My problem is similar but I am trying to not roll it in focusing on the corners instead. The problem for me is that my endurance and range have just gone massively down.
I could play above high C on fresh lips but now G seems to be my top note 🙁
A am struggling to play with my band as a result.

That actually sounds more like what I was doing before WindWorks when I was clamping my lips in the middle as I ascended.

I remember rolling my lip in and feeling like I ran out of lip as I ascended and tilting my head back/bell down, etc.

Now, when I tighten the aperture corners as I ascend, I try to use as little movement / tension / engagement as possible to change pitch. I try to stay relaxed and move as little as possible as I ascend and try to use as consistent of an embouchre as possible as I ascend, focusing on the ahhhhooooohhh (corners sensation) and avoiding tension in the middle of my top lip.

I don’t know if Greg agrees with this, but I found whistling helped me figure things out a bit–when I would whistle and focus on clamping the middle of my top lip down, the sound would cutoff, whereas as I go higher I am arching my tongue and tightening my lips (aperture) around the air column as I go higher.

My bell no longer goes down and I don’t tilt my head back and run out of lip. We don’t need to move much at all–watch the videos of Greg and other great players, they’re not moving a lot. What little movement there is is coming from the corners like the tightening of a hose nozzle from around the diameter of the air column.

I wonder if you’re overblowing? You might try backing off the air a bit and focusing on your sound a bit.

Or you might be overdoing / overthinking the mwwwahhhooohh thing as you place the mouthpiece on your lips. I don’t want to contradict anything Greg says, but if you watch the videos of him playing he’s not really extremely forward as he puts the mouthpiece to his lips and plays. For me, when I’m having great sensations / range / flexibility, and feel like I’m in the zone, I have the sensation that my lips are kind of tightening around the air column towards the center of the mouthpiece (almost a light gripping sensation NOT CLAMPING) and my lips feel like they’re moving forward and I’ve realized I don’t need to tilt or roll my lip, etc. I can “go straight through the front door” as I ascend, I don’t need to wrestle with myself and the horn. It’s a subtle thing.

The video posted above was very helpful to me as well.

The biggest thing, for me, that helped was avoiding chromatic (i.e. Clarke) scales ascending–I had years of bad habit ingrained in me playing Clarke and would tighten as I ascended and I would move too much. I avoided Clarke for a long time and am just now going back to it as I feel like I get what I’m supposed to be doing now with it.

Instead, I focused on octaves and forcing myself to be relaxed–thinking of it like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. Playing softly, starting with low G (i.e. 1 and 3), then G on the staff then G above the staff and focusing on how little difference in effort it takes. Playing soft is key and using less air and not kicking above and just tightening the aperture corners a bit.

For me, the big revelation was A–A above staff was the very top of my range for many years. When I stopped playing chromatics and just tried to simply play A on the staff then play A above the staff with little movement as possible, it came out easily like nothing. It wasn’t much longer after that that I played my first high C ever in 40 years… And now I own C through E and am nudging higher, hitting Double G but trying not to focus too much on range but solidifying my mastery of playing correctly and having a good, resonant sound and flexibility, etc.

It took a while and I had some successes and failures, wound up going backwards a bit, but have been having great sensations and success consistently for a while now, thankfully.

I think the key for me is “less is more”. When I overthink things and try to do too much, which I start doing when I get tired, I start feeling myself moving more and starting to fight the horn a bit. A lot of times, I actually can recover a bit by relaxing, backing off the air and focusing on using as little movement as needed.

My $.02 / experience–hope that is helpful to you. Good luck!

That is awesome! Thanks John!!!

I think you are not really using “the non-clamp style embouchure” as described in WindWorks. I suggest you do the Largo stage practice until you have the mmm-aah-ooo down and can play singing C Largo exercises using mah-ooo. You are rushing the process trying to play G above top line F. You have not progressed that far. That comes at the end of Presto stage with Presto G singing C.

