AA

[kalijah]

"Effortless" is not possible. That is, there is no such thing as literally "relaxed" performance. (Relaxed here defined as a complete repose of muscular action)

It appears that "effort" is somehow wrong or bad in the popular language and attitudes. ("Black or white" attitudes among players.)

There is nothing wrong with effort as long as the effort pays some dividend and can be sustained without excessive fatigue or any injury.

But yes, reducing effort. even to very low levels, is a GOOD thing. Especially if one can sustain tonal output and quality, or even increase those.

A barometer (correlation) of effort in embouchure action for MOST players is the tongue movement. That is, the tongue "arch" action. The pervading myth among players is that the tongue arch "speeds-up" the air and air "speed" = pitch. For those who truly understand the physics of air this is patently absurd and easily shown to be so.

Neither does the tongue arch "compress" the air, (increase the pressure or energy of the air). There are all kinds of technical nonsense to attempt to credit the tongue or oral shape with directly controlling pitch. One can easily dismiss such nonsense as literally accurate.

The tongue does move forward when tensioning the embouchure for controlling ascending pitch for MOST players depending on how much "roll-out" action they employ to tension the embouchure.

So therefore, low-effort embouchure action, for low and soft tones requires almost imperceptible tongue arch action.

Most players are placed on a trajectory of high baseline effort from the start as beginners and developing players by mouthpiece buzzing (or worse) and then held in that habit by insistent and excessive arching of the tongue. This high effort approach is further habitually reinforced by:

excessively large mouthpieces (cups, throat, rim diameter)

"free-blowing" instruments (less efficient)

"flexibility" warm-ups (excessive harmonic slurs)

insistence of "long tones" and other "warm-up" exercises that are simply too long of duration WHILE too high in pitch.

I have developed an approach which includes VERY low-effort practice that encourages increasing results INSIDE of the low-effort envelope. This improves efficiency by two modes. By reducing the effort required to play WHILE increasing the results. All while improving fine control AND strength, which in turn increases endurance when performing. It also does not require some justification by endless, ridiculous pontification of pseudoscientific "air-speed" nonsense.

[Bert]

I can only recommend contacting Kalijah (Darryl) via a PM. I did so because I was running into trouble time after time and needed to try out a different approach. From the things he says in a lot of posts on TH, I thought he would be somebody with a slightly different and fresh view on things, and this proved to be correct.
His very (very!) low effort exercises were completely new to me, take a lot of patience and some time, but they really make a difference if you are overplaying and overblowing. They are hard to explain in text, but actually very simple in concept and worked wonders for my playing and understanding. Endlessly pounding out flexibility after callisthenic after etude after whatever exercise only made me a frustrated and insecure player. After doing the low effort exercises for some time and backing off from lots of high effort exercises, my playing has become more consistent and efficient again.

Again, really worth a little PM!

Good luck and patience
_________________
http://cdbaby.com/cd/triobertlochs
http://cdbaby.com/cd/lbh
http://bertlochs.blogspot.com

[abontrumpet]

[kalijah]

[abontrumpet]

[kalijah]

[stuartissimo]

[kalijah]

By "effortless" I mean, as close to zero effort as can be achieved. True conscious muscular repose to the greatest degree one can achieve without being unconscious, anesthetized, asleep, or dead.

I stand by what I wrote. It is not possible to play without effort. Even a slight one. The lowest effort notes to play are soft pedal tones.

[Andy Cooper]

[Andy Del]

Talking to an adviser seems sensible as the OP is in a serious place where their work / life balance is seriously skewed. As in college = work, life = a hobby.

That needs addressing.

The reason they are finding things difficult is they are working on a chronically tired set of face, brain and I suspect, inspiration. It sounds very much like playing for the sake of it.

Advice is needed from someone in the know.
_________________
so many horns, so few good notes...

[LyonLover]

[Rod Haney]

I can only relate my experience but it was as simple as making a move from upper lip placement to lower lip placement. It took a few months to get details but I could immediately get the feeling that upper lip was responding to air rather than being worked by my face. Range over extended time was the result. To me it was as simple as freeing up the lip to respond. Finding that set took awhile tho. This may be off the track of advice you seek but may also be a overlooked solution especially if you are a “smile” player
Rod

[Wardyager]