I’ve started with a new, experienced teacher with the intent of focusing on the underlying fundamentals of air, embouchure, tension that I feel is limiting my progress on the bass trom.

They’ve highlighted that I am using a lot of air to force the notes out, and there’s a mismatch between the air and the size of the aperture causing messy notes. Makes sense, and in the lesson we worked on trying to get a more richer note and cleaner mpc buzz by balancing those, with mixed success.

Back in my practice room though I am wanting to work on minimising the air volume, and adjusting the embouchure & aperture but not really sure of an effective approach - I would appreciate any advice or resources that the trombonechat brains trust may have! I recognise that this is attempting to undo a lot of habits built up over 20+ years, so want to give myself the best chance of success…even if it’s just looooong tooones..

Thanks

Will

The tongue plays a huge role in air efficiency. Try reducing the overall size of your oral cavity by raising the jaw a bit and bringing the back of your tongue up to kind of hug the back of your pallette and molars.

I would suggest practicing softly, and concentrating on getting a full sound and clean articulations at very soft dynamics, and working out from there.

Soft should only mean it sounds far away, not a different quality to the sound.

This is a big topic, and it's a project I've been working on for myself for over 30 years. Basically, you need for your air to be as fast as it needs to be and no more and your aperture to be as open as it needs to be and no more. Some of the best methods to achieve this require some thinking and experimentation to work well on bass trombone. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Always start with what you CAN do. Start in a range and dynamic that are comfortable, where you consistently have a clear start and a rich, unforced tone.

2. Target your breathing, and your exhale specifically, thinking about slowing it down. I see you're in Australia, and I just happened on a store there that specializes in sensory tools with a section for breathing. Try these little toys: https://sensorytools.net/products/magic-ball-pipe

I also really like this: https://www.originalbreathbuilder.com/ which is available from good music retailers in the US. It specifically targets the turn-around, so that you learn to inhale and exhale with a pause in between.

3. Don't just do long tones, or they will likely have the opposite effect. I like to add repeated soft legato articulations when I do long tones, both single and multiple tongued. For what you are needing to accomplish, decrescendos in long tones can be extremely helpful. Start at mf and decrescendo to nothing. See how long you can control a sound that is barely audible.

There is a great long tone variation exercise from Charlie Vernon's "The Singing Trombone"...in what I think is the current version it's on page 17. Let me see if I can capture it and paste it in here:

<ATTACHMENT filename="Vernon decrescendo exercise.pdf" index="0">[attachment=0]Vernon decrescendo exercise.pdf</ATTACHMENT>

4. There's another great exercise called The Six Notes, taught to me originally by trombonist Sam Burtis (RIP). Here's how Sam taught it: https://www.trombone.org/articles/view.php?id=154

And how it's taught on French horn by Julie Landsman: <YOUTUBE id="mhti1D0_1q0">https://youtu.be/mhti1D0_1q0?si=xObpN8krm2LINPe2</YOUTUBE>

--------------------

You are probably used to being able to play very loud in the low register just by blowing a lot of air, and starting to do these types of exercises might make you feel tight or a little uncomfortable at first. Don't worry! Your ability to play in the low register will come back better, with a richer sound and ability to play longer phrases. And you will be able to play loudly without as much effort.

On trick that I found out kind of by accident, and that I think has helped make my air and buzz a lot more efficient, is doing long tones (and as Gabe suggested, long tones with repeated soft articulations, those are GREAT) with something in the bell that blocks off the sound and air almost completely (if possible even more than a practice mute, which are designed, at least the good ones, to allow you to use the full palette of your normal playing). I use a "practice mute" I made myself using chopped-off tear drop-shaped 5dl plastic bottle, pierced with a small hole so some air can escaped, with cork fitted all around the top (not just 3-4 patches with gaps in-bewtween), which doesn't really allow me to actually "practice", as strong tonguing or trying to play too loud both make it back up on me and stop the buzz.

I initially started using that just to play mindless long tones, lip slurs, trills and repeated articulations A) when I'm out of shape and want to skip the first day back that always feels awful and where nothing works, and be able to jump straight to day 2 or 3 where things work well enough to not be counterproductive, or B) when for whatever reason I'm not able or allowed to have my regular practice but still want to get some "chop time" that day before bed (long day of urgent admin work that left no practice time, hotel room after traveling all day, etc).

