Welcome to the Trumpet and WindWorks!

I haven’t experienced what you have described, but others probably have.

My gut is that you are over thinking it and are manipulating your embouchure into an inefficient shape.

The MmmmAaaahhhhhOooohhhhh is important and key, and I do believe that playing forward is efficient and

My interpretation of WindWorks is that it is somewhat about less is more.

We tend to overblow and over tighten/engage our lip muscles, tighten our throat, etc.

The progress charts where we can log how fast we can do harmonic slurs helps us to objectively measure our efficiency of changing shape (pitch).

What has worked for me is doing the setup as Greg demonstrated with the visualiser and tissue, then doing a breath attack.

Separating Air (Passive vs Active) and Shape is key.

I had a bit of a setback this week and found my way again by reviewing the setup, focusing on breath attack and leading with the air and engaging the aperture corners in response to the air, only as much as necessary–opening up the aperture or engaging tighter to see where maximum resonance is / the best sound is.

Bottom line is that playing music
Is the end goal. Make sure to play music you enjoy and listen to your sound, let that be your guide as well.

I caught myself getting a bit lost in exercises, scales, harmonic slurs, etc. I think that may have been part of my problem–I was too focused on increased range and not on Process and music.

Hope that helps, FWIW. Good luck, you’re in a good place. I wish Wind Works existed when I was young, I think I would have had a better playing experience in High School and College.

I couldn’t play above a G above the staff and never touched a high C back then but a High C now doesn’t seem very high and I’m working on my range above that.