Mental approach

Nerves, Pills and Doping

Behind a debate once confined to musicians lies a wider shift in how performance anxiety, medication and professional responsibility began to be separated instead of confused.

By Christian Baechler

Part 3

Maurice André

Biography

Maurice André reflects on maturity—balancing performance, recordings and teaching, refining his approach to instruments and audience, and preparing for the limits of a virtuoso career.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Brass Techniques Series • Part 1

The Brain

Instrumental mastery begins beyond the instrument itself, where motivation, concentration and self-awareness shape the musician’s progress and artistic development.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Breathing and the physiological mask

Air is not everything: Michel Ricquier challenges the “air column” myth, revealing how breathing and the “physiological mask” together unlock control, power, and ease.

By Michel Ricquier

Part 1

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Beyond technique: Jeffrey Agrell explores how Zen challenges Western thinking—revealing a new path to awareness, focus, and deeper musical experience in horn playing.

By Jeffrey Agrell

The subconscious, a useful friend

From yogic practices to auto-hypnosis, mental conditioning and visualisation are linked to performance, self-control, and the body's hidden responses.

By Michel Ricquier

Editorial

Artistic progress is measured not only in technique but in doubt, self-awareness and hope, as Jean-Pierre Mathez looks beyond the instrument to the person playing it.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

ASA-Method, ASA-Technic

Virtuosity grows from disciplined work on scales, articulation and reading, arguing that consistent fundamentals matter more than chasing the upper register.

By Rolf Quinque

Part 2

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Beyond technique: Jeffrey Agrell explores the clash between intellect and intuition—arguing that true musical expression begins where analysis ends.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Sophrology and Music

For brass players, physical tension and concert anxiety can become habitual obstacles, while sophrology offers a different approach to posture, memory and performance.

By Robert Ischer

Editorial

A warning from the machine: Jean-Pierre Mathez reflects on Kaufmann’s robot—questioning whether technology is shaping music… or slowly replacing the human artist.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Editorial

Instrumental technique meets personal reflection as Jean-Pierre Mathez argues that artistic growth depends less on definitive answers than curiosity, exchange and individual paths.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Editorial

Music teaching depends on more than routine: in 1984, Jean-Pierre Mathez argues that living contact with artists keeps transmission open to new generations.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

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 Miracle Pill for Stage Fright?

What happens when performance anxiety is treated like a medical condition rather than a musical one, and where does that boundary ultimately lead?

By Wilfried Buck

Editorial

When careers pause and certainty fades, real progress begins in private, where discipline, friendship and chamber music reshape what it means to be a musician.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

A Little Trumpet Music

Stage fright, high A’s and a D trumpet turn an orchestral concert into an intimate account of the moment anxiety finally gives way to music.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Listening

Musical listening begins where judgment ends, as Jeffrey Agrell questions habits of criticism, recordings and expectation that shape every performance.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Editorial

Between disciplined practice and creative folly, musicianship emerges where scales and systems give way to imagination, instinct and the unsettling freedom to think.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez

Part 3

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Between breath, reflex, and attention, Jeffrey Agrell links Zen practice with the physical and mental habits that shape brass playing.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Part 5

The Trumpet in the USA

The Confidence Pill

Stage fright meets medical research as performers, physicians and early beta-blocker studies reshape the debate over confidence, fairness and public performance.

By Thomas Stevens