Thanks Steve. I agree with you, it’s impossible to be able to consciously make decisions necessary to accurately control everything necessary to play.

I don’t recall if I saw it on WindWorks or somewhere else, but someone made the analogy to explaining to a toddler how to walk–walking is one of the simplest things we do which we take for granted and it’s second nature.

But the thought of having to articulate / explain that in a way that is understandable would be daunting; perhaps impossible.

But, if we understand and consider WHAT and WHY we are doing, then we figure it out for ourselves.

I suppose the problem with the trumpet is that it does involve things which are counter-intuitive and contrary to commonly held perceptions, such as we should just blow harder / give more air to go higher–which is blatantly false and destructive.

We must develop for ourselves an innate ability to sense the balance between Shape and Air and know what that Feels like so that we can have a sense for what to do as we are playing rather than think about it real-time, which is probably impossible for most (it is for me…).

Otherwise, we’re destined to keep banging our heads against a wall (endless scales, harmonic slurs, long tones, characteristic studies), expecting / hoping for a different result than what we’ve always gotten out of it–not much.

We must have a sense, a feeling, for what it is we’re trying to do with each exercise we’re doing.

After 42 years, I think I’m starting to finally figure it out. But there were a couple decades in there that I gave up and didn’t play much at all. The past couple of years have been pretty steady time-wise, but in hindsight could’ve / should’ve been much more structured. I think eventually I’m going to reach out to Greg for a Skype lesson to make sure I’m interpreting things well and to see what tips he has for me to work on, etc. I’ve heard great things from everyone that’s done that.