Out of all the different mechanical elements that go into performing on a brass instrument, efficient breathing ranks not only as one of the most important but is also perhaps the most natural, if anything about brass playing can be called “natural.”  Breathing is, of course, an integral part of life and we all already breathe naturally already.  The breathing pattern that is conducive to good brass playing is something we don’t need to study, per se, as we already know how to do it.  The trouble we run into is that breathing patterns that hinder good brass playing are equally natural.  The difficulty we have isn’t learning how to breathe well, it’s in allowing it to happen without other breathing patterns creeping their way into our playing.

This is harder to do than it sounds.  Breathing is one of the few bodily functions that is both autonomic (unconscious) and also under our voluntary control.  Under the right circumstances we can allow the autonomic functions to move the air correctly, but it is just as easy for unconscious breathing patterns to interfere with our playing.  The trick is to understand not only how breathing affects brass playing but also how to allow the correct patterns to work without interference.  There is simply no way that you can breathe that can be said to be “unnatural.”

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