You will be practicing mah-000 to high C above the staff. Practice the exercises as prescribed and do not rush the process. I think your hanging-on to manipulating your lips as you did when your first attempts of playing the trumpet. You will need to spend time practicing the first exercises with a visualizer or mouthpiece with no buzz. Do not pull your bottom lip in, ever. Do not pivot your horn to push it in. These are habits they need to be replaced with WindWorks habits.

Now if you must play in trumpet outside of practice, you may have to play for a while on one embouchure for performance and another for practice. If you are a student, consult your director and play parts that do not require you to manipulate your embouchure to play higher. I boldly claim that if you will stick with the process and not rush it, you will be very pleased and will enjoy playing.

Stay connected. You can do this.

This is great!!! You nail many very important concepts Ron, thanks. I have nothing more to add 🙂

You might be overdoing it. I’m a comeback amateur player, played a lot in high school and early college. Dreamed of going pro and took from some reputable teachers but didn’t have the chops, so majored in business, got married and had a daughter. 25 years later (daughter turned 10 today), no regrets. But I have limited time to devote to playing trumpet. I try to play everyday, but don’t always get a chance. Realizing lately that that is likely what’s holding me back from progressing faster to the next level.

But I’m happy with where I’m at, I can pretty much play high C whenever I want and can go up to E pretty well.

Tightening the corners into more of a fish face is how I do it, although I have found less movement is more–I try only moving as much as necessary and that seems to help. I don’t go too crazy, but less is more.

Good luck!

Steve,

Would you mind if I asked approximately how old are you (i.e. are you in high school, college, or one of us Over 40+ comeback players, etc.) / how long you’ve been playing? Might help provide some appropriate context to give you the best recommendations.

I agree with Ron, I think you’re on the right track just need to not overthink things–which is tough, because our thinking hasn’t worked thus far and we need to change what it is we’re doing. But, I try to remember the 1% rule and the permanent focus on being more and more efficient. If I feel something I’m doing doesn’t feel natural or isn’t helping the sound or ease of playing, I try avoiding doing it. I believe the less is more guide helps me focus better, play freer, have better sensations and helps me achieve the Windworks objectives (BCH, not kicking the air to change pitch, not clamping down / overtightening, not overblowing, etc., etc.).

Steve,

I have been where you are at. When making embouchure changes, you are going to have struggles, especially since you have expectations and want immediate results to play every note you used to play.

I suggest you stop whatever warmup you are doing. Do not play pedals. Everything does not have to be played FF. By the way, FF is such a subjective description. If you play, FF C below the staff and second-line G FF and the sound is distorted, you may be overblowing. Back-off.

You have just started windworks and do you think you should be able to play all of the notes you used to play using this new embouchure? This is a several weeks commitment.

Consider what Greg says:

“The ego’s desire to play with perfect tone will take the focus away from the correct Process encouraging manipulation thus deeming the exercise useless. You must be able to let go of the desire to sound amazing in order to effectively analyze and refine your playing system.”

If you have gigs or ensemble commitments, you are going to have use different embouchures.

Upload a short video of you playing some of WindWork exercises.

Don’t give up.

Sorry to hear you had a bad day, Steve. I know how frustrating that can be. Everyone on here, Greg included, have been there. I remember less than a year ago feeling like throwing my 30+ year old trumpet across the room and quitting for good. I was pretty close to doing so.

What was so frustrating was that I had gone from where I was before, barely above the staff to High C to High F (just below double G), then lost it and slid back down below High C again and felt like I lost what I had gained.

I took Greg’s advice and focused back on the very beginning and slowly worked up.

I think the course is great as it’s laid out and following it is beneficial.

But I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s important not to think that there is something about how the WindWorks exercises are laid out that simply playing the exercises will build your range up to where it needs to be or build your flexibility, etc.

I believe the exercises and lessons, at least in the beginning, are focused on helping us discover for ourselves the sensation of the aperture corners and the proper sensations we’re supposed to be feeling as we tighten the aperture as we ascend.

Simply progressing slowly from one lesson to another isn’t going to result in your progressing and having your own epiphany / coffee moment and realizing what it’s all about.

