Thanks for the replies again. Trumpet playing is so weird. After I had my awful day where I was dead tired at the end, I had an hour break, then I played some low Cichowicz flow studies to recover, they went ok but thought I had little strength in reserve. After I thought I had recovered enough I played out of Schlossberg. Long tones went pretty well except there were raspy bubbles in the tone for higher notes I had to iron out. Then I tried a few exercises from other sections that went above the staff and that’s where it was bad and I stopped immediately. I know they should be easier. I guess my break wasn’t long enough because several hours later (~3 hours) everything felt completely different! That’s when I was just playing tunes out of my head I knew, mostly classical stuff but fun stuff too, and I did feel a positive difference, I felt I could grip the air stream all around it more and pitch was more responsive to air pressure above the staff, I don’t know if that is the right technique but things did feel better in a positive way. I apologize for my previous negative comments, trumpeting is still a mystery for me 😉 I have been recording myself, I will try to post something tomorrow. Thanks for continuing to respond to my posts, I appreciate your help and advice.

Thanks,
Steve.

P.S. More background info:
Had lessons in high school but stopped after a year or two. Played in college but nothing serious as I was an engineering major (there wasn’t a music degree available there). I did pep band, symphonic band, jazz band, and a self-formed brass quintet. I founded a natural trumpet group and we attempted to make our own horns (from sheet copper!) but just ended up playing with tubes attached to our trumpets. After that I played in community groups, did some musicals, played at church a lot. Continued this way until moving to Los Angeles with the activities mentioned in the previous post including a Salvation Army trumpet group that played in New Orleans after Katrina. About 3 years ago started practicing again (some periods daily) after ~5 years off. I have never been as dedicated to improvement as I am right now. So yeah I guess I’m a 40 something come-back player of sorts, although I would really like to be better than I was. I’m not playing in any ensembles right now. Currently unemployed so I have a lot of time to put into WW, but I guess too much can be too much!