Air

Better breathing and air support can address many common issues of brass performance. It’s almost a cliché for directors to exhort their players to “use more air” in their playing to fix almost all issues. Unfortunately, air is not always the answer but, in fairness, the air stream is often a good starting place in diagnosis and instruction. It’s just sometimes far from the ending place. Issues with air can underlie weak sounds, faulty intonation, range issues, lack of musicality, and even bad technique.

Students in brass classes at the university level face similar air challenges as younger beginners. String and percussion majors need to learn how to breathe and utilize air to create sound, and woodwind players must often learn how to use a greater quantity of air and/or direct it much differently than on their major instruments. Brass players should obviously understand the mechanics of air on brass instruments, but the principles are different enough between instruments that they still require study and experience to develop knowledge useful to their future students. Blowing through a trumpet is a much different experience than blowing through a tuba!

Perhaps more than any other topic, players and pedagogues have written extensively about the use of air in brass playing. A quick online search will reveal videos, websites, and materials all related to breathing and various approaches. As with any such content, it’s important to cull through results to find the most accurate and valuable resources. At some point I may expand this section of my website to include more specific information about the the mechanics of breathing and relaxation, some favorite exercises, and use of equipment such as breathing bags and spirometers. For now, though, I encourage you to explore this topic through other means such as this site or this one or this video. Or do your own search and see how much is out there!