In my opinion, if you haven’t had an “aha” or “wow” moment when trying to do a harmonic slur, flexibility or ascend and it hasn’t felt remarkably easier and/or sounded better / more resonant, freer, etc. then you’re not on the right track yet.

I’m just a hobby / amateur player who played a lot in high school and dreamed of playing professionally but didn’t have the chops and chose a different path in life.

Now, it feels great to finally have the feeling that I finally understand how to play this instrument that I have spent so much time, blood, sweat and tears over. And I am playing it in a way that I’m not tearing myself down everytime I practice but by playing more efficiently, my practice is much more effective.

I don’t have time to play through all the WindWorks exercises and other studies too. Sometimes I simply do a warmup, do some flexibility studies, harmonic slurs and play some music. But the mmmmmmmmmmmmwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhoooooooooooooo is key for me, as is the BCH and thinking about the air column, less is more, the 1% rule–trying to be more efficient and have a more resonant sound each time. I try not to battle the horn and myself and get in my own way; I think I used to do that and now I try to work with the horn, think about interacting with the air column as little as necessary and trying to stay out of its way / keeping it as untouched as possible.

When I do that, I have good days.

When I have limited time, expect myself to hit certain notes, don’t pay attention to how I’m feeling and try to force things, don’t play music that is pleasing to me or musical, I don’t enjoy it and wonder what I’m doing and why I’m doing it at all.

I’m busy, but I do (obviously…) have pockets of free time where I can practice and read/post on forums… I’ve been very passionate about this lately due to the great sensations and great progress that’s been increasing lately. I have a lot of momentum and I’m really excited for this weekend, when I can play during the day, without a mute and hear how things sound and feel freely. I have been focusing on some exercises which seem to be helping me build endurance, strength and dynamic ability (i.e. playing louder). I’m cautiously optimistic that tomorrow or Sunday may be a new high for me, but I must be careful to approach my sessions with patience and not rush or push to hard too soon. Fingers crossed…

You should take Greg’s advice and Skype with him–he’s been through this personally himself, I doubt there’s a better guide out there. I doubt you’ll get completely sorted out on one Skype call; however, I’m sure it will help you get on the right track and headed in the right direction.

I think each of our journeys is unique and we all have our own obstacles to overcome which are different, but there are some common problems we can help one another solve.

Steve,

I suspected the same thing as you–my teeth meet in the middle, I have no overbite or underbite; perhaps that’s the reason I couldn’t play high. My top lip is kind of thin, perhaps there’s not enough meat to oscillate, etc., etc.

I feel like I’ve disproven that to myself now; while I’m still just an amateur hobby player with limited skill, the sensations I have and the range I’ve developed in a relatively short period of time lead me to believe I’m on the right track.

There appear to be great trumpet players with different types of lips; some big some small. Some play on big mouthpieces, some play on small.

From what you’ve posted thus far, I suspect you simply haven’t had that “coffee moment” where you feel the sensations of more (much) easily doing harmonic slurs simply by engaging the aperture corners from the sides, letting the middle of the top lip be relaxed, using a less is more approach. I think if you experiment with that, reading all the Windworks pointers before closing your eyes and experimenting with harmonic slurs, I think you’ll experience (eventually) an ease of playing you didn’t think possible before and with minimal movement, just an engagement of the corners / slight contracting as you ascend.

If I were you, I would take Greg up on his Skype offer. It’s most likely not an easy fix, but I bet you would get some good take aways from the session that would help you on your way.

So much,, probably most, of this is mental; you need a good morale and frame of mind when you practice or you won’t progress.

Be patient, open-minded with no expectations, be willing to experiment trying to do what is described and be willing to fail and realize what you tried didn’t work.

Focus on the Process, not Results. I feel like I’m still solidifying the Process but I no longer fear losing it as much as I used to. It seems that it’s become more second nature now than my old way of playing; that takes time and will likely take me longer to really cement in. Good luck!

