Blasting the Air

Left Coast Horn Playing uses several exaggeration techniques to accelerate learning. Being able to suddenly produce an intense, focused blast of air is a basic technique of playing and is best learned by exaggeration.

It is imperative that we learn to control the flow and changes in flow of air from as low in our abdomen as possible. The lower the control the better and more efficient the sound, the more relaxed the mouth and throat can be and the more control we have over the music!

It is also imperative that one learns to breath using muscles low in the body. How can you blast air from lungs that are not full or by using muscles in the rib cage? Foolishness!

It is also very difficult to tongue cleanly if the air is controlled from too high up in the body. That makes the throat and tongue tense! How can you control it if it is already tense?

Many people do not have a lot of strength in Place #6. That is why we have to work at our breathing exercises every day. Forget your embouchure weights and other gizmos!  Spend that time working on blasting the air and trilling properly and you'll improve much faster!

To blast the air properly
Get your body in a proper position to take a huge breath.
If the muscles around Place #6 are not relaxed you cannot do this properly.
Take a quick, full breath, using an oh sound, filling the bottom of your lungs first. Do not raise your shoulders.
Suddenly tighten the muscles around and just below your belly button as if someone was hitting you in the gut. Push in and a little bit up. Do it hard! Violently!

You should get a sudden blast of air. If not, try it again. Work at it once or twice every day and in a short time your playing will improve.

Exercise 17

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Exercise 17 is an advanced trill exercise.

To play Exercise 17

• Take a deep full breath from Place #6
• Tongue the first note of each measure cleanly
• BLAST the air to change notes, both up and down
• Make sure the lower notes are as loud or louder than the upper notes
• Try to aim at the exact same place for all the notes. Move your mouth and face as little as possible
• Use the fingerings indicated

When this example can be played cleanly start transposing up by half steps. Notice that except for the thumb valve the fingering stays the same for the entire drill.

And just so we are really clear on this the purpose of this exercise is not just to be able to play the notes. It is to try to aim in the same place and to use the air as much as possible and the embouchure as little as possible.

If you have trouble with one of the intervals try aiming lower for the upper note and blowing harder at it.  Do it several times and aim lower and blow harder each time it doesn't work. Doing it this way teaches your mouth the right shape to be in and to lead with the air. Keep at it even if the notes don't work right away. Keep aiming lower (as low as where you aim for the lower note) and blowing more sudden air to make the change.

If you hear the lower notes going sharp or the upper notes going flat then you are moving your mouth and letting the air support sag. Try to keep the notes as brick shaped as possible and the changes between notes as fast as possible.

Exercise 16

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Exercise 16 is a strengthening and high range exercise. It should be extremely tiring.

This is one exercise where we throw technique out the window.

This exercise should be the last thing you play for the day and you should play it every other day to give your chops a chance to relax.

To play Exercise 16

• Take a big deep low breath every time you breathe
• Play all on the F horn
• Play the first note cleanly and use it as a Template for as many notes going up as you can. We want the highest note we can play to feel as much like that first F as possible
• Continue up as high as possible
• Go higher. Try. Push. Pinch. Squeeze all four cheeks
• Wait a second. Try again

Regular practice of this (as long as you are doing other intelligent practice) will greatly improve your high range. Your tone and command will improve and notes that you think of as high won't seem so high!

Exercise 15

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Exercise 15 develops your high range and improves your tone and control.

To play Exercise 15

• Take a deep full breath
• Aim right in the middle of your mouthpiece
• Tongue the first note cleanly
• Play as brick-shaped notes as possible
• Make the slurs happen as suddenly as possible
• Play a long controlled decrescendo on the last note

It's imperative that you control the decrescendo from Place #6. If you don't you'll get a wobbly decrescendo, or a note that stops speaking or your tone will go dull. Keep a bright tone color all the way until the note fades out.

Exercise 14

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Exercise 14 is to help to learn how to not restrict or slow the air down before tonguing and to aim in one place for intervals.

