So I’m now coming along nicely in the process toward consistently playing without closing off/tensing my throat – and the sound is opening up, the effort is lessening. Yay! But this morning I found a variation on the backswing that is working amazingly well for me:

Take a good breath, sing a nice, resonant open “awwwwwww” and while doing so, raise the trumpet up to, but not touching, the lips. Hold it there for a moment while continuing the “awwwww.”
Repeat several times, reveling in the feeling and awareness of total openness of body, throat, mouth, relaxation while singing the note, *not thinking about playing the note at all.* Just give that openness of sound out into the universe. 🙂
Then, maintaining this feeling/awareness, bring the horn to the lips and, with no tongue or breath attack, let the flowing air produce a low C. The beginning of the note may not *initially* be focused at all (it hasn’t been for me, anyway) but the aperture corners will firm, and the result is a nice resonant sound — and 0% closed off, no tension whatsoever. I repeated this process with 2nd-line G, and then 3rd-space C (treble clef).

Yes, I left off the “oooh” and the airy “tu-tu-tu-tu-tu” steps, but only because my experiment was to see what would happen if I tried transitioning directly from singing to producing a note. After many successful results with this “modified backswing,” I then did the backswing as taught by Greg, and I could detect no tension.

Kudos galore to Greg – I’ve never played with such awareness of what’s going on with my body, and that awareness, coupled with patience and the understanding of the importance of *always* practicing like a virtuoso (and seeing/feeling/hearing positive results!) is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened happened to me in my long trumpet journey. May the (lack of) Force be with you!

UPDATE: Now try this! Play a G or a low C. Now, without moving the mouthpiece from its position, transition *immediately* from playing the note to humming “mmmmm”, and back again. Several of these in one breath. Then try the same thing, but actually lower the lower jaw (keeping the mouthpiece resting on the upper lip) and sing “awwwww,” and then, without a break, transition back to playing the note. Then alternate, all in one breath: note—hmmmmm—note—awwwww, repeat at will. This was fun, and made producing the sound feel utterly effortless besides.

I should note that my sound is gorgeous right now. So something good is happening 🙂