johnelwood:

Thanks for having a look at these, I appreciate it very much. Maybe we can all post vids of our progress. I bet we could put links in the profile page which is not accessible right now. There are some apps that make it really easy to upload vids to YT but I’m using a camcorder.

My response to your comments:

1. My head is literally filled mostly with songs. Songs of every type and genre. I just play some things I like sometimes. 50% of what’s in there are baroque trumpet concertos though.

2. 3 hours is correct, some days I start at 9:00am and go until 9:00pm. Usually it’s from noon until 8. There are several long breaks in there of course. Maybe I take it too slow.

3. With MATUTU, I do it to get the feeling, but then I also try to start playing actually from that exact lip formation as I put the mp to my lips, and that’s what comes out. It’s usually a pedal F. It’s very finicky with very light pressure any note up to an octave higher can come out at first. Then I gradually apply tension to get to the low C.

I tried doing what are called ‘flexandos’, a really fast transition harmonic slur between octaves in my warm up but that seemed to tire me out quickly. That’s the biggest problem I have, is that I don’t last very long, and end up playing on tired lips for most of my practice. About half way through the practice I haven’t been able to play G on top of the staff, but that is improving.

The tone may not sound free, but the cam mic is not good. Also it’s a plastic horn (Tromba brand) and it has a bit duller sound to it although I am using a metal mp. The horn also doesn’t ‘slot’ super well, I think it’s just the construction and materials, it’s probably not built with the greatest tolerances and feels more ‘flexible’ than metal horns so it’s easier to bend notes but also easier to play out of tune. But it was only $150 brand new. I believe I do have a pretty resonant sound now it’s improved a lot since starting WW, I’ll try playing at the cam in the future (there’s a mirror on the wall).

Thanks a lot for your $.02, it’s starting to add up 😉 BTW how did your muteless practice go?

Steve