Studying overtones assisted in strengthening my breathing support. Merely working on my embouchure, without support, would simply result in tense lips. First, my breathing and breathing support needed to be back on form. The lips would be the last phase in the training process. To regain its strength, I realised mere lip exercise wasn’t going to suffice. The following two techniques have helped me enormously: I have always benefited from studying modern playing techniques, gaining fast results from them. Moreover, I had to get used to the new gaps in my mouth. My breathing support didn’t feel natural either. My embouchure in particular had suffered from four weeks of enforced rest. After these weeks, I tentatively tried to play again… I could have cried from frustration! It became clear I might not be back on form in time. Of course, this meant I was unable to play the flute for four weeks. I had worked out that if I recovered within two weeks, I would be ready for the summer, which would be packed with flute related activities. By the end of June, I would have the first two teeth extracted and two weeks later the other two. I had carefully planned it all out as the season was going to be very busy. The fear of fear had become greater than my fear of the actual surgery and I felt it was about time I shook this off: I had to bite the bullet. Though my teeth weren’t giving me any problems now, I decided to follow my dentist’s advice this time. My new dentist was very clear: ‘Your wisdom teeth must come out!’ My previous dentist had been warning me for seven years that this would need to happen at some point, but I always managed to postpone it as I had been dreading the procedure.