Record Yourself

Something you don't realize until the first time you record yourself is how different your sound is in front of the bell than it is to you when you are playing. Though this is true for virtually all aspects of your sound, I find it to be especially true with your clarity of articulation. For your articulation to show up with the clarity and crispness that you would like on the recording
(which is how the audience will hear you) you will probably have to greatly exaggerate how clearly you tongue, and it may border on what you would consider tasteless from behind the bell. Just experiment and see. Try to match the articulations of great players, like those in my Listening Room (especially the Brass Ensemble recordings). Recording can be done for very cheaply. If you are eading this you probably already have a computer. All you need now is Audacity, a free recording progam that you can download here, and a cheap computer microphone (though if you can, it is worth it to get a nice one). If you have any questions just let me know.

Bach "Magnificat"

I find it helpful to practice piccolo trumpet pieces on my C trumpet, so yesterday I decided to try the Bach Magnificat.
clip 1 clip 2 clip 3

It took until the last half of the last excerpt for me to relax my air enough for it to feel easy.