Very cool, thanks.

But of course there must be tension, it just needs to be in the right place…the corners, not the lips…at least not the top lip (for a downstream player).

When things feel and sound most resonant and efficient, my corners are tight and I feel like I’m increasing and reducing the aperture slightly, sort of modulating the resonance. Its more like I’m releasing air like holding the neck of a balloon open and stretching the aperture open letting the end of the balloon vibrate.

I still need to work on advancing my range further and my consistency but I get an optimal feeling each practice session at least a few times up at High C and beyond.

The one key clarification I think, for me, is that I believe the optimum shape and airflow for a given pitch is different depending on the dynamic (PPPP vs FFFF)

I believe or presume that the aperture needs to be more open at FFFFF than at PPPP and that the apeeture doesn’t need to be as tight (the same shape) at louder dynamics.

Is that correct?