Thank you so much for this tip. I play in a rock band, typically 2 one and a half hour sets and a half hour third set that I would struggle through and by the end of the night would barely be able to get out if the staff. Tried this technique last night and it made a world of difference. Was able to pop high D’s at the end the night. I had thought of quiting, but feel a new breath of life to my playing, no pun intended. Thank you again. You saved this old trumpet guy.

Your way of fixing physical issues is the best I've ever heard. Any student of yours will be set to go as far as they want.

This is the OPPOSITE of how I was taught when I started playing Eb mellophone in the 1950's. I had too few lessons, but this I learned. I stopped playing in 1962 when I graduated High School and had to return the F single French horn which I was playing badly -- offbeat notes and sustained long notes to add harmony--, but the breathing habit stayed with me and possibly caused my poorer health later in my life. It certainly changed my posture for the worse. I was taught to lie on my back with a dictionary on my abdomen. I was taught to push that book up while moving my chest as little as possible. THE OPPOSITE. The same was more reinforced in acting lessons now that I'm in my 70's. I was first attracted to your channel last week because you taught the "sigh" technique, filling your upper chest, but I was accommodating by expanding BOTH chest and abdomen together. Now I understand bow and arrow; I feel better already. A bit more than a year ago I took a chance and bought a 1962 Olds Ambassador on eBay to see if I might get a sound out of it. I've had fun ever since. KZfaq has been my only teacher because I haven't been able to connect with a teacher who I would be assured won't give me bad habits. I know about this because I had started piano a few years ago when I retired; I quit because I asked about an ergonomic solution to my hurting back, but was told to bear with it while using a liniment loaded with red pepper sauce. I never was able to play brass as well as I have taught myself, but my main focus in retirement is stories and play writing.

Thanks Paul! We trumpet players need all the encouragement, instruction and love that we can gather from each other.

Thanks, Paul, you got me out from a puzzle disturbed me for a long time: every time I come back from physical exercises I feel playing better, now I know that is because my tummy muscle got more intense and lock the bow better than in a loss condition.

Great! Thanks Paul!

Subscribed! I enjoyed your main channel, looking forward to seeing more here and improving my cornet playing!

Thanks for your work on the videos. Keep up the good work I look forward to working through them. To answer your question about what we need. For me revisiting the foundations is great

Unbelievable what this did to my playing, I can't thank you enough!!

This is one of the most existential and very very important technique.. you can create a very very floating colorful sound.. Paul, thank you very very much for sharing..a big deep appreciation...

Thanks for all your videos they are realy very helpful

Thanks for the advice. God bless 🙏 He loves you and your family ❤️

Woah..this works! I just had one of the best practice sessions I've ever had....Thank you!!

Totally Brilliant

Paul, good to see you and enjoyed the video, tried it this morning and instantly noticed the difference so thanks and I look forward to the next video.

Hi Paul, new on your channel. Really appreciate your videos. I wanted to ask you, if you could do a video on pedal tones and relaxation or cooling down after playing. Thank you very much. Greetings from Germany Nikolas.

It realy helped me

This technique immediately changed my articulation for the better!

I was stuck until I found your videos. Thanks air pressure has helped me. was told you need no air pressure or support from the body.

Hi Paul, don't know if you remember me. Its Charles, really good to see you on here looking forward to the videos!

What is the best changing pitch technique?I have heard so many.Use Tha or Tu and ee for high notes. Lower your jaw for lower register.

Hello Paul, could you advise me a good textbook for learning alone (with the help of your advices) to play gradually the trumpet. Kind regards!

Thank you. I have just bought a practice mute will it help develop my playing?

Could you please recommend a mute for practising with, which is not too stuffy and does not too much affect intonation.. I an 2 weeks into learning, am embarrassed by my lack of skill, and have been using a Wick Harmon mute. With the mute, I can get up to G above the stave and play simple Purcell. Without the mute, intonation is awful and middle C is the upper limit. Please help? Thanks!

Thanks so much, Paul. Your videos are really terrific and are helping me play better and better. I think…. Bobby Shew’s videos are helping me too. In fact, there are so many great how-to videos by the likes of Thomas Hooten, David Hickman, Greg Spence, Wayne Bergeron, Charlie Porter, Doc Severinson, and on and on…. I believe we are in the midst of a revolution in trumpet pedagogy. Thank you for participating! Speaking of Bobby Shew, any thoughts about his wedge breathing technique? Perhaps you’re saying the same thing but in a different order where you have the tummy tuck coming before the inhalation. But maybe it’s like addition where the order doesn’t matter… By the way, I love how you challenge us to get a colorful and vibrant sound with articulations that are crispy. I spent way too much of my life going for a “dark” sound and I think that messed up my approach to playing. Keep the revolution going!