Steve,

Ran across this video this morning and thought it was a great summation of what it’s all about and a clear message that it’s not physical, it’s mental.

It is physical in the fact that we must move our embouchre in coordination with the air column and interact with the air column; but it’s not physical in the sense that what you need to do is play the exercises in the order presented and you will develop physically into a monster player.

The exercises, especially in the beginning, are meant to help you discover new sensations and let go of old concepts about playing.

One thing I did in the beginning that helped me a lot which Greg mentioned in one video was to listen to Windwork videos on my way in to work–I have about an hour commute each way so I would listen to the videos as I drove in.

I tried to surround myself with the concepts [still am, obviously… :)]. I think that helped my mental state as I approached playing the horn to where I was thinking about the various WindWorks concepts and not my preconceived notions, old sensations, habits, etc.

In time, I lost those old habits and am replacing them with new.

Steve, don’t overanalyse it.

Stick with the Windworks plan. Your “new” way will take time to take over the old way. That means some time with a lower range, then a time when it catches up and finally takes over with way less fatigue and way more resonance.

Trust me (or more importantly, Greg) I have been where you are and whilst I am not a screamer I can now play consistently above high C and finish 3 sets of Big Band without having to ice my chops.

Loving trumpet way more than I did years ago! Thanks, Greg

Straight Airstream!

Steve,

Very generous of you to post these publicly. I hope and think they will be helpful to others on their journey as well.

I’m not qualified as an instructor to give you any instruction; I think you should take Greg up on his offer to Skype with you–I am sure that would be beneficial and a great experience.

But, for what it’s worth, I’ll give you my $.02 on what I observed:

1. I love September and Krypton too. Those are two of my aspirations as well, being able to play those well.

2. You played a combined of 3+ hours…that seems like a lot of time, albeit you did a good job spacing it out, taking breaks, etc.

3. When you do the Mmmmmwwwwwaaaahhhhhooooohhhhhh, you seem to do it away from the mouthpiece and horn and when you do go to the horn straight from it you seemed to go into pedals.

For me, the whole point of Mmmmmmmmmwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoooooooooohhhhhhhhh is the setup to play the horn with an open throat and engaged aperture corners–close your eyes and feel the aperture corners as you say the Ooooohhhhhhhhhh part of it…….

Then, continue to engage those muscles by tightening and loosening those muscles as you arch your tongue and do harmonic slurs up and down and observe how that feels, sounds, etc.

I recommend you expiriment with that, making slight tweaks to get a more resonant / freer sound and easier/faster harmonic slurs/flexibility.

For me, Harmonic slurs are much of the key to the Coffee Moment and opening up my range and flexibility, etc.

What started it for me, was someone recommending playing octaves (i.e. G on the staff, followed by G above the staff) with minimal movement. That made me stumble onto using my aperture corners to ascend without my realizing it. Then, luckily, I found WindWorks/MTM/Greg, which made senses of what I had stumbled upon and helped me realize what the heck was going on and how to continue to develop.

The video is kind of far away from you and of course audio quality isn’t the best on YouTube, but it sounded a bit to me like you are likely tightening/clamping/choking off a bit as you ascend; it sounds a bit like what I used to experience. It doesn’t sound free. It sounds like you are fighting the horn a bit, which I think your earlier posts alluded to.

I would spend more time on harmonic slur flexibilities but making sure you’re tightening from the corners, not clamping down top to bottom which you may be doing–that’s what I was doing, and I wish I could have all the countless hours of doing harmonic slurs that way back as I wasted my time banging my head against a wall and effectively got nothing out of it.

That’s my $.02 but I recommend you schedule a Skype with Greg, who has personally gone through this before personally and who has instructed a lot of people, many of which are far better players than me. I am simply trying to help with what limited knowledge and experience I have, for what it’s worth. I wish you all the best and every success! Keep it up!

Steve,

Glad if my $.02 is adding up. At the end of the day, all we can do is share with each other our experiences and opinions, FWIW. We are all on this journey. Some of us, perhaps, are at a later stage than others but who knows what the future holds?

