hi
re jaw I have been moving forward a touch and it seems to help. My idea is that there has to be pressure somewhere so i am absorbing it in the “bite zone” so as my jaw is a touch forward so that teeth aligned I can also very slightly bring my back teeth together(more tense them than close them) so I feel tension in the muscle circlce around the lips and the jaw and everywhere else feels totally relaxed. yesterday at 7pm my notes above the staff were coming out so easily and reasonant I made myself stop for the day and enjoy that coffee time feeling! (By the way I got this feeling when I stopped feeling about lips jaws anything and just played the music – when I was in this mode I didn’t even register what my jaw was doing.. maybe it was forward and tensed at the back or maybe it was just those exercises earlier in the day that helped – sorry not to be more specific)

re Johnelwoods ideas of less tension and being ready to fail what i have also done in the last few weeks is the idea of playing a phrase of music with high notes in it on as little air as possible. (whereas my old reflex when seeing a high line of music tended to be the opposite – focus in getting in as much air as possible) I breath in ..then start the relaxed exhale sigh and then start to play – impossible to play with overblow induced tension in this set up mode.

all the best steve in helsinki