First thoughts on blowing

About ten days ago I was looking for exercises to help me blow more efficiently. Exercises that will help me get air from the visceral bottom of the lungs to the bell. Right now, I'm excessive instead of effective. It's not hard to find good breathing exercises (like Gabe Langfur's), but I am interested in ones on blowing. We repeatedly hear about how simple things really should be. "Blowing" should be simple, too.

Bert Truax used to have an article on his website about the work of trumpet pedagogue James Stamp. He still has the gif image in the top left of the site - it reads "Playing trumpet is simple, but not easy!" This applies to so many things.

I eventually found Rich Szabo's site. He played trumpet with Maynard Ferguson for quite awhile, but has appeared with a long list of great musicians. Rich has posted an essay on breathing. (I like OJ's copy in Norway).

One point of Szabo's article that immediately hit me: "Prioritize exhalation over inhalation." Szabo encourages the yogic preference for exhalation - make blowing the most important. Taking this to the horn was immediately useful. Eventually I find I get into a groove, focusing on either the inhalation or the exhalation. My habit, unfortunately, focuses inward.

In the Remington/Hunsberger book (Warm ups) Remington reminds the reader that a trombone is, in reality, a big hole. If we could stretch it out and look down the middle, we would see the light at other end. The horn doesn't really have much resistance. Blowing fast air, we can feel the horn push back, but we should not move that much air through the embouchure and horn (I am interested in comments on that statement). Just blowing through the horn certainly helps remind me how it really is just a big hole. The only resistance must be ... me.

Keith Johnson also has good advice in his "Brass Performance and Pedagogy." (Definitely worth Amazon's $30 price tag.) Johnson suggests inhaling and exhaling in a way that sounds good. A noisy breath has friction against something. Get that thing out of the way.

I tell my students to inhale with a nice backwards "hoh," perhaps think of Darth Vader. Not very creative of me, but effective.

My one lesson with pedagogue Jan Kagarice addressed breathing as a solution to many performance 'challenges.' Perhaps hers are the most effective exercises I have on blowing. Just blow air through the horn. Not too much air, just ... simple air. Blow air through the horn. Project - visualize the air getting to some object elsewhere in the room. Go for product. Get the air from the bottom of the lungs to "over there." Sometimes I will visualize the sound as a dense blue wind coming out of the horn, extending both forward out of the bell and back behind my head.

Whatever works for you, share it with a comment. I'm interested to hear more about blowing.