I too play mostly from memory, I play songs and music and exercises from memory mostly these days. I’m limited on time, during the week I get no more than an hour in the morning and sometimes in the evening I can squeeze in a session as well. I have more time on the weekends, but try to minimize it as well as I have other commitments to my family, etc.

I usually spend probably 5-10 minutes (I don’t track it) on a warmup, usually stamp or something extemporaneous starting with G on the staff then working up and down chromatically from there, but eventually moving to Stamp warm ups.

From there, I usually move to lip slurs, starting with 123, progressing to Open, etc.

I usually start by limiting the top note to the octave (i.e. 123 stops at F#, Open stops at high C) the first pass.

Later, I follow up with another round of harmonic slurs where I continue on up as high as I can. Lately, I’ve been taking 123 up to C# and taking that harmonic up to 12 (E) and 1 (F) before running into a bit of difficulty. I have gotten the F# and double G, but it’s still a work in progress.

I usually try to squeeze in a little music, just to free things up and check my sound, resonance and ability to play notes musically connected together.

I think that helps us from over-analyzing and doing stupid stuff.

At the end of the day, the reason we’re blowing air through a pipe is because we want what comes out the other end to sound good, to emote something we are feeling, etc.

If what we are doing physically with our embouchre doesn’t improve the sound or gets in the way, it’s probably not something we should be doing.

Tromba – I have a C Trumpet and Flugelhorn Tromba plastic horns. I think they’re great. I wanted to experiment with both instruments and didn’t want to plop down the coin for even a used horn, but $150 is not too bad. They’re impressive instruments for what they are.

You have a tremendous advantage over most players due to your dedication/commitment and your ability to spend so much time practicing/developing your skill.

Videos – Your posting a video made me go back and look at some that I filmed of myself last year when I first started my “comeback”. It was enlightening. I thought today and am thinking about whether to post one or more of those or a new video and whether that would be of any help to you or others, etc.

The thought is intriguing. I definitely could see how it might be helpful, but my intention was not to share that much publicly or be a performer. But I respect your generosity and laying it out there; I think and hope you will get a big return on that investment and I will do what I can to facilitate.

I haven’t decided yet what it is I want to do or whether or not that would help you or others.

As far as my muteless practice goes, it wasn’t as revolutionary as perhaps I hoped (i.e. I didn’t achieve a paint-melting Double G), but I’ve had good sensations lately and feel like I’m making some good progress, but have been busy at work and have had even more limited time than before. This weekend is a 3 day weekend in the U.S. so I’m hopeful I can break free a bit and put a little more time in.

I think I’m on the verge of a loud, resonant double G and being able to ascend that full harmonic series from C# (above high C) with 123 all the way to double G on Open fingering, etc. We’ll see.

Today, I spent some time looking back at my timeline–I thought that might be helpful to you or Bill on another thread.

March 2018 – I started playing again more regularly, looking up YouTube Videos regarding trumpet. Stumbled on one that was about the “straight line approach” to playing higher. I gave that a go and got lucky, tightened my aperture from the corners instinctively and played higher easier than before. My first high C followed shortly thereafter.

April through December 2018 – I ultimately found Windworks, which helped me solidify my understanding of what was working. Took a break in late December and struggled coming back to where I left off (ascending to F above High C in Clarke technical studies).

Spring of 2019 – Screwed around with mouthpieces, switching from 7C to 3E (shallow), to 5C to 10 1/2C, back to 3E, ultimately to 3C–which I’ve been playing for 3 or 4 months and have solidified my progress on. The 3C seems to be working great for me, which is neat because that’s mostly what I played in high school when I spent so many hours practicing, taking lessons from reputable teachers and getting nowhere for it (G above the staff was the functional limit of my range…).

Sometime in the past few months, after I switched to the 3C and stopped screwing around with mouthpieces, I began having more consistency and progressing further.

Based upon what you posted, I would recommend you play more music and reflect on your sound and ease of playing as you experiment with trying to interpret the various Windworks points:

1. Shape changes pitch
2. The lips interact with the air like the vocal chords
3. Less air is required the higher we ascend
Etc. Etc.

