I’m just getting started with MTM and I’d also be very interested in some additional guidance as suggested by Jakob.

I am an amateur comeback player still in the Largo status stage, and music is not my first career. I do the WindWorks exercises every day as my warm-up. I begin with the visualizer and tissue and then progress to the mouthpiece and leadpipe. I spend a few minutes on a stand alone leadpipe, and then I play my trumpet leadpipe by removing the tuning slide. It helps me reinforce the comfort of a sympathetic oscillation while holding the trumpet itself considering Greg’s quotes about Arnold Jacobs and the instrument leading to the resurrection of old habits. I then move to the singing C exercises and go as far as I feel comfortable that particular day. One day it may be the series G, and some days I do not feel comfortable except at the series Eb. My point of difference is still in these early exercises.

Anyway, this routine occupies about 15-20 minutes of my typical 60 minute practice per day. It is helping thus far, but it is a very slow process for me at least (see my old post titled Muscle Tension Dysphonia). I will do an update on that problem in the coming weeks.

I hope this helps, and I would love to hear form others as well.

Hi Jakob, to be honest all those questions need to be answered by you. Listen to your body and chops and put the horn down when they are tired or start to swell. When I first started MTM I only managed 10-15 min studying the concepts. This created a new ’embouchure’ set for me and as I had regular gigs I had to swap between my 2 embouchures for the 1st 6 – 12 months. I always started with the MTM routine, then tried to stop analysing and just and play after that (That’s the hard bit). Sometimes starting gigs with my new setup then reverting to the old to finish.
I concur with what Eric, do MTM exercises at the level you are at for as long as your MTM chops are fresh (10 – 40 min depending), then have a break, then try just playing etudes, standards or improv in your next session and think more about the music not the technique. Eventually your mind and body will start preferring to play with your MTM setup. After 6-7 years of MTM I use various advanced exercises in my technical routine that I remember from the system and also apply the concepts to other exercises like Schlossberg, Arban, Scales and Arpeggios etc. My routines also depend on my commitments at the time from 20 min a day, to multiple 40min sessions a day. Hope I have helped. Good luck!

I.m Reijer from The Netherlands, I’m started doing the Windworks course for a while but always fall back to my previous way of playing. I did analise myself again after Greg’s video where he told to bite the finger and put the bottomlip more forward. When i did this i also did my jaw more forward so my airstream lifted more upwards. I’m a downstream player and always wonder if i have to move my jaw forward to get better results. As you can see on my members photo i blow much downstream. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

I think when it’s easy, it is also easy to repeat it too many times and unknowingly sap your stamina without being aware of it until it’s too late. I would go on from the easy ones. They might feel good, but you won’t feel good later. IMHO.

Hixsta,

I am very intrigued by your experience of switching between “2 embouchures” when you first started this transition. Could you elaborate more on what your old setup was? I feel I am in the same boat. I have started this process a few times but gave up after a bit as I got bogged down trying to keep up with gigs. I’ve finally decided that I want to begin each playing day with 20-30 minutes of Windworks concepts, which at this point is just to get the sympathetic vibration with the mmaaaoooh lip formation. I am slowly getting better at this but it is still foreign to me as I currently play with an embouchure which has the lip setting thinned out and against the teeth. I am resigned to just patiently stick with this process with no expecations for as long as it takes. After my designated windworks practice I’ll just go back to my old set and carry on as usual. Any information you can provide would be helpful. Thank you!

wjtakacs, do you do 20-30 mins of just the breath/leadpipe/sympathetic buzz with the mm-oo-ahhh setting? I’ve tried it and it seems like a long time, but not to physically tiring since it can be super relaxed.

It’s after this step where I guess I get a little confused. After I get a sympathetic buzz, I spend 15-20 minutes playing the Singing C exercises (or stuff from the book when I get bored) with the new mm-aah-oo setting.

Is this what hixsta is describing? This new embouchure? Greg says that this new setting is “a great place to start.” But, do we keep on experimenting with minor adjustments to our regular embouchure? Or is the mm-aa-oo setting our “new building” we’re working on?

Hi wjtakacs,
I used to basically curl my bottom lip inwards and blow hard to go higher. Airstream went down and all the pressure went on the top lip. I worked hard on thinking about the airstream up as well as constantly blowing into my hand using the mouthpiece visualiser (no buzz) to make sure my airstream was straight or heading up. Thinking about the feeling. Learning not to ‘kick’ the air. Then I had to try and forget this whilst I am on a gig.
Hope that helps!
A