Introduction
Challenges of trumpet performance
Up till recently, I have always struggled with the physical aspect of trumpet playing, mainly with playing in the extremes of the registers (high and low) and also with endurance. I had to be extremely careful with choosing performances, and planning practice sessions, so that I do not tire myself out. However, even with all the effort to manage my trumpet playing, I found myself going in a downward spiral in the years 2009-2010, and my trumpet playing eventually degraded to a level where producing a third space ‘C’ in the treble staff feels painful. This started to change when I adopted a different way of breathing in late 2010.
Since then, I always find myself asking, “What can I rely on to play better? What should I change in order to play better? How can I find more security in performance situations?” This is due to the reason that the trumpet, to me, is a brutally honest mirror to myself; if something is not ‘right’ within me, the trumpet responds accordingly in a very unforgiving manner, and can have disastrous consequences. A small inaccuracy in the internal mechanism would result in a cracked or completely wrong note, which is clearly audible during performance.
In his article Trompete!, the principal trombonist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Jay Friedman summarizes the difficulties of playing the trumpet well:
“… The demands placed upon the [trumpet] player are almost super-human. Composers… have no qualms about writing very high, demanding parts for trumpet… a trumpet player must possess great physical strength as well as several other things that must come together in one person. In addition, it requires an almost perfect embouchure… A very small area of the lips must produce a large sound and at the same time play incredibly high… the equipment only being a small aid to that end. I also think the trumpet is the most difficult instrument to play softly. It naturally wants to blare, and it takes a skillful and talented operator to make a beautiful sound in pianissimo.”
However, from the description above, one can be mislead into thinking that the trumpeter needs to focus on the small lip area or embouchure directly in order to play their instrument. However, personal experience has taught me that the control over the embouchure is merely a side effect of the refined balance between motor skills, cognitive functions, and stress within the player. This refined balance falls into Friedman’s generic phrase of “several other things”. I further believe that learning to breathe properly is the key to achieving this balance.
My own playing trauma from 2009/10 was solved by learning a new method of breathing from trumpeter and pedagogue Willem van der Vliet. This method restored my ability to play and saved my career. For this reason, I want to document and discuss this way of breathing in case it could be interesting and beneficial to other players.
In this paper I will first discuss, in chapter one, how breathing is approached in conventional trumpet pedagogy and then go on to describe the breathing method of Willem van der Vliet. I supplemented my own view of this method by surveying other students of Willem to find out how they experienced the method (see Appendix 2). Chapter two is about the physiology of breathing. Chapter three describes several exercises, mostly from Willem, which can be utilized to learn to inhale simultaneously through the nose and mouth and further practice it in trumpet playing. My conclusion is that – based on the experiences of myself and of others and on the science of breathing – practicing the nose-mouth inhalation could be hugely beneficial for trumpeters.
Research question
Breathing simultaneously through the nose and mouth: What are the benefits for trumpet playing? How can this technique be learned?