Great posts, gents. J.Gardam, I need to structure my practice sessions…I must admit to playing extemperaneously most of the time. My intention was to structure things more this year, but frankly it hasn’t happened–I haven’t done it. I’ve been busy at work and other excuses… I just did a little number on my chops and had to take yesterday off due to overdoing it. But, as expected, things felt and sounded much better today. Going to make it a point not to overdo the range too much.

Philip–regarding your question on the 2nd movement of Haydn, here’s my take FWIW:

Tensing up when playing at the top of the staff and above is a tough habit to break. One that I still catch myself doing from time to time and probably something that all players, even the best, have to watch.

Much of the WindWorks exercises is geared towards our breaking this very thing–the Singing C series and focusing our playing on passively released air is a key fundamental that I would recommend spending time on. And when spending time on that, I recommend REALLY focusing your attention on relaxing and using PASSIVELY released air–to the extent of intentionally trying to do less and less until you actually do fail at achieving the pitch(es) you’re aiming for.

I was surprised at how much I could get away with, but it’s easy to forget that when you put a piece of music on the stand–especially if it’s one you’ve played a lot for years and have memories of playing it and struggling with it.

I had to avoid Clarke’s First Study (Technical Ex.) for about a year when first starting WindWorks as I had decades of tensing up as I ascended. So I played Clarke’s Fifth Study instead as it was new to me and repeats a lower register scale series before ascending.

When developing my newfound range above the staff, I started screwing around playing some various melodies I always had wanted to play. Many of them were simple melodies as I was a bit rusty in my technique; I gravitated early on to simple lyrical melodies like John Williams’ themes, for example.

I had “coffee moments” while working on some of those where I “suddenly” was able to play above the staff at a soft dynamic, in control with relative ease–an ease I never thought possible, despite Greg and others saying it was possible.

Most days, I play certain parts of those–the spots that made me realize what’s possible to “check in” and reaffirm that I can still do it. As time goes by, I feel the need to do that less and less but still find it helpful to look for the sensation in my chops as I play those intervals.

Since these pieces are new to me, I don’t have the ingrained bad habits like I had with Clarke 1–which I have now broken, finally. So, when I play them I play with my new way of playing. Thankfully, I no longer worry about my old habits; in fact, I don’t know if I could play the way I used to if I tried to remember how I did it. All I remember is that I rolled my bottom lip under, clamped down too much, overblew and the air was blowing almost straight down.

When I look at Haydn’s movement #2, I might suggest you consider playing a couple lines of Clarke exercises playing at the top of the staff up to and including the highest note in Haydn’s movement #2 (I think that’s Bb on a Bb trumpet).

And I wouldn’t focus on the rhythym or articulation, at least not at first, of the exercises and I wouldn’t play the whole Study, I would just pick a couple of the keys that are applicable to the spots you’re working on.

I would play one or two of them with the Haydn on the music stand next to it. I would play with my eyes closed, slurring with a breath attack on Passively released air focusing intently on the feeling of the “weight” of the air and observing how efficiently (or not) the air releases through the aperture. Is my throat and body relaxed? Is the only engagement in the aperture corners, or is there unecessary engagement? When things are going good for me, I can ascend with minimal movement of the lips and feel like I’m just riding the airstream–I’m not blowing or actively producing the sound, I am allowing the pitch to “happen” by releasing the air through a (hopefully) optimum “Shape” with minimal engagement in the aperture corners (tongue arch can help too).

As I played the exercises, I would define “success” in my mind NOT at achieving the notes in the exercises, but playing with good steady air and relaxed and objectively observing whether or not the notes desired came out successfully with no emotional attachment whatsoever on the outcome. I spent A LOT of time experimenting like this in the beginning and it was good time spent; the key was consistent air passively released, so the only variable that was changing was “Shape”.

I would rest as much as I played in between and probably play some lower exercises like Clarke’s Second Study, for example, and just feel the “flow”–I would play that slurred and, using good but Passively released Air, see if you can kind of “ride the wave” and ascend and descend on the air stream relatively effortlessly with minimal movement of the lips and no engagement of the throat or rest of the body (we have to let go of this and know that this does not help us, it actually makes it more difficult and reduces the resonance of the sound).

And I would alternate between playing parts of Haydn movement 2 slurred and the Clarke exercises, back and forth a bit, eyes closed focusing in on the sensation of the balance of Air and Shape and listening intently for optimum resonance and paying intently to the sensation of openness, relaxation, freedom, efficiency and strive for making it feel and sound the best you can on good but passively released air.

Some songs, I find myself tensing up a bit at the top of the staff and above, whereas some songs/scales seem effortless for me, even though they’re comprised of many of the same notes. I can only surmise that much of this is mental for some reason and that “spending time” up there, slowing things down a bit, playing extemporaneously and not strictly to the written music (at first) to hone in and focus on the balance between Air and Shape necessary to play up there in an optimally efficient (and resonant) way. It’s a battle of determined patience, willing yourself to relax and play with ease and literally intentionally trying to fail–playing relaxed to the point of failure, then engaging only slightly more until you find the absolute minimum engagement necessary. Having good quality, consistent but Passive Air is key for me when experimenting this way–that way, you aren’t mixing up more than one variable at a time. And, at first, focusing on slurring the passages you’re working on first, then introducing articulation in later.

To play the music, we have to achieve each of the following:

1. Produce the pitch – Balance of Shape and Air (based on the given dynamic/duration)
2. Phrasing – Very important to release the air through the phrase to produce the best musical outcome, like we’re singing and plan where the breaths are
2. Articulation
3. Fingering
4. Rhythym/Timing

It’s easy to lose sight of one or more of the above items as we have to juggle them all simultaneously. But obviously #1, producing the pitch and the quality of the sound we produce is the most important and is the least straightforward of the elements as we have to figure out what WE need to do given our physical structure, etc.

Hope that helps, FWIW.