Sounds great, Reijer. I think a lesson with Greg in person would be great and very helpful.

I have no over or under bite, my teeth meet exactly in the middle.

But I have always tended to play with my bell down and head back a bit. I used to roll my bottom lip under and in and blow the air downward towards my feet.

Now I play much more forward, open and relaxed. I try to think of the air column as I’m playing and imagine the inner part of my lips (the aperture) interacting with the air column and think about keeping my lips in the center of the air column, trying to move them as little as possible and keeping them relaxed, not engaging the muscles in my lips but moving them only by engaging the muscles on the outside of the lips in the corners (the muscles I feel when I say oooh).

I think about the 1% rule, less is more, less air is needed the higher we play, we want the air to interact with our lips as if they’re the vocal chords, etc.

Lately, I’ve been doing this thing where I experiment doing less and less until I miss the note. For example, I play G below the staff, then G on the staff with a breath attack then G above the staff with a breath attack and I try engaging less and less until I miss. I try using the same amount of passively released air for all 3 notes and playing softer the higher I go, then once I get the pitch I open up and release more air and try to maximize resonance.

Harmonic slurs with consistent air have been key for me as well, ive been doing more of thaose lately as fast as possible with steadily released air–not using air to kick and manipulate to try to help but separating Shape change and Air. Ive been doing those up near the top of my range and some whole notes with passively released air mixed with a little lip bending to help me understand how slight differences in Shape impact pitch, even subtly.

Ive also had more and more of the sensation of my lips naturally falling closer towards my teeth as I ascend and use less air as I ascend. I think lowering my jaw a little has helped keep things in the right position, forward and centered, as I ascend–that way, I dont run out of lip when I ascend like I did when I used to roll my lip under.

When things are going best, it feels almost as if I’m doing nothing to play above the staff, kind of like I’m just thinking of the note and it’s there with the same setting as on the staff and below the staff, no strain or manipulation is necessary, its a subtle difference and feels like I’m directing the air upward maybe slightly.

Congrats again on your recent experience, I hope you continue to have those experiences.

They weren’t regular for me, and there were setbacks and frustrations, but I’m better for those experiences as we learn from failure, not success–which can mask problems we’re not aware of that cause trouble later.