Endurance

Brass Techniques Series • Part 2

The Body

A brass player's physical condition depends on more than muscular strength, with sleep, nutrition and recovery shaping the balance between technical control and fatigue.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Overlays and bonding

New dental aids for brass players

A trumpeter’s dental experiments in the 1980s turned teeth, mouthpiece pressure and embouchure into an unexpected field of collaboration with dentistry.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Brass players athletes

Brass players are athletes. Bengt Belfrage reveals how training, recovery, breathing, and mental focus—borrowed from sport—can transform performance and endurance.

By Bengt Belfrage

Inventor's corner

Shaping Your Own Mouthpiece

A tiny alteration to the mouthpiece rim challenges conventional design, seeking greater upper-lip endurance without sacrificing flexibility, attack or control.

By Ninck Blok

1981 Geneva International Competition

Readers Letters

Philip Jones responds to the Geneva 1981 debate, arguing for fairer jury decisions, balanced repertoire, and the enduring value of international trumpet competitions.

By Philip Jones

The column of air

A System of Breathing for Brass Players

Explains the role of the air column in brass playing, focusing on breath support, airflow control and their impact on tone, articulation and sound quality.

By Robert Bouché

Some ways of improving the development of the lips in brass players

Brass players borrow from sports medicine as Soviet electrical stimulation, acupuncture and massage test new ways to build endurance and restore overworked lips.

By Sergej Gorovoj

Being a woman brass player... So what?

Frøydis Ree Wekre reflects on women in brass playing, examining physical assumptions, psychological factors, and practical realities across performance and professional life.

By Frøydis Ree Wekre

A talk with Rolf Quinque

What if strength is the wrong approach? Rolf Quinque traces his shift from force to mastery through controlled breathing, discipline, and relaxed playing.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Mouthpiece pressure in Horn Playing

Graduation project in technical method

Long before sensors entered the practice room, one horn student measured embouchure pressure by hand, challenging assumptions that still shape brass pedagogy.

By Edgar Bürger

A scientific study of pulmonary function

As applied to wind instrument playing, with emphasis on the study of lung function in trumpet playing

Do trumpet players breathe differently? William W. Bing shows not really—except for greater lung capacity tied to endurance, with no harmful effects.

By William W. Bing

ASA-Method

From Bach’s clarino tradition to modern piccolo trumpet playing, extreme high-register technique is tied here to breath support, pressure control and disciplined endurance.

By Rolf Quinque