Technique

The trombone: changing times, changing slide positions

From Virgiliano to Praetorius and Eisel, early sources reshape long-held assumptions about trombone tuning, slide positions and historical playing practice.

By Howard Weiner

Part 1

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.

By Timofey Dokschidser

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

Editorial

So your trumpet plays in tune

Keyboard tuning, just intonation and string phrasing place brass players between conflicting pitch systems, as Thomas Stevens outlines practical compromises.

By Thomas Stevens

Good intonation on the trombone

The trombone’s fixed positions meet the compromises of natural harmonics, as Raymond Fonsèque proposes a different logic for pitch across major and minor keys.

By Raymond Fonseque

Part 2

Articulation or bowing on the trumpet

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

By Timofey Dokschidser

Jazz and the Horn Series • Part 7

John Clark

John Clark made the horn a jazz voice on its own terms, balancing improvisation, studio realities and an instrument still fighting to escape classical expectations.

By Jeffrey Agrell

Low register development for the trombone

Should you really drop the jaw for low notes? James Fulkerson challenges this idea and proposes a more stable approach to extend the low register.

By James Fulkerson

Contemporary systems and trends for the tuba

New music, new rules: Daniel Perantoni explores extended techniques, graphic notation and the evolving language of the tuba.

By Daniel Perantoni

A more natural intonation

By Rex Martin

Part 5

Practical Hints

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

By James Stamp

Part 5

The Trumpet and the Cornet in Jazz and in Popular Music

Breathing

Breathing, Valsalva, mouthpiece position and daily practice collide with received wisdom as trumpet technique is reconsidered from the body outward.

By Michel Laplace

Fundamental trombone performance technique

Teaching and application

Technique becomes musicianship when breathing, vibration, resonance, articulation and slide movement cease to be separate skills and begin working as one.

By William F. Cramer

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.

By Heinz Burum

Part 1

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Jazz did not invent the modern trombone: early virtuosos, New Orleans players and changing techniques reveal a more complex path toward flexibility and legato.

By Michel Laplace

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

Part 3

The trombone in Jazz and Popular Music

Pluralism of expression since 1945

Bebop, cool jazz, free jazz and neo-classicism transformed the trombone after 1945, as new players, techniques and instruments pushed its boundaries.

By Michel Laplace

The F/Bb horn with whole-tone ascending 3rd valve

A different horn, a different approach: Francis Orval explores how an ascending 3rd valve reshapes technique, intonation and response.

By Francis Orval

Part 8

DSA - Digital analysis of intonation and sound

By Robert Meissner

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

Interview with Thomas Müller

The natural horn is not a retreat into the past: Thomas Müller argues that its demands on sound, technique and awareness can broaden a modern player’s craft.

By Jeffrey Agrell

One step for intonation: one giant step for the serpent

By Craig Kridel

Part 1

The art of chamber music

By Jean-Pierre Mathez