gchun

Michael-

Good to see you posting here!! How about sharing your experiences being on the road?

I keep hearing the classical teachers talking about the benefits of lyrical playing and letting the sound guide you. That applies here as well. In additional to all the "heavy lifting"-type exercises, we (meaning "me"!) often forget the benefits of lyrical playing for the general mechanics of trumpet playing, regardless of style. It also helps balance out all those strength exercises that can have adverse affects to our sound. I fell into the "all strength" exercise trap and that ended up burning chops rather than conditioning. Everything got too harsh, too tight and too strident. The lyrical stuff, along with rest and flexibility routines, helped to regain the "balance."

And gradually moving those lyrical routines up the range of the horn gives us mental "models" of how it feels when it's easier (lower registers) to more challenging. (higher registers).

Hope some of this helps-
Garry