Teaching

Knodt, Heinz

Singing lessons for brass players?

Explores how vocal training can benefit brass players, improving breathing, phrasing, tone production and musical expression.

Bouché, Robert

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.

Lloyd, Leno

Lip vibration characteristics

of the trombone embouchure in performance

Study of lip vibration in trombone performance, analyzing embouchure behavior and its impact on sound production and control.

Everett, Thomas

A brief glimpse at the USSR

What does a musical trip to the USSR reveal? Between discipline, powerful sound, and vivid exchanges, this account uncovers a different brass culture.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

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.

Höltzel, Michael

My contacts with the United States

From a simple request to an unexpected invitation: this account dives into Indiana University—between dazzling technique and the search for true musicality.

Willener, Alfred

Advices from an expert brass clinician: Robert Pichaureau, Paris

What if everything you control is wrong? This radical approach to brass playing shifts focus away from the embouchure — back to the true origin of breath and sound.

Krumpfer, Hans-Joachim

Problems of teaching methods in brass instruction

Talent isn’t enough. Krumpfer argues that brass teaching must align physiology, psychology, and method—only then can young players reach their true potential.

Orvid, G. · Riaouzov, S.

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.

Selianin, Anatoly

Vassily Gueorguievitch Brandt (1869–1923)

Biography

Sélianine traces Brandt’s life and artistry, from Bolshoi virtuoso to influential pedagogue, revealing the foundations of a distinctly Russian trumpet tradition.

Varasdy, Frigyes

Contemporary Hungarian Brass Music

From early decline to recent revival, Hungarian brass emerges through pedagogy, competitions and new chamber works, with Varasdy outlining key figures and shifting ensemble practices.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Virtuosity is framed less as method than perception, opposing formula-driven teaching and pointing to attentive listening as the ground for technical clarity and artistic control

Ree Wekre, Frøydis

The Leningrad School of Horn Playing

From St. Petersburg to the Soviet era, generations of horn players shaped a distinctive approach to sound, interpretation, and orchestral playing.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

At the dawn of the 1980s, Brass Bulletin challenges institutional habits, avant-garde rigidity and brass pedagies through a direct appeal to younger musicians.

Quinque, Rolf

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.

Ricquier, Michel

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.

Laplace, Michel

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.

Gade, Per

Anton Hansen (1877-1947)

Father of trombone playing in Scandinavia

From Sibelius to Paris, Anton Hansen’s later career links Scandinavian trombone playing with French repertoire, teaching, and orchestral reform.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

Built around Herbert L. Clarke’s Technical Studies, these practice routines refine flexibility, intonation and note placement through structured brass exercises.

Dokschidser, Timofey

Articulation or bowing on the trumpet

Trumpet articulation becomes a precise study of attack, sustain, release and legato, linking tongue, breath, lips and sound in Dokshitser’s method.

Ricquier, Michel

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.

Dokschidser, Timofey

Articulation or bowing on the trumpet

Trumpet articulation becomes a full performing language, from détaché and staccato to legato, glissando, dynamics and score interpretation.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

A simplified preparation method adapted from Herbert L. Clarke links transposition, tempo variation and repetition to technical fluency and mental anticipation.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Progress by Stages

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

Elias, Joel

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.

Leuba, Christopher

A study of musical intonation

Resultant tones, harmonic series ratios and chord spacing challenge equal temperament, linking acoustics and practical ensemble intonation.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

A preparatory adaptation of a Clarke technical study reframes finger technique, airflow, and efficiency through a progressive approach to daily practice.

Bobo, Roger

Arnold Jacobs

Interview

Two tuba giants meet in 1979 Chicago, where Arnold Jacobs turns technique, sound, orchestral life and pedagogy into a lasting musical ethic.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

A single Clarke study becomes a lesson in note placement, breath control and continuity, as James Stamp reshapes a familiar exercise through preparation.

Ricquier, Michel

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.

Leuba, Christopher

A study of musical intonation

From harmonic-series tuning to valve-slide adjustments on the horn, practical listening and resonance become more reliable guides than equal temperament alone.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Beyond technique and instruction, musical growth depends on trusted relationships, where friendship becomes both a measure of progress and a safeguard against isolation.

Leuba, Christopher

A study of musical intonation

From wind quintets to brass sections, balance, overtones and perception shape intonation in ways that often diverge from measurable frequency.

Gorovoj, Sergej

Viktor Venglowski

Musician and Teacher

From the Leningrad Philharmonic to the Conservatoire, one trombonist shaped repertoire, ensembles and generations of players across the Soviet Union.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

Working from a Clarke study, a modified routine links tone stability to velocity, showing how secure sound supports precision as tempo increases.

Cramer, William F.

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.

Sommerhalder, Max

Working with the Posaunenchor

From Württemberg youth groups to mass brass gatherings in Ulm, a community tradition links faith, education and amateur brass playing across generations.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

A progressive adaptation of Clarke’s No. 91 uses slurs, accents and dynamic shaping to build speed while preserving tone stability and control.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Interview with Hans Pizka

From Vienna horn traditions and natural-horn training to orchestral style and pedagogy, Hans Pizka reflects on the foundations of horn playing and musical identity.

Stamp, James

Practical Hints

Tone stability remains the foundation of velocity as James Stamp reshapes a Clarke study into a preparatory exercise linking sound control with fluent technical playing.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Pyotr Naumovich Volkov (1877-1933)

First trombone professor at St. Petersburg Conservatory

From imperial St. Petersburg to Soviet Leningrad, Volkov shaped a distinctive Russian trombone tradition through performance, teaching and generations of pupils.

Quinque, Rolf

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.

Burum, Heinz

My Experiences with Colleagues and Pupils

in 50 Years as trumpet player and trumpet teacher

Across five decades, Heinz Burum links trumpet embouchure, mouthpiece design and teaching practice to concrete cases from orchestras, pupils and colleagues.

Sumerkin, Viktor

Vladislav Mykhaylovich Blazhevich (1881-1942)

Trombonist, Composer and Teacher

From village band to the Moscow Conservatoire and the Bolshoi, a lifelong commitment to performance, teaching and wind music shaped Soviet trombone tradition.

Willener, Alfred

James Stamp, subtle teaching

Intonation, held notes and mouthpiece work shape James Stamp's subtle approach to trumpet playing, where listening and physical economy guide technique.

Barantsev, Anatoly

Akim Alexeyevich Kozlov

A Trombone Artist

Behind decades of orchestral excellence, one trombonist shaped a school of playing whose influence reached far beyond Leningrad and the concert hall.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

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.

Davidson, Louis

The attack

Precision often begins with doing less, not more—a principle Louis Davidson places at the heart of trumpet playing with surprising practical consequences.

Gorovoj, Sergej

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?

Agrell, Jeffrey

Jazz and the Horn

Getting started

For the classically trained horn player, jazz replaces the security of the printed page with listening, swing and improvisation—and a different kind of discipline.

Usov, Yuri

Sergey Nikolaevich Yeryomin (1903-1975)

The Distinguished Soviet Trumpeter and Teacher

Between Soviet military bands, the Bolshoi and the Moscow Conservatory, Yeryomin helped shape a trumpet tradition in which virtuosity remained a means, not an end.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

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.

Davidson, Louis

Tonguing

A tiny shift in tongue movement changes speed, endurance and clarity, turning articulation from a mechanical attack into one of the trumpet player’s subtlest tools.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

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