I would like to reduce the frequency of airballs in my playing. It seems like many things can lead to my playing airballs including:

high notes

exhaustion of breath

larger intervals

sloppy embouchure

Buzzing seems to help prevent airballs, but only for short phrases.

I struggled with this for a while, and although I am by no means the most qualified, I have some insight.

For me the problem mostly stems from not audiating enough. Spend some time singing to fully understand it is you have to play. Another way I use often is "random note drilling". In short you sit down with your horn and a tuner, think of a specific pitch, say D4, and play the note without any prep. It helps solidify your internal pitch, and audiation skills to lower the chance of airballs. There is a great app designed specifically for this called Quality Tones that I like alot. It does cost a few dollars but we'll worth it for the improvements.

I hope this leads you in the right direction.

I have an App called the Complete Ear Trainer. Might be that I should start working with it more to recognize intervals, etc. Thanks for your suggestion.

Um, what is an airball? Middle-aged out-of-touch trombonists wants to know. :?

You go to play a note and all you get is air.

A classic example would be playing a series of notes, like a C major scale, and then jumping up to a higher note. But instead of playing the higher note you just get a sort-of "pfft" sound. As Tatertot says it can happen when you haven't really prepared for that note which is a significant interval from the series of notes you were playing.

It can be due to a variety of things.

Often it's not something that occurs WHEN it happens, but an already existing problem that just shows up that way. For example if your aperture is too big in the mid to low range (mouth too open), and that size aperture just won't make the jump necessary for the higher note that needs a smaller aperture.

The best way to work on that sort of situation is to start ALL of your exercises in the higher range, and work your way down and back up. Then maybe the airball will happen the the low range instead... So do both directions, and also start in the middle and work up & down, and down & up, from there.

I think I worked with you on this a while back but I don't remember your situation. Since buzzing helps, do more of it.

See if your jaw isn't quite in an ideal position. Maybe you get it there to buzz but it changes as you play.

I occasionally get airballs too, and it's when my lips are dry.