I've found that doing this actually drastically improved my efficiency with air, buzz and articulaiton. I believe it is because it gave me the muscle memory and/or a concept of the physical sensations associated with sustaining a healthy buzz and producing a stable sound even with virtually no air at all, and to articulate with almost no tongue at all. Combined with the fact that I've been exploring playing with a lot of "micro-phrasing" with small shaping and shading (which really uses this very soft tone production and articulation in a practical setting), that has led to more efficiency across the board. I can play softer than I ever could before, and when playing loud, I feel like I'm using half as much air to play as loud and with better projection and focus.

Kind of along the same lines as others here...

One issue is how pliable the embouchure is. Loud playing stiffens the embouchure. A stiff embouchure won't respond freely. Playing loud requires a stiff embouchure and a relatively big aperture, which sounds like exactly what you're trying to get away from. When a loud player tries to play soft or use less air, it doesn't work. The muscles are conditioned to be like rods rather than reeds. A goal we all should have is to "allow" our chops to vibrate as easily and freely as grass rustling in a soft breeze. It takes time to train our muscles to respond to changes. It doesn't happen in one practice session. To get there, I'd concentrate much more on air flow than on size of the aperture. The aperture will take care of itself if you do this:

Practice at least one hour a day, at least six days a week. In this practice, never play anything louder than mezzo forte. In fact, if you can make it mezzo piano that's even better. The goal is to get our muscles out of the way of the vibration. Make them loose rather than stiff. We need to let our lips respond to the lower air flow and give them time to loosen up and learn how to vibrate at soft dynamics with very little air going through them. So be patient. And make a game out of seeing how soft you can play and still get a sound, and when you find that point stay there and try to make it even softer.

Second, while using less air you need to make sure that you maintain a very steady stream of air. Using less air doesn't mean relaxing your breathing muscles, it requires controlling them even more. Maintaining good air flow is natural when playing loud, but when playing soft it takes awareness and consistent effort. It's too easy to lose support with reduced air flow, which will kill your buzz. When playing softly we really have to concentrate on maintaining all the muscle functions for good air flow that just happen while playing louder. Counterintuitively, perhaps, it takes more effort (effort, not force) to play with less air flow.

Third, yes, long tones, across the entire range of the horn, all as long, and soft, and even as you can. But that only gets you so far. You also need to play soft scales with a legato tongue; a tongue that just barely interrupts the air flow, because we don't want to stop that good soft air flow we're developing. And finally, gentle, easy, slow lip slurs train your chops to move efficiently across partials with low air flow. It's less like lifting weights, and more like learning to repair a watch (as someone brilliantly phrased it).

It will take a minimum of 21 days before it starts to feel comfortable. I'm not sure why, but three weeks appears to be the magic number. At the end of three weeks you should start to feel more in control. Your buzz will appear to leap from your lips at the first hint of air rather than require effort. You'll get in the habit of using all your breathing muscles to ensure that the reduced air flow is supported, even, and constant.

Important: Consistency is the key. If you can get away with it, don't play loud at all for those first 21 days. Soft only. Treat it like you're recovering from an injury (and in a very real sense that's exactly what you're doing). Concentrate on air support with reduced flow, constantly. Go back to playing loud only when you feel you can easily use the lower air flow and your buzz leaps from the mouthpiece. Until then, loud playing only sets you back and increases the time it takes and the difficulty in doing it. But once you've got it, you can play any volume. Understand, though, that if you play loud a lot, your muscles will respond to that demand by stiffening up and you'll find yourself right back where you are now.

My $0.02

"Any asshole can play loud." -- Bill Watrous

"When the music gets soft, that's when you discover who can really play." -- Ralph Sauer

As a returning player, back in Dec '24 and Jan '25 I'd have trouble having enough air to last a single 4 count measure. It didn't matter if I played 0.500 small bore of 0.547 large bore--both only lasted me a 4 count if that and I was done, empty.

Part of it was learning to be efficient with my air and be conscious of every molecule (almost). There are youtube videos that teach posture and how to breathe in to fill the lungs. You can find youtube videos out there on this. One common theme is they seem to mention to imagine yourself as a ventriloquists's dummy and how to position the rib cage, etc. This is part of it but this wasn't my main problem.

