualizations seem very powerful.

Hi Leo,

There was another thread “Exercise with silent brass mute” late last year in which some of us traded posts about mutes. I can’t seem to link it here, but if you search for that in the top right corner of this page you’ll see it.

Bottom line is that there are some pros and cons to playing with a mute, and some don’t like doing it…[Read more]

Here’s a great video I ran across tonight from Greg. I had seen this before, but it has been a while and this resonated with me (no pun intended…) and what I’ve been experiencing lately.

Greg says it better than I have tried–“A perfectly resonant tone is the balance between aperture corner tension and airflow”

I think my bottom lip slips under my top a bit as well. Not sure it causes a problem but I do try to keep things centered and forward and feeling natural and try to let the sound (resonance) and ease/efficiency be a guide.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, it may help me or others figure things out.

Best,

John

I never used too much MP pressure. I just clamped my lips and over blew to the point the sound would cut off.

I’ve been having some success lately paying close attention to the natural pressure that pushes back as we release air and staying relaxed with the only tension in the corners.

I can get up pretty high with minimal pressure. Still…[Read more]

BTW–never noticed before, but looks to me like Botti might be an upstream player; his head seems tilted forward and bell up and looks like his bottom lip may be jutted out beyond his top a bit.

That could be why there’s such a mark on his top lip like that, it could be that he’s putting the pressure up there rather than under his bottom lip…[Read more]

Wow, yes–that’s quite a mark! I’ve seen temporary impressions on players after they played in the extreme upper register but that mark seemed to hang around and is red. Greg or someone else might be able to identify what’s going on there.

I like his playing too, thanks for sharing. Here’s a couple I’ve run across that I enjoyed, more on the…[Read more]

Nice! Interesting to have some science behind what’s happening.

This is very timely for me, as I’ve been riding a wave lately fueled by my renewed focus on what I’m doing (or not doing) with air.

I was having difficulties playing consistently above the staff. I’d play resonant, clear beautiful sounding notes the first time or two, then…[Read more]

Also–the key I think is Believing the Truth, that you Don’t have to tighten your throat or clamp /engage your lips to ascend; in fact, that makes it harder.

Lead with the air, not by over blowing but just startimg with the air and engaging the corners (not the lips in the Mouthpiece, whic need to be relaxed so they can vibrate freely (faster,…[Read more]

I totally relate, Chris! Congrats on Your Awareness of what you are doing…that is the most important part of playing.

I had to avoid Clarke 1 for many months due to years of bad habits that I felt impossible or unlikely to overcome.

What helped me is doing octaves with breath attack and passively released air, observing the incremental…[Read more]

Nice! Glad if our posts helped you, that’s what the forum is for.

I have been thinking of this thread today as I was trying to play relaxed and using a consistent embouchure. I had good sensations using one setting for Pedal C, Low C and High C and minimal changes.

When playing a low C, rest and breath Middle C (staff), rest and breath then…[Read more]

Welcome!

Since you feel that you are forcing to get the note you’re reaching for and because you describe what sounds like a lot of movement and something similar to how I played and I think how Greg described he himself played (rolling bottom lip under, blowing downward, bell down to the floor, head back, etc.)…you probably are not achieving…[Read more]

Yes!!!!! Awesome Leo! Congrats, that’s great to hear.

Be patient with yourself and continue to focus on Process and how you got to that point. It can be tempting to switch to focusing on Results right after you have a breakthrough and set Expectations that everything will work the same way tomorrow and you can progress onward tomorrow. You…[Read more]