One of the most common offense to the trumpet occurs when a player over compensates when playing notes. When I speak of overcompensating I’m directing my criticism to mainly the embouchure area. When most players attempt to reach a high note, the mindset is usually “give it your all” and when doing so, the player exerts too much energy to attain their top note. This became clear to me a few years ago when I watched one of our best trumpet players playing a show in town. I was amazed at how effortlessly he maneuvered among his notes; seemingly unconcerned…