I have always seen this page of the website as the one that I’m least satisfied with. On reflection it’s because there is very little clear written material on the subject in the TCE world. Jerry Callet placed a lot of emphasis on developing air power in his earlier Trumpet Yoga, Brass Power and Endurance and Superchops books but by the time we reached TCE the instructions have diminished to phrases like “use as little air as necessary” or “about 1/3 the amout that most players use”. Jerry talked a lot about overblowing being the biggest problem that brass players have today but didn’t go into any depth about what correct breathing looks like, at least not in written form. It’s also worth saying that air is only part of the equation and that understanding the roll of the tongue and lips is equally important.

At the bottom of this page you’ll find my old explanation from this website but before that is an explanation that has been reworded from an interview with Callet in the early 1990s that I think goes a long way to explaining correct use of air.

Instructions for Correct Brass Breathing and Embouchure

The mechanics of breathing for brass playing are remarkably simple and apply to all brass instruments, regardless of the style of music you play. Mastery lies not just in the breath, but in recognizing your lips as the ultimate control valve.

1. The Efficient Brass Inhale

• When you inhale, ensure the expansion happens just below the rib cage—this is where your core support should engage.
• Take only a little more air than you would for your normal speaking voice (or the amount you’d use to sing a note loudly).

The common practice of taking a huge, full “yoga breath” (low, middle, and high) is incorrect and detrimental. It provides too much air, leading to over-breathing, which will cause the air to “back up” on you. You don’t need a massive reservoir of air to play even the highest notes; what you need is control and efficiency.

2. The Controlled and Fierce Exhale

• As you begin to play, you must hold your stomach up and in, as if you are bracing for a punch. This supports and controls the airstream.
• Focus intensely on generating a fierce exhale when playing in the high register or when maximum projection is required.

Your playing success depends not just on the inhale, but on the power and gauge of the exhale. Generating a fierce exhale is crucial for projecting your tone and accessing the high register, as stressed by master players like Arturo Sandoval. However, this powerful air must always be gauged by your embouchure.

3. The Lip is the Valve

• Shift your primary focus from the breath to what your lips and tongue are doing.

While breath control starts in the lungs, the lip is the valve that controls the vibration and, subsequently, the volume and dynamics of your sound. The lips and tongue are the most important, yet often overlooked, parts of the playing mechanism. You must develop this “valve” because it is the actual point of control that regulates the fierce air you’re generating.

This basic theory is universal; in fact, it’s often easier for players to initially grasp the correct “feel” on a larger-mouthpiece instrument like the trombone.

My old explanation:

Learning to compress air inside your body is a subject that is discussed by many of the world’s greatest high-note players and teachers. Among these elite it is common knowledge, but to the majority of players breathing is a hugely misunderstood topic. Many teachers in the world today encourage players to use vast amounts of air and dedicate much of their practise routine to attempting to increase the capacity of their lungs. The truth is that increasing the amount of air you can fit inside your body does not make any difference to how much power you can generate with the air.

Thankfully with the advent of tools such as YouTube, the dissemination of good information is much greater than it was in the past. Previous members of the Maynard Ferguson Band such as Lynn Nicholson make videos explaining how they can perform very physically demanding music for long shows without doing themselves physical harm and this information is freely available to anyone with a fast enough internet connection.

The basic mechanics of correct breathing and pushing out the air is simple. Breathe in slowly and deeply, but do not over-fill your lungs. When you exhale, pull your belly button up and inwards. This makes the space that the air is in smaller, and thrusts it out of the body. There is no need to focus on any particular muscle set that you cannot wilfully control – please just make sure that you move it all in the right direction.

Once correct breathing has been established we should talk about the embouchure. The page titled Lips Moving Correctly describes how the job of the embouchure is to act as a valve that controls the release of air. Without the embouchure resisting the air you will have nothing but a violent release of your lung contents. This is something that you can prove to yourself:

Squeezing a plastic bottle from the bottom with the cap off will not expel the contents of that bottle with any force. That is because there is nothing to resist the flow and no compression is created. In order for us to generate compression there needs to be a small aperture that resists the flow of air. In other words, in order to make compression you need something to hold the air in. Drilling a small hole in the cap of the bottle and screwing it back on will give you different experience as now the air has to squeeze through the small hole. Notice how much harder you can squeeze the bottle. Similarly, when your embouchure can correctly resist the flow of air you are able to use more body strength to compel the air into sound production. In order to blow hard you need something to blow against!

Under normal circumstances the only thing that resists the flow of air is the throat of the mouthpiece and the lips. This is why players need to build up strength to have any stamina or ability in the high tessitura of the instrument. However this is the point where the TCE is different. Players who play with their tongue anchored through their teeth resist the flow of air and generate compression with their tongue. A small aperture is formed between the top of the tongue and the cutting edge of the top teeth. The tongue is a much stronger muscle than the lips, and this is why the TCE is so effective. It also means that with practise players who use the TCE will only need around 1/3 of the air that most use to play a phrase. Now they can focus of playing music rather than mere survival.