Hi John…thnaks for the post.. and I agree.. you need to have the theory principles understood.. thats the “nudge to learning” hence the value of all the guys like Greg (for the about to walk toddler the “nudge” is enough to just look at Mum and Dad) just 5 minutes ago I was simply trying to play a nice sounding f below g on top of the staff.. morning here in helsinki.. i was not happy with the tone, tight and felt like needed a lot of effort and air.. i was focusing very lightly on the touch/sensation of the top lip – seemed to help a bit but not really the direction i want to go in (mouth piece pressure) So I took out my go-to-100cms,(diameter of my little finger) 5 euro metal pipe frnm the hardware store.. (variation of the lead pipe but i do find this better..) transferred the mouth piece and just focused on playing a nice reasonant and above all easy full note probably an octave below the f for a minute on and off. Went back to the trumpet and played the original f as easy and reasonant as you like.. self2 had worked something out alright! Then I stopped. But I’ll be back in 30 minutes or so! By the way i’m not convinced about the structure idea.. i know people preach it a lot but its not how we learn as children.. structure feels to me a bit like work (my first marriage!!) aged 30 i started learning Finnish – I listened and read and read and read. novels..very slow going to start with (i rememebr having an english and finnish raymond chanmler book side by side! never opened a grammar book after the first year (and Finnish very grammatical.16 different cases if i remember for any given word!) and nowadays I can’t remember did i read a certain book in finnish or english.. BUT maybe you’re right cos yesterday i decided I would practise caruso method (earlier been a bit sceptical about it.. but then I’ve never tried it!! ) as shown here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E69JF0-028Q every day for 6 weeks and see if i noticed a result.. I’ve alreday done it once today!
all the best.. cheers for now Steve