My issue was just plain over blowing the horn with too much air to make the sound I needed. One way to approach this is to adjust and vary your dynamics. Regain that control and be mindful of it. Find a dynamic that allows you to be efficient and notice what you are doing different.

also make sure you aren't leaking air (e.g., corners of the mouth, mouthpiece, embouchure, etc.) and your horn isn't leaking out the water key cork or something. Check and set you tongue and oral cavity, too.

--

As to your power thing.--too much air and messy notes-- That was a me issue that Doug helped me correct. For years I had developed this technique where I'd "punch" notes. Doug set me up with a new embouchure, good buzzing technique, corners, how to set up my oral cavity (to sing or whistle the note), and pivot that worked in ALL registers. I had to be very mindful of it at first. And my endurance TANKED until I built up new muscles to work in a slightly different way that my default technique.

My fullness issue (lack of fullness in tone) was me centering the buzz on my lips like a trumpet player--even with a large 1.5 G mouthpiece! Once I reset my technique and started to use my whole top lip, from rim to rim and not just the center, my tone improved. At first, it sounded weak, dull to me, and not like me or my sound at all. But Doug assured me, this tone change was indeed a correct full tone. And that is was fullness sounded like and it was precisely what I was lacking.

The cool thing about Doug's new approach for me--no more punching--was that pedals and notes above Bb(4) too less effort out of me. And everything was more full and less forced. Plus I didn't need the constant readjustment or realignment my old punch technique required. Everything was just smoother, easier, even from top to bottom, less forced, and less difficult, too.

In addition to the great advice/suggestions above, one specific practice skill is air or breath starts. No tongue, just allow the embouchure to be in position (search for Doug Elliott’s Set, Breath, Play! here on TC) and allow your air to start the buzz in the lips. This removes one confounding factor—the tongue—and allows you to focus on just getting a note to speak.

Aim for consistency at different volumes from piano to forte. Use breath starts in exercises and etudes. (Brad Edwards’ lip slur melodies or other simply vocalises like Cimera are good for this.) Practice breath starts deliberately for a specific amount of time each day, and then gradually increase.

When you then return to “normal” starts with the tongue, allow the tip of the tongue to “ride along the stream of air.” In other words, don’t use any more motion in the front part of the tongue than you absolutely need in order to start each note, and allow the air to “blow” the tongue out of the way.

If/when you feel you are returning to the “power play of air,” then stop, remind yourself of what it’s like to have a gentle but decisive beginning to each note, then continue.

One other note: as much as possible, allow the turn-around from inhale to exhale to be quick and natural. Don’t hold the breath. Just breathe in, and then at the exact right time just blow out.

Thanks for all the great replies here! I’ll take some time to read and digest and try things out.

One good thing is I’ve read a lot on these topics, trying not to be overwhelmed or succumbing to decision paralysis, so seeing the similar advice come up in different ways here is very encouraging.

I did have a great lesson with Doug some months ago which adjusted my embouchure on the tenor, and now playing on this bass with that adjustment is revealing the deeper problems to tackle!

Thanks to all, this has been a very helpful thread.

Just one different idea to add. A key to not overblowing a horn/embouchure is recognizing that the instrument is a bit like a container. It has a certain volume of air that it likes to hold, or will allow to go through it at any time.

There was a time when I had to play trumpet in public once a year. The first couple times it took about a week to adjust to the smaller mouthpiece and bore. When I realized that I was trying to put trombone air through a trumpet and just played for a "feel"-- that physical sense of equilibrium where you don't really feel things either backing up or collapsing-- I became a pretty decent player of the bugle calls I needed to do.

Learning that success in making a brasswind sing is mostly about using the amount of air a given tube needs, has made switching between my large and small bore (and even my pBone) a ton easier.

The myriad of exercises above are an amazing resource, but I think the target is equilibrium. If you pay attention, your chops will tell you when you are playing with an appropriate air stream regardless of the music you are making or the physical settings you are using. If you have ever made a good sound, it won't take long to find one on new equipment this way.

I think there's a lot of good ideas above.

[quote="slipperyslide"]They’ve highlighted that I am using a lot of air to force the notes out, and there’s a mismatch between the air and the size of the aperture causing messy notes.[/quote]

Just on bass trombone or does it also happen when you play tenor? I'm not sure if you even play tenor, but maybe practicing on tenor might help habituate yourself to not overblowing on bass.

