You may be right and of course Morrison’s explanation will work for some / many, I’m sure and I hope.

But the “Give it More Air to Go Higher” method doesn’t work for many people and the frustrations of that method of teaching are what brought me to WindWorks and I believe are what led Greg to write the WindWorks course.

I can still see in my mind band directors giving me that advice when I was younger…marching band…

In my opinion, the Separation of Air from Shape (Pitch) are critical to understanding how the trumpet works and developing a sensation of the balance of Air and Shape. And, in my opinion, that separation is one of (if not, The) foundation of WindWorks.

If we use Air to try to achieve Pitch, as Mr. Morrison recommends / claims he is doing, it is much harder (my opinion) to determine what’s doing what.

Many players struggle with this approach and wind up overblowing and, as a result, over-engaging the muscles in their face, throat, body, etc. It’s a positive feedback loop (not a good thing), a death spiral of sorts that limits many players’ endurance, range, control and understanding of how the instrument actually works.

And no offense to Mr. Morrison–again, he’s one of the greatest ever and has forgotten more than I’ll ever know about playing; however, I wonder how likely it is that he accurately knows whether or not he’s keeping the aperture consistent as he increases Air. That seems very, very difficult to do. On the other hand, perhaps one could say the same about Greg when he demonstrates using more Air doesn’t change Pitch–but it seems to me to be an easier experiment.

Playing trumpet is already difficult, it seems like we have to re-learn how to play every single day.

It helps me to isolate Air and Shape as I’m practicing. Ultimately, we must balance both of these crucial things when playing to successfully play music at different dynamics, etc.

I think of Air and Shape like the gas pedal and clutch in a manual transmission car–too much or little Air (gas) and our lips stop vibrating (car stalls), but if we use the right amount of Air and Shape, we achieve resonance.

I’ve seen Morrison’s video(s) before and I think they’re helpful in some ways and thanks for the video above / additional information / insight.

I just perhaps have a different opinion / viewpoint on this and it’s based on years of frustration of trying to blow harder as I played higher and getting nowhere / having it actually limit my range and endurance significantly (i.e. G above the staff and very limited endurance). If I can help save one person from having that same experience, I would be very glad.

But I continue to enjoy seeing / hearing other players’ viewpoints on playing–bottom line is that none of us can just listen to one person and succeed; we must take ownership of Our playing and figure it out for ourselves–using information we get from teachers, other players and our own experimentation / experience. We can’t just keep our heads down and mindlessly repeat exercises–that doesn’t work (trust me… ;)).

My $.02 FWIW