Nerves

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

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

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

The use of the mind in instrumental performance

Relaxation, concentration and mental imagery reshape technical practice, linking self-confidence and instrumental control beyond physical training alone.

By Michel Ricquier

Basics in breathing

An Outline to a Better Sound

From breathing awareness to sound production, practical exercises link physical relaxation, air control and rhythmic precision in everyday brass playing.

By Joel Elias

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

Part 4

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

From meditation to distance running, horn playing becomes a way of quieting mental noise, linking breath, concentration, and daily life.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Brass and Strings

A note on personality types among musicians

Behind the formal discipline of the symphony orchestra, contrasting views of brass and string players reveal enduring questions about personality, class and musical culture.

By John Davies

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

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

Relaxation and musical performance

Breath, fingers and muscular tension form a hidden technical chain in wind playing, as Michel Ricquier links virtuosity to bodily awareness.

By Michel Ricquier

Herpes labialis (lip sores)

A brass players' affliction

For brass players, a common lip condition can mean weeks away from the instrument, linking embouchure, health habits and recurring interruptions.

By Uwe Schwandt

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

Editorial

Progress by Stages

Between technical routine and lived experience, musical growth emerges through setbacks, observation and the gradual shaping of an individual voice.

By Jean-Pierre Mathez