To play Exercise 14

• Take a big deep low breath between every measure
• Play brick shaped notes
• Keep the air steady and flowing through each measure
• Aim the air at the same place for all the notes
• Tongue cleanly

To learn to tongue cleanly without restricting the air at the end of the previous note you have to do several things properly. You can't move the back of your tongue in preparation for tonguing the half note or the air will slow down. You have to coordinate the air, tongue and fingers so that the change between notes takes the least possible time.  You also have to keep the air supported all the way through the measure.

Exercise 13

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Exercise 13 is to develop coordination of the air and fingers.

To Play Exercise 13

• Take a big deep low breath
• Use a metronome. Start slowly
• Tongue the first note cleanly
• Blow intense air focused right at the Target on the accented notes
• Make a good sound on the unaccented notes
• Make a good sound on the last note
• Go a click faster on the metronome every day if you can

Exercise 12

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Exercise 12 is to learn hard tonguing.

To play exercise 12

• Take a huge, deep low breath controlled from Place #6
• Tongue each quarter note as hard as you possible can
• Tongue the whole note as hard as you possibly can and hold it out with a full tone for four beats

You can go up or down by half steps. If you have problems tonguing cleanly then play 8 or 16 quarter notes instead of 4.

This is an exercise using exaggeration. If possible see if you can get the air pressurized behind your tongue. Try not to hold the air back by tightening your voicebox! Let it be held back by your the tip of your tongue.

If you clam or break or sputter every note that's fine. Just tongue hard!

Exercise 11

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Exercise 11 is to help build a big sound and to work on the low range.

To play Exercise 11

• Take a deep, full low breath
• Tongue cleanly and firmly. No D or H tonguing
• Do not take a breath between the last half note and the whole note
• Make brick shaped notes
• Hold the whole notes out full the whole time
• Do not allow any break or slowing of the air between the last half note and the whole note. Play the half note full volume until the last possible instant when you have to tongue the whole note

Exercise 10

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Exercise 10 develops clean slurs and builds fingering technique and tonal awareness.

To play Exercise 10

• Start with a big deep low breath
• Play the accented notes louder than the tonic note and play them louder until the end of the notes
• Try to have the same tone color as you descend to the lower scales

Exercise 9

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Exercise 9 is to develop a way of playing that does not decresendo on the note before a tongued note.  It also helps us to play large sudden intervals using the air to change notes.

To play Exercise 9

• Breathe correctly and tongue cleanly
• Speed is not important. Go slowly and be careful
• Play the dotted quarter notes all the way until you absolutely have to tongue the eighth notes
• Make brick shaped eighth notes and sudden slurs
• Use more air on the eighth notes than the dotted quarters. Aim at them with the air, right in the middle of your mouthpiece

Exercise 8

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Exercise 8 is a great all purpose exercise. We use it to develop strong sffz accents and air coordination. We also us it to teach double tonguing, transposition, high and low ranges etc.

To play Exercise 8

• Be brutal on the sffz notes
• Do not hint (crescendo before the sffz, for instance)
• Practice Slow to Fast repeating each section many times

Be really brutal on the sffz notes. Since this is about air control it's ok if no note comes out! As long as the air is really shot hard into the horn it is good. If the note clams it's ok. If it clams, do not reduce the amount of air to get the right note!

Exercise 7

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Exercise 7 is a trilling and control exercise.

To play this exercise

• Make sure the eighth notes are very cleanly tongued and short
• Hit the lower notes of the trills hard so they have the same volume and color as the higher notes
• Start by using a hard breath accent to get the notes to change then back off as you get control 

Use the F horn fingerings as indicated. Go slowly at first. When you are proficient you can begin working upwards starting on C#, using Bb horn fingerings.

Exercise 6

Exercise 6 is designed to give you light fast tonguing and to work on the coordination and timing of the air.

To play this exercise

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• All the notes other than C should be louder than C
• The change in dynamics occurs during the change between notes
• Make sure you don't rush off the first note of each beat
• Do the exercise 2 ways; first as written then do the first 13 notes Slow to Fast

Players who habitually stop notes with the tongue may have trouble playing this lightly and quickly. The problem occurs when the notes are both started and stopped with the tongue or the tongue gets 'stuck' and full of tension. The Slow to Fast part of this exercise really reveals this problem and can be used to fix it.

