Ideas for Good Trumpet Breathing Technique

Breathing

Everybody needs to breath to survive, and we all do it without thinking. When it comes to playing the trumpet you have to start to consciously think about your breathing. Why is this? If you liked this post and you would like to obtain extra details pertaining to trumpet book kindly take a look at the site. Many players who are just beginning tend to pick up the instrument and blow. This is all well and good but what they haven't taken into consideration is that they need to take in more air because the body hasn't been physically stimulated to naturally take in more air. A good example of this is when you are running, the body needs more oxygen so without thinking the rate at which the person takes in air is increased automatically due to the higher amount of CO2 in the blood. When playing the trumpet the body is not going to increase the respiration rate because it does not detect any excess CO2 before you start to play. The natural responses of your body will ensure that it takes in as much air as it needs at that particular moment. This is where beginner players can make errors. They think they have taken a good full breath because their bodies natural rhythm has played it's part. The problem with relying on your unconscious body to make the decision on how much air you take in is that your lungs are not aware that they are about to push air through a trumpet. When breathing out normally the air encounters much less resistance when travelling from the lungs and out through the mouth than when it is pushed through a trumpet. This is because the trumpets tubes are much smaller in diameter than the 'tubes' in your body so you encounter more resistance from the mouthpiece. This means you need to apply more pressure to push the air through the instrument faster in order to expel the same amount of air as you would do when breathing normally. As a result many players find that a normal breath leaves them running out of air very quickly because they have pushed that normal breath out much faster through the trumpet than they would have done when breathing naturally away from the instrument.

Getting a student to understand and realise the concept of good breathing is a fundamental and basic step. Much of the breathing technique is common sense and really hammering home to a student how important it is will make them aware of its importance. The best way to do this is through demonstration. I would ask them to first of all play a passage or phrase normally. Generally I would pick something that we have identified as difficult for them to play. I would then get them to take a deeper breath, often the first few times they do this the breath they take may not be much bigger than the original one so I would get them to do it again. If they have not grasped the concept I would change my approach. I would ask them to put down the trumpet and ask them to take a full breath and hold it. Once they have done this I would ask them to keep holding but then take in more air, repeating this until they cannot take in any more. Getting them to do this demonstrates how much air they think they have taken in as opposed to the amount of air they have actually taken in. By topping up their lungs with the extra air we are learning how to use the full capacity of the lungs and not a smaller percentage of it. Once we have done this successfully it is usually a good idea to repeat the process to try and reduce the number of extra 'top up' breaths taken. This demonstration to a student is effective because you are able to prove to them with their own bodies what they are actually doing as opposed to just telling them. The next time they play the trumpet you can then ask them to apply that breathing concept into their playing.

As long as you can observe that they really are applying this idea then they will be able to take a bigger breath. You'll know if they have through a variety of indicators. Firstly you can visually observe them taking a breath, their body will expand and you will probably hear them inhale the air. When they actually start playing, the sound they produce is a big sign as to whether they have taken in breath correctly. Incorrect breathing will leave the student with a smaller sound and they will stop playing very quickly because they have run out of air. Larger amounts of air will produce a much fuller sound because the extra pressure in the lungs will enable the air to leave the body more quickly and naturally without being forced out which will in turn vibrate the lips in a much more efficient way. They will be able to play for longer without breathing, higher notes will be easier to play because there is enough air to vibrate the lips and the sound will be fuller because the lip vibration is less forced. As with athletes, stamina will improve because the extra oxygen taken in when breathing correctly will be used by the body to replace carbon dioxide from the red blood cells that have been generated by the physical exertion used to play the trumpet. Without this extra oxygen there will be a larger carbon dioxide build up, particularly around the lip area because there is not the extra amount of oxygen in the blood to replace the surplus carbon dioxide and lactic acid generated by the lip and embouchure. Therefore good breathing has a two fold positive effect on stamina.

There are several trumpet technique books out there that mention breathing and one of my favourites is James Stamp's "Warm-Ups and Studies". His explanation of the above method is "Take the biggest possible breath and then keep adding a sipping breath until no more can be taken". This is just one of four exercises he mentions, the idea behind them is to stretch your body to its limits so that it becomes used to working in a more demanding way. Conditioning yourself by practising breathing exercises will slowly begin to improve lung capacity and the ability of your lungs to perform more efficiently. The good thing about improving breathing technique is that as long as there is a conscious effort particularly in the early stages to actively work at it you do not require any musical talent to quickly progress to a much better level. Keeping physically fit will only help improve lung capacity and efficiency and it is strongly recommended. Playing the trumpet is akin to being an athlete and you need to be fit to play it to your maximum potential.