You sound great! I wish I had your ability to play that strong. Right now, I’m still just trying to master the passive air approach. I have developed an ability to ascend easily and can play longer and higher up there than ever before, using the WindWorks approach.
My $.02 is that your normal lip setting on the mouthpiece doesn’t look bad; it may be fine.
Your attempt at the WindWorks setting is too puckered still. My interpretation is that it’s not how you set your lips on the MP; it’s what you do next that matters.
I believe that you should pretty much use your normal setting, perhaps with the tissue test to make sure where you’re placing the MP is correct. But the Mmmmmmmmwaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhooooooooooo thing is really (I think) intended more as a mental approach to playing, not a physical one. My interpretation is that you should place the MP on in as natural a setting as possible.
But it appears to me that you are doing what I thought you were doing, what I was doing and what Greg mentioned he was doing–it appears that you clamp your lips top to bottom as you ascend. You sound great, strong, but you’re probably smashing your lips together and against the mouthpiece like I was.
It’s a subtle thing, a knife’s edge, but it makes all the difference…
My advice would be to place the MP on with your normal setting and think Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, perhaps “say” it (barely) with the MP still on your lips, just enough to feel the engagement of the muscles on the sides of your mouth / aperture corners.
Now, play a C on the staff and, focusing on those muscles, squeeze them inward from the sides towards the air column and try to leave the middle of your lips relaxed. Hopefully the E will “speak” and perhaps you’ll even skip that and the G above the staff will come out.
Less is more, the 1% rule–use as natural a setting as possible. And remember, passive air and less air is needed the higher we ascend.
I tried uploading a video but ran into difficulty; I’ll try this weekend.
Greg has some great videos throughout the course on this, but I don’t have those handy.
I ran across a couple last night on YouTube relating to a product I had never heard of. The videos were amazing as they were done by Tom Hooten (Principal Trumpet of LA Philharmonic) and Yehuda Gilad (Clarinetist and Professor at USC). What they talk about with respect to the aperture corners and the description of this product may help you have an epiphany about what it is physically you need to change.
In some ways, it’s very subtle but it makes a world of difference.
I believe these videos reinforce what Greg explains in WindWorks and may provide additional color to it. I’m not trying to suggest buying this product. I did, but it’s expensive and might be a waste of $$$. We’ll see.
AND:
Note: From 1:00 to 2:00 is GOLD!!
I found it fascinating that Clarinetists have the same issue that we do. I heard previously that playing trumpet is similar to a double reed instrument (i.e. Oboe); I think Greg may have mentioned that.
Hope this helps!
I’ll try to come up with a video that helps as well, but Skyping with Greg and going through the other videos in the course and the two above are likely better.
