Played a trumpet for the first time in 20 years recently. Blew my chops in about 10 minutes, sounded pretty horrible and experienced a phenomenon I don't ever remember feeling before. My neck started to REALLY ache right under my jawbone on either side of my trachea. Very uncomfortable. I've been reading some of the advice here and figured my biggest mistake was neglecting to warm up first. Any advice on how to avoid rupturing veins?

I'm actually a guitarist but everyone else in the band plays multiple instruments and I'm starting to get a complex. Music Box Dancer and Heart And Soul(My complete keyboard repertoire) don't seem to count with my well-rounded but snooty bandmates.

The muscles you used to control air flow 20 years ago have gone soft on you. Also, when I started my comeback (also after 20+ years of not playing) in July '03 I was warned that where my embouchure is concerned I would not be using muscles that I used in my teens, and would be using others that I didn't use then. It's been kinda like building a whole new embouchure and breathing technique from square one.

Thanks for the input and I'm glad to see I'm not the only geezer in this forum. Also noticed a tightness in my windpipe just below the adam's apple that is uncomfortable as well.

Been practicing a little everyday for about 15 or 20 minutes, working slowly back into it. My tone is much improved after just a few days but my tongue action is really sluggish. That will probably be the hardest thing to pick back up.