Air Flow

The most important component of good trombone playing is a constant, steady flow of air.  Blow in a free and easy manner in order to liberate the music and produce the broad and generous tone to which professionals aspire.  The air flow is the key to success and we must accommodate and develop this function as much as we can.

To be an expert trombonist, become an expert blower.
In order to develop and maintain unobstructed blowing, one of my favorite teaching tools is to have the student play without the tongue; that is, smear completely, striving for lots of sound between notes.  During this kind of practicing I am listening for continuous sound and lots of glissando; there should be no hesitation in the sound or inconsistency in the tone quality.  Think of feeding the music with a generous volume of steady moving air.  Of course, to smear completely is only a means of practicing to develop air flow.  I am not advocating performing in this way, although I do believe one should use as little tongue as possible when performing. 

When you move the slide do not puff the air.  When you articulate do not puff the air.
The air is the foundation to all the other aspects of playing trombone and it must continue to flow regardless of all the other requirements of playing.  Note changes are therefore a function of the blowing.  Articulation is also a function of the blowing and the tongue is subordinate to the air flow. 

Learn what good blowing feels like by reawakening your kinesthesia.
Kinesthesia is the sense which tells us about the position and movement of parts of the body relative to other parts of the body and it also provides us with information about the quality of our effort.  Unlike the five other senses (sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing) that advise us of the outside world, kinesthesia is a sense that provides feedback solely on the status of the body internally.  This feedback is vital because it is how we monitor the efficiency of our playing.  If one’s kinesthesia becomes dormant it is difficult to attribute beautiful playing to a gentle, easy effort because there is no feedback from inside our bodies.  This situation is all too common and, invariably, players who lose their kinesthesia end up associating good trombone playing with an inappropriate quality of muscular effort.  One must approach trombone playing as a fine art, not as an athletic activity and our kinesthesia can help us accomplish this.  Our movements must be highly coordinated and subtle – not overwhelmingly muscular.  For information about how to reawaken kinesthesia, go to Body Mapping.