As far as the mismatch between air and aperture size, did your teacher determine that the aperture size is too large or too small?

If it's too big and the sound is spreading, check out the above suggestions about that. Minimize (or eliminate, if you can) jaw drop to descend. Maintain embouchure compression and mouthpiece pressure as you descend, don't allow your embouchure formation to collapse.

If the aperture is too small (this would be less likely, I think) then relax the center of the lips more while maintaining the mouth corner firmness. Maybe try thinking of a wider aperture (along the "east/west"), rather than an "open" aperture.

[quote="slipperyslide"]Makes sense, and in the lesson we worked on trying to get a more richer note and cleaner mpc buzz by balancing those, with mixed success[/quote]

I'm not sure that mouthpiece buzzing is really going to help you with this. Buzzing on the mouthpiece takes more air than on the horn, so I would think that it's going to continue to habituate you to overblowing on the instrument.

Ultimately it's not going to be what you practice, but how you practice that works. Spend some time working on something where you would habitually have this problem and focus on not overblowing. Something like a Rochut down an octave might work nicely, but really anything can be used. Don't really worry about anything else other than not moving so much air and/or embouchure compression (or relaxation, depending on what is really the issue).

Dave

[quote="tbdana"]Kind of along the same lines as others here...

One issue is how pliable the embouchure is. Loud playing stiffens the embouchure. A stiff embouchure won't respond freely. Playing loud requires a stiff embouchure and a relatively big aperture, which sounds like exactly what you're trying to get away from. When a loud player tries to play soft or use less air, it doesn't work. The muscles are conditioned to be like rods rather than reeds. A goal we all should have is to "allow" our chops to vibrate as easily and freely as grass rustling in a soft breeze. It takes time to train our muscles to respond to changes. It doesn't happen in one practice session. To get there, I'd concentrate much more on air flow than on size of the aperture. The aperture will take care of itself if you do this:

Practice at least one hour a day, at least six days a week. In this practice, never play anything louder than mezzo forte. In fact, if you can make it mezzo piano that's even better. The goal is to get our muscles out of the way of the vibration. Make them loose rather than stiff. We need to let our lips respond to the lower air flow and give them time to loosen up and learn how to vibrate at soft dynamics with very little air going through them. So be patient. And make a game out of seeing how soft you can play and still get a sound, and when you find that point stay there and try to make it even softer.

Second, while using less air you need to make sure that you maintain a very steady stream of air. Using less air doesn't mean relaxing your breathing muscles, it requires controlling them even more. Maintaining good air flow is natural when playing loud, but when playing soft it takes awareness and consistent effort. It's too easy to lose support with reduced air flow, which will kill your buzz. When playing softly we really have to concentrate on maintaining all the muscle functions for good air flow that just happen while playing louder. Counterintuitively, perhaps, it takes more effort (effort, not force) to play with less air flow.

Third, yes, long tones, across the entire range of the horn, all as long, and soft, and even as you can. But that only gets you so far. You also need to play soft scales with a legato tongue; a tongue that just barely interrupts the air flow, because we don't want to stop that good soft air flow we're developing. And finally, gentle, easy, slow lip slurs train your chops to move efficiently across partials with low air flow. It's less like lifting weights, and more like learning to repair a watch (as someone brilliantly phrased it).

It will take a minimum of 21 days before it starts to feel comfortable. I'm not sure why, but three weeks appears to be the magic number. At the end of three weeks you should start to feel more in control. Your buzz will appear to leap from your lips at the first hint of air rather than require effort. You'll get in the habit of using all your breathing muscles to ensure that the reduced air flow is supported, even, and constant.

Important: Consistency is the key. If you can get away with it, don't play loud at all for those first 21 days. Soft only. Treat it like you're recovering from an injury (and in a very real sense that's exactly what you're doing). Concentrate on air support with reduced flow, constantly. Go back to playing loud only when you feel you can easily use the lower air flow and your buzz leaps from the mouthpiece. Until then, loud playing only sets you back and increases the time it takes and the difficulty in doing it. But once you've got it, you can play any volume. Understand, though, that if you play loud a lot, your muscles will respond to that demand by stiffening up and you'll find yourself right back where you are now.

