Best practice ever

 254th day sober. After getting back last night and really over-stuffing myself eating dinner, I had to rest a bit and then it was almost midnight so I opted to practice and actually had the best practice ever. 

My facility at high notes to high C and above was unprecedented. And it's the same old student trumpet and the same old 3C mouthpiece, no changes there. The one change has been becoming aware of "wedge" breathing and using it at least some of the time. 

Now, as "miracle methods" go, probably the best known is the Claude Gordon method and there is a whole series of Claude Gordon books and a Claude Gordon course of training for which you need a lot of other books but you *can* work through a cycle over a year or two then repeat it... 

I once paid for a month or two of lessons by a Claude Gordon teacher and did things his way, went out busking, and realized I was where I'd be if I'd just practiced on my own anyway. 

Then there's the Caruso Method, aimed at helping players who have tensed themselves into a knot. There are several who are all about intervals; play lots of 4th and 5ths and octaves, they say, and your problems will be gone. 

There are the "Cichowitz Flow Studies" which I might get into because they sound nice and paying attention to flowing air is starting to get somewhere. 

But it seems like all of this is just farting in the wind if you don't understand wedge breathing. It's not that special, but it seems like not knowing about it is like trying to ride a bike and there are these pedals that go around, and sometimes you push on them and sometimes not, because the bike goes fairly fast however you flail around.

I want to make some real progress not only for busking when the weather warms up again but because I want to be able to go over to Music Village around the corner from the International Food Bazaar and check out the "pro" trumpets there. Also a guy I took lessons from long ago, Eric Bolvin, teaches out of there and there's a chance he'll be around and I don't want to sound like shit and have him hear. 

Biden just gave a good speech on the radio. If we're sliding into civil war, at least there are some great speeches on the way.