Don't Stop = Success - WindWorks Trumpet Academy by Mystery to Mastery | WindWorks Trumpet Academy by Mystery to Mastery

This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 7 months ago by laurie.hafey.

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- 25 September 2019 at 5:13 am #32383
  
  laurie.hafey
  Participant
  
  Hey Greg,
  Long time since you’ve been in Colorado. Hope you make it back. Soo, I think it’s been about 5 years since I first took a lesson and started my journey with M2M rebuilding my playing process. I am So Glad You Have Continued With Building and Refining Your Process. Thank You. Don’t Stop!
  I lost count on how many times I have started at the beginning of book 1. You should see all the scribbles of Ah Ha moments. Then book 2. Now thru WindWorks. I am still not where I want to be but am So Far Ahead of where I started. I know that I will only fail if I stop. I will not stop. I now believe that I can and will have high chops. And they will be awesome. I play around in the upper register everyday now and someday I will do it during a performance comfortably. I am excited to do the harmonic lip slurs as the benefits are apparent in my playing. To anyone questioning whether to continue playing…. don’t stop. You only fail if you give up. Don’t give up.
- 25 September 2019 at 2:09 pm #32413
  
  johnelwood
  Participant
  
  Thanks. I was thinking about something similar yesterday–if you never give up, you will succeed. Or, I was thinking about posting something like “I FIGURED IT OUT! Again…for the first time…”
  
  I’ve realized it’s not one “coffee moment” and then on to green pastures from then on out.
  
  I have evolved though over the past year in my relative understanding of WindWorks and how to play.
  
  I don’t know if there’s one true way to play; there probably isn’t. But when I have the most success is when I focus on the various WindWorks mantras:
  
  1. Pinching the lips and overblowing is the most common problem
  2. Air should interact with the lips like they’re the vocal chords
  3. Less air is required the higher we ascend
  4. 1% Rule – Be 1% more efficient for 1% more resonant sound
  5. Engaging the aperture corners
  6. BCH
  
  Lately, I’ve been trying to focus more on consistency. I feel like sometimes I do a harmonic slur upward and things feel / sound great, then the next time they don’t.
  
  Realized I was pinching, slightly; it’s such a subtle difference, in part because that was my norm for years.
  
  One of the things I’ve been doing lately is thinking of engaging the aperture corners as pushing up or holding up / supporting my top lip as I tighten the aperture to ascend, kind of like tent poles supporting the roof of the tent.
  
  Also, occasionally mixing in some lyrical music–free-blowing stuff with lots of melodic slurs and focusing on my sound helps check in to make sure that what I’m doing physically with my lips/embouchre makes sense, feels natural, is producing a resonant sound, etc. That’s helped me realize when I’ve gotten a little too literal / carried away with certain things described in the course.
  
  I’ve got a long way to go to get where I want to be too, but I’m enjoying the journey…most of the time…
- 26 September 2019 at 5:27 am #32444
  
  laurie.hafey
  Participant
  
  Yes,yes! It is such an adventure! I double checked and actually it has been 4 years which makes me feel better. I just try to do a little every day now. It is just a process of deconstructing the old and replacing it with the new. Greg has our backs and it is terrific that he is posting and sharing so much. The tools are all there.
  I played 50 years as a pressure player and thought corners referred to the corners of my mouth. Had trumpet professors tell me stomach pressure was the way to play in the high register. I had No Concept how to do what I was trying to do.
  I am changing my mental soundtrack and inserting new physical tools.
  I am going to be playing trumpet for another 35 years… when I turn 100!
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