My $0.02

"Any asshole can play loud." -- Bill Watrous

"When the music gets soft, that's when you discover who can really play." -- Ralph Sauer[/quote]

I agree with a lot of this!

Just one caveat:

[quote="tbdana"]Second, while using less air you need to make sure that you maintain a very steady stream of air.[/quote]

is very good advice for the practice room when training certain specific things, like this control of very soft paying.

But we have to be careful that always keeping the airstream very steady and even doesn't then become an overarching aesthetic principle and core element of our technique when performing actual music.

[quote="Wilktone"]I'm not sure that mouthpiece buzzing is really going to help you with this. Buzzing on the mouthpiece takes more air than on the horn, so I would think that it's going to continue to habituate you to overblowing on the instrument.

Ultimately it's not going to be what you practice, but how you practice that works.[/quote]

I would contend that mouthpiece buzzing can have the effect you describe, but it can help if you pay attention to how just as in any other practice method. I tell my students to buzz mostly soft dynamics rather than loud. Allow vibration, don't force vibration. End phrases with a taper to niente to help with focus generally, both on the mouthpiece and the full instrument.

[quote="harrisonreed"]The tongue plays a huge role in air efficiency. Try reducing the overall size of your oral cavity by raising the jaw a bit and bringing the back of your tongue up to kind of hug the back of your pallette and molars.[/quote]

I'd like to add to my advice, that doing this changes the rate that the air goes through (like putting a finger over a hose) so the smaller volume of air is driven with a higher rate, which evens out to the same volume over time. The horn will push back on you either way -- that is, the existing air inside the tube of the horn, once it is vibrating, will be perceived as a resistance to your air. It is like an equilibrium that your diaphragm, corners, and tongue strike with the horn. Maximum efficiency and sound. This might already sound familiar - "I do this in the upper register, but I'm talking about playing bass". I think that one of the biggest sneaky weak areas in a lot of our playing is inefficiency in the low register. Too low, too open, too much volume of air that is far too slow. Meet the upper register halfway, down there.

To me, sending a higher rate of air, in a smaller volume, will cause this resistance in the horn to feel greater. This allows you to back off a bit. When your jaw is low and your tongue is low, and your throat wide open, you will send a huge volume of air at a low rate. This does *not* generate much perceived resistance from the air inside the horn -- in fact it is more difficult to get the air column vibrating with this approach. So you end up wasting a big volume of air due to inefficiency. You may even have to create false "resistance" at your face to forcibly buzz out a pitch, tiring your face out.

It's best to get the air "energized" inside the horn with immediacy. You do that with an initial fast compression of air. Not a hard articulation, necessarily, just fast air, sent quickly over the arched tongue to meet what's already present in the instrument. Once energized, it can be very efficient to keep the resistance correct with minimal effort and air, using the tongue.

[quote="LeTromboniste"]Just one caveat:

<QUOTE author="tbdana" post_id="292472" time="1768326060" user_id="16498">
Second, while using less air you need to make sure that you maintain a very steady stream of air.[/quote]

is very good advice for the practice room when training certain specific things, like this control of very soft paying.

But we have to be careful that always keeping the airstream very steady and even doesn't then become an overarching aesthetic principle and core element of our technique when performing actual music.
</QUOTE>

Maybe not a completely unvarying airstream, but in terms of aesthetics I prefer listening to an air stream (a bow hand) that never stops or sags. It's just something that I've keyed into with self recording over the last year. When I don't like the sound of a passage the way it usually gets fixed is by not letting the air stream sag or stop. Once I get that consistent movement I can shape phrases how I like. If I let the air drop off or get weaker the music stops or notes get scrubbed. I think I know what you are saying- don't just play a giant block of unvarying sound. But I don't think a continuously energized air stream precludes doing things like emphasizing and stretching the first of a group of eighths or putting in a taper towards the end of a phrase for example.

[quote="tbdana"]Kind of along the same lines as others here...

It will take a minimum of 21 days before it starts to feel comfortable. I'm not sure why, but three weeks appears to be the magic number. At the end of three weeks you should start to feel more in control. Your buzz will appear to leap from your lips at the first hint of air rather than require effort. You'll get in the habit of using all your breathing muscles to ensure that the reduced air flow is supported, even, and constant.
[/quote]

The figure "21 days" brought to mind a book popular when I was in school, Psyco-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. It doesn't get much mention now, but 21-days was supposedly the time needed to durably form a new behavior.