Exercise 6 can also be used to teach transposing and double tonguing.

Exercise 5

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Exercise 5 is designed to get you to play with the same tone color in all ranges.

The first note must be brick shaped with no hints (tightening, going sharp or flat) before you slam the air straight ahead to hit the sffz note. Play with a little separation but not short notes. Whatever you do do not stop the notes with your tongue!

Exercise 5 is an aiming exercise. Our goal is to play with as little mouth motion as possible. We know it is working when the notes have the same tone color all the way through the ranges.

We use the sffz note as a template for the other notes. It needs to sound vastly different than the note before it. Blast that sucker!

To play Exercise 5

• Tongue the first note cleanly and make it as brick shaped as possible
• Slur down using a blast of air, as if someone punched you in the stomach
• Make the sffz note LOUD. Hit it hard
• Try to play the subsequent notes by aiming in the same place as the sffz note

It will be difficult at first to play the sffz notes going up. This is normal and shouldn't worry you. Even if the note is fuzzy or weak or even if it doesn't speak that's ok but note where you aimed at it and play the notes going up in the same place, aiming at the target and pushing from Place #6 every time.

Soon enough you will find that your high range has the same bright sound as your midrange and your control over your low range will increase.

This exercise was inspired by the Til Eulenspiegel solo.

Exercise 4

Exercise 4 is our basic arpeggio exercise.

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It is imperative that you 

• Begin with a clean tongue
• Do not let the notes go sharp as you go up or flat as you go down
• Do not football (get louder in the middle) of the notes
• Make the change between notes as quickly as possible, with no hints before the change, using a sudden blast of air
• Make the last note good
• Take a breath whenever necessary and use lots of air

We want brick shaped notes with the fastest change of notes possible.

One of the most common mistakes when arpeggiating is changing the shape of the mouth or the tension of the lips before the air changes. To get this to work you must breath from Place #6 and blast the air.

Controlling the air higher than Place #6 will cause your throat to tense up making it almost impossible to get the blast of air necessary to get you to the next note.

Articles related to this exercise

Understanding Note Clusters
Air Based vs Face Based
What is The System?
Chop Management
Strength and Efficiency

About the Exercises

Be a better player every day!

Welcome to Left Coast Horn Playing! We hope you enjoy and get a lot out of the exercises.

You will note that many of these drills are very short. Since we use them to work on specific techniques we don't want to muddy the goals.

First read these articles so you know the goals of the exercises

• Six Places
• Ah vs Oh
• Don't Move
• Face Based vs Air Based Playing
• Aiming and the Target

Drills, exercise and etudes are just notes on the page unless you are thinking the right way when you play. The goals of our drills are not just to enhance technique but to grow your technique in a way that makes it repeatable.

Every Left Coast player has a daily practice plan. Our goal is to get better every day. With this mindset, our articles and drills and a competent teacher you have all the tools you need to make great music!

Exercise 3

Exercise 3 is our introduction to trilling and an exercise that teaches your mouth the most efficient position to be in.

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To learn to trill we begin by using very hard  accents. You cannot overdo it! Really blast air all of a sudden by pushing really hard from Place #6. If you can't do that go back and read the articles on breathing and do the exercises. When you can make the clean slurs with hard accents then put them on every note. By the end of this the muscles in Place #6 should be tired.

Without the extremely hard breath accents this is just another bunch of trills. With it it can improve your playing immensely in a short time.

The hard accents blow your mouth into the right shape. It takes decades of practice with good instruction to find the shape, but if you use the air properly here you can experience it in two seconds. You know it happens when the notes are brick shaped and change suddenly from one to the other with a pop. That pop is the sound wave breaking or joining and we love to hear it. It means things are working efficiently.

It is imperative that the lower note be just as loud and have the same tone color as the first note. After we have mastered the trill a bit we back off on some of the accents and play the ones that are written.

