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Standard issue brass playing advice – for practically any problem! – is to use “more air.” For some brass teachers (especially low brass), breathing is practically a religion, and “more air” the central creed. Is it good advice?
I have wondered that question for many years. On a recent one of his YouTube live videos Derek Wright of Houghton Horns brought up this topic as an aside, and, on thinking about it more, he is correct. Some players use too much air, which causes sound to suffer in several ways.
Too much air???
Stepping back for a second, those that have read a lot of my writings on brass playing will note that over years I have become more and more questioning of standard brass playing advice. But the fact is we do have to look at these things critically, there is no “Bible” of brass or horn playing, and each player is an individual. Sometimes a counterintuitive approach is what is needed when there are problems to solve.
Also, with each player being an individual, you also have to think about how each person will have their own take on any instruction they hear. “Use more air” is going to mean different things to different people. Some will take that instruction much more literally than intended.
Remember Goldilocks
There is a point where it is too much air, and the suggestion to use “more air” is only causing problems.
Think of it this way. More air, to many people, means “push harder.” When you push harder, what do you then have to do? Resist the air, most likely with your embouchure and probably also your throat. That tight embouchure system then translates into a tight sound. The most difficult aspect of this issue is that the level of air pressure feels completely normal to you, you may have always played like this since you started in band. But the result is that your lips and throat are just too tight for optimal horn playing at a high level.
Of course, you may have received advice to relax your face and throat, but you actually can’t do that unless you use less air pressure.
Which is where Goldilocks fits in, with her choices of chairs, porridge, and beds. Don’t use too much air, or too little. There is a “just right” that will give you the right results.
An aside on tonguing, which is also impacted by excess air pressure
There is another issue impacted by too much air, and that is the production of fast, short articulations, and lighter articulations in general. You just have too much air bottled up and pressurized in your system to produce the needed articulations. A less pressurized air system will certainly help your ability to tongue quickly and lightly.
How do you find the correct amount of air?
There is a balance between the air pressure you generate and the embouchure. Loud or soft, there is an element of relaxed control in the embouchure. Too much air pressure can throw the balance off in the entire system.
Most good horn players find that place of balance in air quantity on their own. That is part of why the topic is so rarely discussed.
One of the best ways to find that point of relaxed control is with exercises that include breath attacks. Especially if you have trouble doing breath attacks it is well worth working on them, and observing the level of pressurization of the air. What you may find is that for the breath attacks, you use less air under less pressure, and finding a new balance in your playing closer to that of the breath attack will solve problems.
Still in doubt?
Try this. Try intentionally to use too much air. You will feel how you have to hold the air back with extra tension in your throat and embouchure and how this also creates difficulty in tonguing. For things to not be too tense and work correctly, you have to use Goldilocks air.
Just because a piece of advice is repeated endlessly does not mean it is helpful for you
Brass players can and do develop chop problems. When those problems come, the go-to advice is tried and true conventional wisdom, such as “use more air.” But do realize that this advice, while perhaps valuable for some and even for you at some point in time, may not be valuable for you at the point when you face chop problems. In other words, conventional wisdom can be a trap. Solving problems often involves thinking out of the box.
Finally, going back to my earlier disclaimer, I know the advice to consider using less air is counter to much — even most! –brass teaching. But the longer I teach I can see some beloved mantras of brass teaching cause more problems than they solve. Especially with mouthpiece pressure and air, don’t try to use too much or too little. What you need to search for is “just right,” driven by your individual playing. Above all, when you are getting the better sound, you are on track to the solutions.
