sevenhelz

The direct sound I mentioned is still going strong, which is probably a good thing. My breath control seems better also, which may have to do with the "boring" exercises I've been doing to begin each day; basic long, low notes; some early pages of the Arban played as loudly as possible; then the same pages an octave down. I find I need to take a short rest quite often or I get slightly dizzy, but that's no bad thing as the rest means my lip lasts longer. I've also been doing more lip flexibility studies, and slightly different ones, slurring fourths and fifths as well as thirds. It's not very difficult really but without the exercise it sometimes goes wrong in a piece.
I'm happy with my double tonguing now - the work I did was basic strengthening of the "ka" sound, and I'll probably return to it at least once a week because it doesn't take long but it really helps.
The new exercise is quite tricky in some areas, with a couple of augmented 4ths to pitch and a long loud phrase to begin with. It's marked brillante which apparently means "In a gay, showy, and sparkling style." - so to be really showy it should be quite fast. I think I could play it faster once I've really got the notes learnt, but for the moment I'm focussing on that evenness of sound and I think it's working. I'm paying even more attention to the sound now and noticing that I might not be putting enough air through a lower note, or that a slur might be a little jerky. I had a piano player listen to the exercise once to tell me if I was playing out of rhythm, as D pulled me up last week for slowing down on implied cadences. My friend said if anything I was playing too fast, so, as in everything else, it's just a matter of concentration. In lesson D said I was doing quite well since I'd only had it a week; general things about making it musically more interesting, fully sustaining sound etc. We moved on from Concert Gallop to Andante et Allegro, which is in bass clef. I don't yet read bass clef properly, I transpose and quite slowly, so hopefully I can get some of the notes down by next week.
Less practise later in the week due to illness. Hope this doesn't affect my sound, as early next week I need to record two pieces to send to the Radio 2 contest. Should be able to make up some of the time on Sunday, if I've the energy.