Rob,

I’ve always played the same way as what you are describing.

I’ve spent the last 18 months trying to change this, just over 12-months of it looking at MTM. I’ve made some progress, but not there yet, and don’t really know the answer.

However, I don’t think that trying to play ‘down’ is necessarily the answer in itself, though.

For me, it’s been more trying to be aware of what I was doing with my jaw (was jutting it out and tilting horn up), with my air pressure (was trying to blow the horn straight a lot of the time), lip pressure (too much!) and then bringing all that back to a more neutral position.

It was terrible at first–couldn’t play, sounded horrible, hated it. It’s still not great, but 18 months later, kind of a bit better–can play a bit, but I wouldn’t want to have to be gigging. (This will likely be a challenge for you if you are playing professionally. Good luck!)

As well as looking at the MTM course for the last year–and getting some good things from it, but still not ‘getting it’ fully–I’ve spent a lot of time looking at the embouchures of good players online (YouTube etc). Some helpful, some not. Charlie Porter has some interesting ideas, though, at the end of the day I can’t play like he’s advocating (either). For me, when I practice in front of a mirror I’ve been trying to look more like people I admire for their chops: Wynton Marsalis, Maurice Andre etc, and anyone who seems to have the trumpet more or less centred on their face, playing easily, and not using jaw, tilt or extreme lip pressure/air pressure to play. I try and copy the set of the instrument on my face, see if I can imagine what they might be doing and see if I can make a sound the same way. Some other trumpet players have been an inspiration in the opposite direction–amazing musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Fergusson and others who sound incredible, but are doing what I don’t what to do in as much as their necks pop out and and they look like they’re going to explode. (Absolutely incredible musicians, but that’s not what we’re talking about.) And then there’s James Morrison, who sometimes looks to me like he’s doing it all ‘wrong’ (puffed cheeks etc), but apparently isn’t, and sounds nothing but ‘right’, all of the time. (Another incredible musician–I could only dream of being a bead of sweat in the armpit of his ability…but I don’t know how he does some of what he does on the trumpet without hurting himself.) Again, I’m not talking about musicality, just, ‘what is the most efficient way to get a sound out of the trumpet’ and ‘how do you play high, loud and for a long time without causing yourself injury’. I don’t know! But, like you, I came to the conclusion that what I was doing with tilt and pressure was/is not it. I don’t think it’s likely to be it if tilting the other way, either.

Finding how to best work the instrument (as opposed to how best to play music) seems to be the point of the MTM course. The thing is, while I’d love to be able to play easily like Greg Spence is advocating, unlike Hajo, I haven’t been able to make that happen, yet. Maybe I’ll get it in time, too–we’ll see.

I don’t know if any of this is likely to help you, but wanted you to know that your playing issues/concerns sound just like me/mine, and I may understand what you’re talking about and going through.

If you come up with ‘the answer’ then let me know and we’ll both benefit!