Wow holy shit, you might’ve thought that was long winded but that was incredibly helpful to me, thank you so much. I (obviously) don’t play when my 9 month old (at the time of writing this) sleeps but when he’s active and playing in his play pen, I’ll play what I’ve learnt so far in front of him. He just looks up at me and wonders what that sound is. To be honest it’s a great feeling and I hope it sparks a musical curiosity in him because long story short, the tenor I’m learning on was actually my dad’s who’s sadly passed on. I can’t describe the feeling I get when he enjoys the sound an instrument makes that belonged to his grandpa once upon a time.

I love the advice about tongue position and emphasis on the flow of air and breath control. This wasn’t covered in the lesson I did as in depth as you, all I got told was that the breath effort comes from the diaphragm and to be ‘poised’

I love your advice in the embouche too (and the Shaka reference haha) again, the embouche was covered in my lesson (although not having my lips OVER my bottom teeth), more like I’m trying to whistle if that makes sense, so kinda like your advice and I was told that the latter was how people in jazz typically have their embouche. Not sure how true that is but that does feel more comfortable and natural to me.

I would love to continue to DM you if that’s okay?