Hi Greg,

I am new here. I am a comeback player, I’ve been back 3 years after a 15 year break.
Things started out great but once I started to focus on the range it seemed like everything collapsed. I have been practising at least an hour a day and for a period of 3 months I did the Claude Gordon Systematic Approach (1 – 2 hours a day) with no gain in endurance and limited range improvements (2 half tones with quite a lot of force). At this time I started to get headaches while playing and suspected something I was doing was wrong. Than I found you, thank God 🙂

I have been thinking about the aperture for a while, I suspect I am doing something wrong but it would be nice to get that verified.

1. I have noticed that my jaw is quite close and teeth close together while I am playing. When I do the mmm-aa–uhhh then it is open but once put the mouthpiece on then it closes up.
Should train myself to play with space between the teeth in all ranges?
2. When I go higher I have noticed that my lower lip goes slightly under the to one even if I focus on the aperture corners. Is this ok or should I try to have no up-down movement whatsoever?
3. When trying the new instructions, I pull my lips together horizontally, but that creates a kind of kind of pucker where the lips stand out a bit. This is what the umm-aa-uhhh encourages my to do as it happens naturally. If I go higher, focusing on the corners than it is even increased. Any tips on how to improve this?

I am really exited about your material and feel confident once again that I can be the player I want. Thank you for your efforts.

Best regards, Jakob

P.s. would really appreciate help from anyone 🙂

Hey Jacob, apologies for not seeing this sooner! I am about to add a video to the bottom of this link to explain further. Cheers, Greg