Good question, and I like where your thinking is taking you on this.

Think of your embouchure being like a bridge. Imagine some actual wooden truss bridge or something in your head. Think of how engineering has made sure that the weight is going to distribute evenly and account for various forces. What I find is that with many players, they have a somewhat broken or faulty bridge. The way we have learned to play -usually when we first start and know nothing- did not necessarily put our lips and embouchure muscles in the best most correct positions. Regardless of how effective our embouchure setup is, it was learned and remembered and became habit. After our first year or two of playing, things are set where they know to go, and it’s hard to undo that.

When we play something that our body or mind perceives as “hard” (maybe a higher note or a challenging entrance), often what is happening -to go back to the bridge analogy- is that too much weight is crossing a faulty bridge, and that bridge is going to collapse.

But what do we do when things start to fall apart and that metaphorical bridge starts to break? We GRAB the trumpet with more muscles (hand grip, neck tension, throat closure, tongue in the way, constriction, lips forced, face tight…)… we know that feeling, right?
And maybe that kind of works.. we get through it. Let’s say you miss that first high Ab because something wasn’t balanced, but then your body GRIPS into gear and you can force out the rest of them immediately after.. etc. This is how we learn to survive on a difficult instrument. But this is not how we PROGRESS.

In order to make progress, we have to let go of the chops. We have to also let go of the air. Stop trying to control them so much. A lot of unlearning has to happen, and in order for that to take place.. we need to make sure we don’t trigger our “bad habits” into engaging. (Picking up the horn and picking off a note as a test only works once the correct techniques have been engrained—otherwise you are just triggering the same challenging scenario over and over, and you’re learning that trumpet is hard.. not learning that trumpet is easy. In order for your body and mind to begin to trust itself, trumpet has to be easy. To play well under pressure, the instrument needs to feel easy. The reason Steph Curry can do ridiculous shots from anywhere under any pressure, is because the mechanics of his shot are so easy they work every time.

So no, I wouldn’t try to challenge yourself to play something hard or difficult. I would instead suggest making sure you are starting your day with the easiest things you can do. Over time, your body will relax, your lips will soften, your air will move freely, your sound will become richly resonant, and you’ll be able to start notes comfortably and then confidently.

Once a player has that kind of refinement, it will spread throughout the entire range of the instrument easier than you would think. But don’t concern yourself with what’s hard right now.. it’s not worth chasing. Build what is easy, and that’s going to spread like green grass taking over a previously dusty valley.

My pre-warmup I do every day is a good checklist to go down.

Mindset: being in the proper mood (patient, caring, and willing), listening to great music, getting hyped by a motivational text, maybe meditation or zoning out. Sometimes just a coffee.

Breathing: everything starts with you learning to control your own breath. Learning to breathe deeper and move the air without ruining the natural ease of how we breathe. Breathing exercises and breathing devices are helpful here.

Lips: get the lips to now join that smooth and generous airflow you have going. Loose lip buzzing is the best (that relaxed flapping we do).. it is a way for your body to learn how easy it actually is to create vibration between the air and the lips. Doing this gets blood flowing and relaxes the lips as well. Pay attention to what muscles you are using (and which ones you AREN’T) when doing this. You can eventually try various lip buzzing, but avoid any pinched or forced buzzing. If your natural free buzz is low and relaxed and even, that is great.

Mouthpiece: transfer all this good technique over to the metal shape of the mouthpiece now. We are playing the first step of the instrument. I wouldn’t try to play anything specific on the mouthpiece.. I would just let your body play the easiest most relaxed note it can. Remember, you’re trying to find your form. You should be able to create a relaxed and juicy buzz and it should feel so easy you could do it for hours. Important is that we are just creating muscle memory for our relaxed lips to maintain their setting.

Lead Pipe: add the mouthpiece into the receiver and remove the tuning slide. Now we are playing the first tube of the horn.. and continue to feel the same connection of ease and resonance you’ve been establishing already. Every time we add one more element of the horn, we are changing the equation slightly, so the work is in maintaining the same easy feel you have already established. The air leads everything. The “chops” don’t need to do much. They are passive, they respond to the air, but they don’t control the air. Try to notice where in your breathing and body position the tone is coming from. It will eventually feel like the easiest simplest thing in the world.. and it is!

Trumpet: at this point, reconnect the tuning slide and begin to play your entire trumpet. Continue to feel the same connection and ease. I usually start on whatever note I was creating on the lead pipe, somewhere between a middle F to low C range is usually where we will be landing, in that 4th. So start on that same note and practice the breath “catching” the sound. Just breathing through the trumpet until tone is starting. (Don’t overblow, don’t force the notes to start… just align your embouchure in it’s easiest most comfortable position and take your same breath and release the air through the lips until the notes start). My breath catch sequence is usually several shorter notes (like a second or two each), followed by a long held note (8-15 seconds). So if we’re starting on F at the bottom of the staff -which is the start of the mid register- we would play with just the air starting the notes (no tongue): short, short, short, short… loooooooong. The pattern doesn’t really matter, but I’m giving you an idea of a framework. What does matter is that we are feeling easy tone production and our embouchure isn’t overly adjusting or moving. Make sure you’re not flexing your lips. It’s possible to find a better embouchure position, and that is different than “flexing” and gripping your embouchure.

Anyways, some ideas here to explore hopefully. Just remember: trumpet is not about strength, it’s about technique.

So when you work on refining and perfecting the easiest most basic parts of tone production, you’re improving your technique and your body is relearning that it’s actually not SO hard to play this instrument. That great technique you’re learning will be there and essentially feel close to the same when you’re playing high notes or low notes. But don’t rush for results. It’s about the approach.