I thought I was crazy because no one talks about using the airflow for vibrato, which is how I always thought it was properly done because the hand method and jaw method messed with the pitch and I didn't like it. Turns out the trumpet community seems to dislike this method. I haven't played for 12 years so my breath control is non-existent at this point but when I played I pretty regularly got complimented on my vibrato so it's really weird to see that i was doing it "wrong."

Great video. How long is good to practice each day? I've been playing an hour a day for a while but haven't built up much endurance, perhaps I'm practicing wrong? This tip helps a lot though

Hello Mr.Paul, O would like some advice. I want to be able to play any song I wish. How do it do that when theres not a single musc sheet online?

Thank you very much please, but I want to know, I easly get tired when I tried to blow a high pitch

Thank you for the video. I find all of your posts entertaining and thought provoking and often helpful. However, while I think your lock and breathe technique might work for some folks I found that for me it created too much tension in my body. And while it did in fact create instant compressions as you indicate it should, I was able to create the same compression, but with more air internally if I tightened my abs AFTER the inhale. With your method I also felt that I LOST resonance. My method involves an inhale "until your fill up your back", which engages and expands the intercostal muscles. THEN tightening the abdominals supercharges all of that and all you have to do is relax. I suppose the way I do it is a dumbed down version of the Shew "wedge". When I used your method I could feel the tension not only in my body but in my hands and shoulders as well. Metaphorically, it's like golf, creating tension on the backswing rather than as you move into the front swing. I think golfers would feel more relaxed and fluid with the latter as I do with the same tensioning just prior to the exhale. JMO.

Thanks Paul. Definitely noticed an improvement in all areas (tone, flexibility, and articulation) however air capacity was decreased. I was always taught to breathe down to my knees which I thought meant relaxing the abdominals to inhale the maximum. I regularly practice the Iron's exercises 1 and 2 at 60 BPM which equate to about 40 seconds per breath. Keeping the abs tensioned I can only do about 32 to 35 seconds. Do you think it possible to increase to 40+ using tensioned abs?

Hi ,Paul, great videos! One question. Is there any possibility of getting hernia by doing this?

for some reason I already did this when playing the trumpet when I was in 6th grade

Hi master, i have a problem i can't center my sound what kind of excercises could i do ?

I'm finding it difficult in pitching the octave of C major on trumpet

What are you doing with your left hand? It didn't look like you were holding the trumpet with your left.

Paul, this reminds me of the "wedge breath" as described by Bobby Shew - only much simpler. Two steps instead of six: "Lock, and breath in." Any connection to Shew, Ingram, etc.?

WOW I SOUNDED SO BAD BUT NOW I SOUND AWESOME

All this advice does for me is that it invites throat tension and sometimes it feels like my head will explode especially if I use it in a big band playing situation. I don't really get how "sighing technique" goes together with this... Sighing technique though really does work very well. But this is simply too much in my estimation. Also Wayne Bergeron is saying here that we shouldn't tense up before playing. The resistance of the horn and the register will make our body adjust naturally to how much of belly tightness we need to be using . I am talking about this video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z72TopOfs86VkYE.html Although if I tighten up my belly and focus on blowing a very slow air, then I have chance on not choking. As soon as I push on some more volume my glottis closes. But probably It's just much easier to overblow while tightening the abs and that's why the throat wants to close so much.

Mate...you couldn't be more wrong. This will mess up so many players.

From everything I've been taught about trumpet technique, this is mostly very BAD advice. Your inhale should not be tense and "shruggy." If you can see shoulders move that much when you inhale you can almost guarantee you're going to have bad tone. Relax on your inhale, fill up from the lower part of your abdomen. You should engage your ab muscles on the exhale to keep your sound supported with solid airflow. A high breath uses only a fraction of your full lung capacity so a high breath means you'll play for a shorter period of time, have less dynamic range, struggle with high notes, and have bad sound quality. Good sound, range, and dynamics starts with a good breath. Learn how to breathe.

It seems to me that inhaling with your stomach muscles tensed would equate more to pulling a bow back with your pulling arm tensed. Whereas breathing normally would be simply pulling the bow normally. In any case, this is horrible advice in my opinion I can't believe you would actually encourage people to do this while performing. As one commenter has already noted his capacity for phrase length is diminished. This is an inefficient way to play if you actually breath this way while performing.