WindWorks Trumpet Academy › Forums › WindWorks › Significant embouchure pain
My embouchure hurts really badly this morning. I mean REALLY significant pain and the 2 Advil I took haven’t kicked in yet. Maybe I’m just overdoing it? (Endurance issues have never, ever been like this for me before.)
I’m not playing anything at all outside of Windworks exercises right now. I feel I need get a solid start on building myself a 2.0 brain first. Truth be told, I’m afraid to go back to playing any material I was working on before Windworks. My 1.0 brain is giving me massive fits and I wish there was some way I could just kill it off all at once. (FYI, I have no idea where my range is at the moment – used to be D/E above the staff and I don’t want to trigger 1.0 brain to find out where it is now.)
I was at Largo Status/C# Harmonic slurs last night and won’t attempt that again until I can stop the throat engagement that’s goin on. Before you tell me to take a lesson, I watched Greg say in one video something along the lines of deliberately making throat engagement happen to learn to feel when it happens. Learning to deliberately mess something up? Interesting concept. I’ll figure that out late tonight after my embouchure recovers a bit. (Dropping from F# to C# is easy, but trying to go back up isn’t happening without throat engagement.) FYI I will eventually take a lesson, but later. There’s a lot I can learn just by watching videos over and over and over and over . . . . . . . . . .
We need to talk ASAP Janet, please contact me. Cheers, Greg
How do I do that?
Hello Janet,
I noticed your post and Greg’s response.It sounds like contacting Greg is your best route for some suggestions to alleviate your discomfort. I contacted him once for the 10 minute free consultation and found him to be very helpful and generous with his time.
Here is the link to the general inquiries web page, which should get you in touch with Greg.
Good Luck,
Pat James
Hi Patrick! Thank you for your response – I have a lesson scheduled with Greg for tomorrow.
Glad to hear you were able to contact Greg.
I too am at a point where I think I need a check up lesson with Greg. I have been in the course for about 5 months and feel I need some guidance to make sure I am on the right path.
I hope all goes well with your lesson.
That’s how I look at it – It’s very likely that I’ve gotten to the point where I’m surely messing at least a few things up.
Patrick – my lesson with Greg was amazing, I learned a tremendous amount and I highly recommend taking a lesson. Greg tailored what he was teaching specifically to what I need to do to overcome my current struggles in transitioning to his method. This lesson was a huge step up from watching the videos because of that.
I’m really glad Greg recorded the lesson. I downloaded it to my computer so now I can watch it multiple times to thoroughly process everything in it. I’m not sure at this point when I’ll take another lesson, but I will. Timing depends on how long it takes to work through all the info in the recording.
Hi Janet,
Been away from the computer for a couple of days. I was pleased to hear that your lesson went well and now am even more motivated to arrange one for myself.
I feel that since I have started the Windworks course that there is some increased endurance and “secureness” in my regular playing even though I am not attempting to consciously apply Greg’s concepts and setup to my approach when playing “music”. I am hopeful that you will experience this too as you move forward.
I am currently stalled at the Presto level (thus the need for a lesson), but I have back tracked twice already to Largo, Adagio, Andante etc. and reworked some of the exercises in an attempt to re-enforce the concepts and correct or improve my results. Trying to stick with process and continue the journey. I hope you will also stick with it and continue to post on the forum as I feel it is helpful to correspond with fellow students.
Thanks for the update and best of luck as you proceed through the course.
Pat