For beginning students have them trill between lower notes, perhaps bottom line E and the G above it. For advanced players practice as written and higher and lower.

Make the last note very long and decrescendo as much as possible without changing tone color to make sure you are controlling the air from  Place #6.

Exercise 1

Exercise 1 is our most basic exercise. We do it daily no matter our ability level. It is the equivalent of a chef sharpening his knives to get ready for the day's work, or a flower arranger cutting and laying out the flowers before arranging them.

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The main goal of the exercise is to produce three totally brick shaped notes. That means that it starts with a clean T tongue and blow through all three notes as if they were one note. The air flow should not increase or decrease during the note.

This is most important at the ends of the first two notes. Do not go flat or get quieter at the ends of the notes.

Let your fingers do as much of the work as possible. We want the lowest note at the end of the exercise to sound and feel as much like the first note as possible.

You will find of course that some notes do not speak as well or have the same tone color as the others. While this may be cause by numerous factors it is most often because of intonation. When you hit a note that doesn't speak well try moving your right wrist to adjust the intonation.

Go as low as possible every day. For many students the lowest notes will be out of your range. That's ok, just play as low as possible every day. If you can play all of the notes here just try to go lower every day.

This is a wonderfully extensible and leveragable exercise. Sometimes we alternate between hard accent on the first note and sneaking in as quietly as possible.  You can play the middle of the three notes stopped.  Sometimes we tongue all three notes, the first one very hard, the middle one normally and the last note legato tongued.

But whatever variation you are working on do it the same way every day for at least a week.

A great way to learn to control the air from Place #6 is to put a decrescendo on the last note, dying away without letting the tone color change. If you move the control up from Place #6 while you are playing your tone color will get dull and thin. You want to hear a bright shiny sound all the way down.

If you control the air from too high up your throat and the thick part of your tongue in the back will move, changing the sound of the note. Try to keep the note as boring and simple as possible. You will see that the only way to do it is to control the air from Place #6 through the entire note.

Exercise 2

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This exercise trains you to use the minimum movement inside your mouth when changing notes.

There are two elements of this exercise; repeated notes alternating with technical figures.

Play all on the D horn. That is your F horn with the first and second valves depressed. You can use normal fingerings on the scale if you wish or use it as hand horn training, but play everything else in the exercise on one fingering.

Make the repeated A as simple and brick shaped as possible.

Play the repeated notes with very clean tonguing and a very slight separation.  We want to keep our mouth still so if there is too much separation the mouth will tend to move. Keep it still!

Don't use a D tongue here. Use a hard, clean T.

It helps at first to blast, and we mean blast the air when you are changing notes both up and down. You want to blast the air suddenly, as if you knew you were going to get hit in the gut and you suddenly and violently tighten the muscles around your belly button. Do it hard and suddenly and violently! There is no advantage to being subtle here.

Don't breath right before the figures. If you need a breath right before one play some more of the repeated notes.

The repeated note teaches your mouth what shape to be in. Try to keep that shape while playing the technical figures. You know you are doing it right if all the notes of the figures have the same tone color. If they get quieter or darker or thin or wobbly then you are probably moving your mouth or more likely the back of your tongue too much.

User lots of air, especially on the lower notes and the glissando.

If the glissando is a problem, just go up a couple of partials and come back down. The important thing is that you go up using a blast of air and keep the blast going while you come down. Keep a good, bright tone color. Don't aim up!

When you can comfortably play the exercise you can back off the accents and start to transpose up by half steps. If you do back off the accents be careful not to fall back in the trap of easing off the support and using too much face.

The fingering pattern going up is:

• F horn 12 (as the exercise is written)
• F horn 1
• F horn 2
• F horn 0
• Bb horn 23
• Bb horn 12
• Bb horn 1
• Bb horn 2
• Bb horn 0 (top line F)

You can replace the technical elements with anything you are working on. For example if you want practice double tonguing or playing stopped or really loud or really quiet you can just write in your own drills.