Sound

The lead trumpet player

A survey of training, practice and equipment

Article on lead trumpet playing, covering training, practice methods and equipment for achieving accuracy, endurance and style.

By John Harding

Some thoughts on the euphonium and euphonium technique

The euphonium revealed: Barrie Perrins explores its history, technique, and expressive power—making a compelling case for its place as one of brass’s most versatile solo voices.

By Barrie Perrins

The founders of the French Trumpet School

Merri Franquin, Eugène Foveau and Raymond Sabarich

Franquin, Foveau and Sabarich appear through their Paris careers, teaching legacies, recordings and role in shaping modern French trumpet playing.

By Michel Laplace

An Introduction to "In Tune"

the Scale of Just Intonation

Long before electronic tuners, brass players faced a choice between mathematical order and acoustic truth, with consequences that still shape ensemble playing today.

By Jack Holland

Brass instrument research at Surrey University

Acoustics, materials, bore design, and player perception meet in Surrey research linking laboratory measurements with the realities of brass performance.

By John Goodwin

The tuba in Europe

Why does the tuba sound different across Europe? Robert Tucci explores national styles, instruments and orchestral traditions.

By Robert Tucci

Use of a spectral model in developing concepts of tuba timbre

Can great tuba sound be measured? This groundbreaking study turns timbre into data — offering a visual model that could transform how players hear and shape their sound.

By Daniel D. Stancil

On the sensitivity of brass instruments

Cold-hammered hunting horns retain a tactile memory of sound and playing, leading Jacques Poncet to question how brass instruments evolve in use.

By Jacques Poncet

Mikhail Innokentiévitch Tabakov (1877-1958)

Founder of the Soviet trumpet school

A towering figure of trumpet history: Tabakov shaped generations—including the legendary Timofei Dokchitzer—and laid the foundations of the Soviet trumpet school.

By G. Orvid, S. Riaouzov

Science and Technology in Trombone Teaching

What if tone production depended less on instinct than on understanding how the instrument, the lips and the air function as one interconnected system?

By Sergej Gorovoj

Part 1

Playing and singing simultaneously on brass instruments

From Weber and Vivier to contemporary solo works, singing into the brass instrument becomes a multiphonic technique shaped by notation, acoustics, and practice.

By Benny Sluchin

Harmonics or partials?

Behind every brass note lies a compromise between acoustical theory and instrument design, as E. Ferron questions what players call a harmonic.

By Emile Ferron

Part 3

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and Popular Music

The pluralism of the so-called “modern” forms (1945 to the present)

Bebop, Miles Davis and the rise of the flugelhorn mark a postwar jazz landscape in which trumpet playing splintered into competing sounds and ideals.

By Michel Laplace

Blowing as a body function

Breathing habits, posture and body mechanics converge in a practical view of tone production, where William F. Cramer questions prevailing assumptions.

By William F. Cramer

Reflections on the horn

Francis Orval reflects on horn playing, discussing tone production, breathing and the influence of French and German traditions on sound and style.

By Francis Orval