For me, my big epihpany / coffee moment came when I tried that “straight line approach” and simply tried playing simple octaves. I played G below the staff (13), then G on the staff and focused on how little difference in energy that required then tried to minimize what movement I made to change the pitch to G above the staff without tilting my head back, rolling my lip in, etc. The only thing left to do, really, was squeeze my lips together from the sides which, ultimately, is what Windowrks recommends. And it worked.

Granted, I struggled for months trying to replicate that initial success and once I gained it, I lost it and began clamping my lips down in the middle again as I tried to progress to quickly and overthought things, etc.

Ultimately, though, the new way of playing replaced my old tendencies to the point that I can’t remember the last time I struggled playing high C when freshly warmed up.

The ease with which I’m able to play up there now was not comprehensible to me months ago.

I’m just an amateur hack/comeback player, but the sensations I’ve been having and the ease of which I’ve been playing tell me that I’m on the right path, a sustainable one, and seem to continue to progress on an upward trend.

I want you to have the same experience I have had–to slightly engage/tighten the aperture corners to ascend from G or A on the staff to G or A above the staff. Try it, be willing to miss it–it doesn’t matter if you do. Experiment. Not much more is needed to go from the staff to above the staff; it’s easier than we think it is.

Steve,

You’re an animal (in a good way). With your dedication and commitment, you’re going to develop amazing skill once you have your “coffee moment” and WW clicks for you.

I’m not qualified to provide instruction, I’m just an amateur on this journey as well. But you asked for feedback, so FWIW:

I wonder if you should focus your time and energy more narrowly and go deeper when you practice.

Perhaps it would be more effective to prioritize certain key things you want to work on, and select certain exercises to develop those specific skills you choose to focus on (i.e. range, flexibility, articulation, dynamics, tone, etc.).

Your practice sessions seem broad and you cover a lot of things during them; which is great in some ways, but may inhibit your ability to develop in any one area.

Perhaps it would be better to devote less overall time on practice sessions but go deeper and really dig deep. And spend a certain amount of time on music–perhaps even playing a piece from start to finish with a metronome to force yourself to articulate, phrase and execute in time to the metronome. If we play extemporaneously too much, I think it’s harder to gauge our abilities.

Also, I could be wrong, but it seemed like your air might not have been consistent during some of your harmonic slurs–like the pitch was rising or falling with the air a bit, kind of like you were kicking with the air or at least not keeping the air steady from beginning to end. Again, I could be wrong, but a thought.

Thanks for sharing with the rest of us and putting yourself out there. I hope this is helpful and wish you every success.

Sounds like a good plan Steve. I also plan on using a more structured approach. I’ve used the fact that I have limited time as a reason to simply play exercises from memory without a metronome or pre-written plan and no notes. I think it would be better if I put more structure into my practice, yet still allow some free time in which I play music freely, spontaneously, etc. BUT, I also think it’s important to work on music in a structured way (i.e. with a metronome, something written, not just a melody from memory) that can be worked on, refined (different elements like dynamics, articulation, timing, phrasing, breath control, etc.). I think we’ll get farther faster if we take that approach.

I think it’s important to listen to our lips/bodies and not push too hard too fast. But, as long as we’re not doing anything extreme it is good to push ourselves to our limit to see how far we can go, allow ourselves to recover then hopefully eventually be able to push through further to another level of ability.

I think I’m going to check out the Harmonic Slur challenge this weekend and a Windworks lesson or two and maybe try to play something from start to finish–something I can work on overtime and master.

Good luck and have a great weekend.

Holy Moly Steve, I just saw your videos…amazing! We need to talk.

While you are covering a VAST amount of material, I think you could cut it a LOT and spend more time on music. I am not sure that coming back through the day mixing technical development and repertoire the way you are doing it is the best approach; trust me I used to do this for years! I think a more structured “where am I at?”, “what are my limitations?” and “what do I need to work on?” approach will develop better results faster.

