Sounds great, Greg, can’t wait for Chat 7.

Thanks for your kind words in your last video, that meant a lot to me coming from you–not only because your ability as a player and teacher, but because of your commitment to helping other players resolve their playing issues. If my post helps one player, I would be very gratified.

Bill, I think the leadpipe is more intense on our lips than the horn. I’ve never done 15 minutes straight but that might be a lot.

You might try experimenting with thinking Oooohhhhh with your eyes closed as you’re blowing into the leadpipe and concentrating on the muscles in your aperture corners, which you should feel as you think (“say”) Oooohhh as you’re blowing steady. If you Engage those muscles and tighten them inwards from the sides, leaving your top lip middle relaxed–NO CLAMPING and keep the air nice and steady as you squeeze the corners, I think you’ll pop up to the next harmonic. With the horn, with even more slots, you may pop up 2 or 3… Coffee time…

Re: your post about bottom lip, my understanding is that our bottom lip doesn’t do much–I think it pretty much just acts as a barrier or something for the air column to pass through–i think it’s primarily the fleshy middle of our top the lip that does the most vibrating…maybe Greg or someone else can confirm or correct that.

But I used to tilt my head kind of back and sort of roll my bottom lip in/under to ascend, which sort of works to a point but there’s no sound or endurance or flexibility…other than that, it works great…

I spent a little time today buzzing the leadpipe as my chops felt a bit off. Not sure what was up, I had relatively good results/sensations but haven’t had a lot of time this week to play. Maybe I’m losing a little muscle this week. Or, I’m afraid the clamping is coming back and I’m experiencing a little funk.

Hoping for better sensations tomorrow / this weekend. It’s a 3 day weekend, so I have a bit of freedom to play and do so without a mute in.

I think I’ll check out the harmonic slur challenge, although I listened to Greg’s last update on the way home from work and I don’t think I’d be able to tell if I’m playing fast enough beyond a certain point…16ths at 208 bpm might be beyond what I’m able to comprehend!

But it makes sense how beneficial it is to develop harmonic slurs further.