For all breathing, (1) open your mouth. (2) Then exhale fully. (3) Inhale with a silent “ahh” which opens the throat. As you breath remain relaxed & move your elbows outwards to allow the lungs to expand more.

I use three different kinds of breathing the fat breath, the tall breath and the complete breath.
For the fat breathing, breath deep in your lungs first. Making an effort to expand the lungs downward in the lower back & sides. Getting fat then expanding in the chest as well. This should give you a huge breath. Most students who do this the first time are so unused to having so much air that they miss notes. I like this when I want a vibrato, during a very hard concert or when I want a dark tone. , breath in and immediately play.

For the tall breathing, take a fast breath letting the body expand naturally, but keep your attention with the expansion of your chest in the heart region. The breath to the chest has the advantage of expanded chest muscles. The air use is aided by the natural contraction of the chest muscles. There is no forcing of the air outward, or extra tension from overly stretched body parts. Breathing this way eliminates most of my nervousness and I can get a nice steady tone. Breath in and immediately play. The only time I breath and hold in the breath before playing is for really scary high note entrances. These entrances are aided by the built up air pressure in the lungs.

The complete breath has taken me a while to perfect. I had to overcome the problem of too much pressure in weird places of my body. My favorite analogy for this type of breath is that of filling a sealed paint can with air from an air compressor. When it get too much pressure it starts to bend & bulge in strange places. Likewise, a large breath will cause ones horn playing to be out of control in strange ways. I recommend a lager exhale followed by a timed large inhale, then before you play, let out a little air to reduce the extra pressure from the large breath, then play. This is my best breath.A shallow breath is never acceptable. Always take a full breath. The resonance of lunges is important for your sound quality. With practice you learn to use the right amount and speed of air for the quality of tone you wish to produce. Use just enough air to make the correct vibration.

Richard Burdick