What are the techniques required? Sound, valves, tongue, harmonic slurs. We can cover all of this in a much shorter amount of time then get on to the fun stuff.

Great dedication and I really like the spread out approach over the day, i just think there is way too much noodling without direction and just playing for playings sake. That’s fine if that’s what you enjoy but maybe not as productive as it could be.

There are some excellent things going on technically.

Cheers,
Greg

I find the bottom lip rolling in discussion fascinating since that is how I play. I’ve been trying to correct it for more than 15 years. It creates a lot of compression for me, making it quite easy to squeak higher notes. This makes most exercises here easy to do passively up to about high C and a little beyond, especially articulated. However, anything actually playable past about a high D or E requires too much pressure on the top lip to be useful since no more air can get through.

To combat it, I’m going through the Largo and some later stages, but mostly loud/quiet octaves lip buzzing, mpc buzzing, and playing, focusing on aperture corners as much as possible.

Trying to not roll in the bottom lip seems impossible without completely reforming a new embouchure.

When you say rolling the bottom lip in, do you mean rolling it under the top lip? I believe that’s what Greg mentions in his video and it happens to be what I was doing, blowing the air down towards the floor. It worked to a point but I usually ran out of lip and/or clamped down shortly above the staff.

Sounds like you’ve made it work up to High C and beyond. I wonder if we’re talking about the same thing, although I think Greg made it work up there as well and played professionally for years like that, as have others.

The movement I make now is towards the center of the mouthpiece/air column, tightening the aperture from the outsides inward; not clamping top-to-bottom like a clam, but leaving the middle of the lips relaxed and shrinking the aperture from the outsides in (ooooohhhhhh).

My range isn’t super high, but I’m an amateur / comeback player just doing this for fun. And I have limited time to practice. I played a lot in grade school through high school and some college, including lessons. Wanted to play more, but could never play much above the staff.

With this new approach, and I doubt I’m playing 100% perfectly / efficiently, but I believe I’m pretty far along; I’ve worked up to controlled High D’s and High E’s, High F is the top of my range but lately I’ve been touching double G more and more.

Less is more seems to be the key–I feel like I have to sort of indirectly tighten the aperture by tightening from the outside like the rim around a drum head–you don’t want any tightness in the middle of the drum head or it won’t vibrate, you want the tightness around the head. I think that’s how our aperture must be, we must keep our lips as relaxed as possible for them to vibrate as fast as possible.

When I was younger, I think I was flexing my lips to create each shape–which I think works for the middle and low register, but the sound is not as good and resonant and the vibration only goes so high…eventually, it cuts out and I clamped down too much.

Been experimenting with shallower / brighter mouthpieces to see if I can play those to get that sound. Having difficulty transitioning, may not have found the right one yet. I recently switched to a 1 1/2C and felt and sounded instantly better and my range actually increased, which was unexpected. I thought I would try it and expected to find it was way too big and I should go down from the 3C I was playing. Instead, the 1 1/2C felt and sounded better and my range popped up–the double G starting speaking more. It’s a crazy journey of discovery, I keep forgetting not to expect results but I never cease to be surprised.

Yes, the bottom lip rolls under the top lip. I think the “psychology” of blowing the air out straight or up helps a bit.

The inward motion of aperture corners when ascending feels new and challenging to me, which is exciting.

I think I’m in the same boat as many others: I’ve found out what works for me to get the notes out, however it’s not efficient and occasionally beat my chops up like crazy on demanding gigs.

It takes a long time and is not a straight upward climb, there will probably be setbacks / backsliding, etc. That was very frustrating for me as I had gotten a taste of the Golden fruit then went backwards inexplicably, I didn’t think I was doing anything different; but of course I was, but it was subtle but made all the difference. It takes time in the “two buildings” but eventually our two different methods of playing converge. I suppose I was fortunate, in way, for not having any playing commitments–I was able to focus on just the new way. But even then, of course, I found myself reverting to old habits, or new bad ones.