The most important element of SA???

[redface]

I have just started revisiting the Systematic Approach, one year after a total embouchure change, i'm finding it even more beneficial than when i studied it for a year before my `chop change'.
I was wondering what people think is the most important type of exercise in the book??
Generally Parts 1 and 2 of each lesson are breathing exercises (one going down to pedals the other to the stratosphere), Part 3 is generally Flexibility/tongue level stuff, the later parts are usually for fingers and articulation. Which one of these helped/helps you the best??

[kzem]

For me, the "squeezing" all the air out in part one of all the exercises was a tremendous help. Every once in a while I'll play the first weeks long tone stuff. I think it came out to be an hour of long tones, squeezing the air out on each one. While using SA, it forced me to do it EVERY time, not just occasionally. Also, I've never done that much 'K' tonguing, outside of a few minutes here and there. It seemed SA had me doing a solid 15-20 minutes of 'K' tonguing every day. Because it worked a lot on two basic fundamentals (breathing and tonguing) my playing became so much easier after this.

Kurt Z.

[John Mohan]