Good to see you posting again, Steve, I was wondering how you’re doing. Glad you’re still at it.

FWIW, my interpretation and experience is that:

It’s really important to separate air support from shape change.

That may be the single most important key to it all, as we have a tendency to use more air than is required to ascend.

For me, I focused for several months on using almost exclusively every time I played passively released air. I have the luxury of being an amateur player with no performance commitments.

I played a lot of harmonic slurs and focused on zero abdominal support, passively released air only. I didnt trust myself with being able to flip back and forth between active and passive air and wanted to really understand how shape alone changes pitch and was worried I would use more air to manipulate through an inefficient embouchure/aperture, etc.

I recommend really separating the air from shape, it is probably the only way to ensure you’re not manipulating too much vs staying relaxed.