The Reflex of Breathing

Nobody is born with a mouthpiece stuck to their chops. Playing a brass instrument is not a naturally occurring skill. There is no such thing as NATURAL CHOPS. You have to LEARN to play a brass instrument. There are no brass playing reflexes per se.

There is no such thing as NATURAL CHOPS. There are, however, physical attributes that are more conducive than others for playing a brass instrument. If you are lucky enough to start out with a good physical setup for playing a brass instrument (that is a whole other article), you will still have to PRACTICE to develop that setup into a well oiled playing machine. Even players with brass positive physical attributes will make their first sounds sound something like a duck with a bad attitude. Every brass player starts at the same place… at ZERO. I would LOVE to have a recording of great players playing their first notes!   :)

You have probably heard someone say that you should play naturally… well, that is impossible… but you do have naturally occurring reflexes that you can use when playing. Breathing, hearing, basic musculature, etc. You should try to use as many of these reflexes as possible… and try to use them as they were CREATED to be used over millions of years of evolution and not how some trumpet player thinks you should use them.  :)  

I often tell students that there is only ONE WAY to breathe correctly and if you are not dead, you are breathing correctly.

OK… you are probably saying to yourself “well, of course… duh!”… but you have to admit that most brass players end up pursuing a never ending cycle of trying this method or that method (the magic bean as I like to call it) to help them improve their playing over their entire playing career, while never achieving their original goals. Many teachers also hock their method as THE way to improve your playing. All if this usually ends up convoluting the entire playing machine and tying you into knots so badly that you end up worse for your efforts.

After playing with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra for a few years (playing lead and all of the Maynard and Cat recreations…WHEW!), my second trumpet player (who is one of the BEST trumpet players I have EVER had the pleasure of sitting beside!!!) told me that he had noticed over the past years that I really had the diaphragmatic breathing technique DOWN! I thought about it for a second and then replied…”well, thank you”. I am not sure exactly what he was referring to as I was NEVER using the diaphragmatic breathing technique or any other breathing technique that I know of when playing the trumpet. 

What he later told me was that he could see my diaphragm area moving while I played etc. I told him that it was probably because I was fat. :) Yes, things do move when you play and especially when you breathe… but the DIAPHRAGM???…. When I PLAY the trumpet??? He said that he could see my diaphragm push out when I took a breath and tighten up when I played. Hmmmm

Not that I hadn’t heard this concept before… but it was always from brass players or brass teachers… NEVER from a doctor or someone that was an expert on how your body works.

I would say that almost ALL of the trumpet and brass clinics that I attended over the years included some mention and promotion of the diaphragm breathing method. And as a result, almost ALL of the brass players I know saythat this is how they breathe to play their instrument… and thus, this is how almost ALL band directors I know instruct their students to play.

Unfortunately, when I did some research years ago (in medical journals focused on breathing abnormalities), I found that the diaphragm does NOT move in and out…it moves UP AND DOWN. OK… this could still influence some in and out movement when you breathe… but most of the teachers of this method encourage students to MOVE the lower abdomen (diaphragm area) in and out to play correctly. Have you ever heard anything like this…. I bet you have!

Now for another interesting bit of info that I uncovered…. The diaphragm is a fairly WEAK muscle and is so thin that it is almost translucent… you can almost see through it…. And thus it is not even a PRIMARY muscle in the breathing process. It is a SECONDARY muscle in the breathing process. 

But this diaphragm muscle is the cornerstone of most brass related breathing techniques used and taught throughout the world. Hmmmm This method is how they tell you to PLAY your instrument… “Support from the diaphragm when you play”. Hmmmm

Here is another interesting bit of diaphragm trivia that I also found very interesting when considering using the diaphragm while playing….. it is not used for EXHALE at all!!! It is only used only while INHALING. 

But wait…. playing is done using the EXHALE and NOT the INHALE…. So…. You guessed it… after all of that, it ends up being IMPOSSIBLE to use the diaphragm while PLAYING (exhaling) your instrument. Hmmmmmmmmmm!

I like to tell students that if you use the diaphragm (inhaling) while PLAYING (exhaling), you will SUCK! Literally AND figuratively! :)

You may have understood this all along…. But for me, I bought into all of this well-intentioned diaphragmatic propaganda hook line and sinker when I was young and impressionable.  :)     I actually tried to manipulate my abdomen while playing like I was being told… all the while thinking that I was actually squeezing the diaphragmwhile I was playing…..UGH!

In continuing my research, I also found out that the most efficient method of exhale for both volume and velocity of air occurs by using the natural elastic recoil of the chest cavity. This information was not derived by or for trumpet players or well-intentioned music educators, but rather by doctors and other experts to help asthmatics and people with other breathing impairments. This information was derived for when peoples lives depend upon getting a breath of air in and out efficiently and quickly… not for just hitting some note on a trumpet.

In order to make use of this NATURAL elastic recoil of the chest cavity, one must first take a full breath… actually slightly MORE than a full breath. Enough breath to not only fill the lungs, but then to also stretch the chest cavity (ribs and all) enough to produce a bit of extra pressure on the lungs… or elastic recoil. All you need to do at this point to generate an energized airstream is release the air. That’s all! No real technique at all.