[quote="slipperyslide"]I did have a great lesson with Doug some months ago which adjusted my embouchure on the tenor, and now playing on this bass with that adjustment is revealing the deeper problems to tackle![/quote]

Sorry, Slipperyslide. I just noticed that you did post about playing tenor. Is practicing on tenor helping your bass? What adjustments are you working on? Are those directly related to overblowing on bass in some way?

[quote="GabrielRice"]I would contend that mouthpiece buzzing can have the effect you describe, but it can help if you pay attention to how just as in any other practice method. I tell my students to buzz mostly soft dynamics rather than loud. Allow vibration, don't force vibration. End phrases with a taper to niente to help with focus generally, both on the mouthpiece and the full instrument.[/quote]

In general, this is opposite of how I use mouthpiece buzzing. Without getting into this too deeply, I use it in a limited fashion when a student isn't supporting on the instrument. Since it takes more air to mouthpiece buzz practicing on the mouthpiece encourages more air on the instrument. It also can be used when a player is too tight with the embouchure, since I find mouthpiece buzzing tends to encourage a looser embouchure formation than what I want for playing the instrument.

But sure, I would agree in principle. I think it could have sort of a "running with weights on" effect. Buzzing softly on the mouthpiece, which requires a higher air flow, could make it feel easier when transferring onto the instrument. In order to go from point A to point B you practice point C, so pulling it back then feels easy.

I guess the question becomes whether or not the extra effort it requires to practice the opposite of (what I feel is) the general tendencies of mouthpiece buzzing is worth the end result on the instrument. That can come down to the individual situation maybe.

[quote="harrisonreed"]Try reducing the overall size of your oral cavity by raising the jaw a bit and bringing the back of your tongue up to kind of hug the back of your pallette and molars.[/quote]

I haven't watch you play, Slipperyslide, but Harrison's thoughts here about bringing your jaw up would be worth checking out. When playing in the lower register it's very common to drop the jaw too much. It's probably best to minimize, if not get rid of altogether, any jaw drop used to descend. Dropping your jaw to a lower position does make it easier to descend, but it opens up the lips which means that you need to blow more air and moves you in the opposite direction you need to go.

Try the tongue position Harrison described too. Not everyone will be able to play this way, so if that's not working for you I wouldn't hammer away at it. Maybe your ideal tongue position will be a little lower than how Harrison described it. And remember, of course, that the level of tongue arch should adjust higher as you ascend and lower as you descend (without dropping the jaw to do so).

All this advice aside, I wonder if the easiest way to make your adjustment is to simply focus on not blowing so much air with whatever you're practicing. Overblowing could be a symptom, so don't neglect other ideas, but it might simply be just a habit to replace.

Dave

Thanks all for your in-depth replies. I haven't had a great chance to practice yet due to holidays, travel and work but have been making all sorts of weird faces moving my tongue, mouth and jaw!

The time I've spent on the horn though has proven to be tricky, and too short to make meaningful insights.

I was going to try and reply to each message but there's way too much. I will be re-reading this entire thread for weeks to come.

My major takeaways though are:

1. This will take time & may be uncomfortable while retraining my lips and airflow

3. Soft, slow playing to loosen things up over time - air starts (e.g. Caruso/Burtis), long tones, legato scales/etudes & lip slurs, over entire range

3a. Buzzing may help, in loosening or with the control of dynamics, but don't depend on it (I've never been great at buzzing)

4. Experiment with raising the jaw and cavity size with the tongue

5. This forum is a wealth of knowledge and experience, and I am grateful for the advice so that I don't find myself in a pit of despair over long-embedded habits

[quote="Wilktone"]Ultimately it's not going to be what you practice, but how you practice that works.[/quote]
<EMOJI seq="1f4af" tseq="1f4af">💯</EMOJI> - It's hard enough to arrange my schedule to get to a lesson and to keep a consistent practice routine, so I want to give myself the best chance of finding the right way for me!

[quote="GabrielRice"]2. Target your breathing, and your exhale specifically, thinking about slowing it down. I see you're in Australia, and I just happened on a store there that specializes in sensory tools with a section for breathing. Try these little toys: https://sensorytools.net/products/magic-ball-pipe

I also really like this: https://www.originalbreathbuilder.com/ which is available from good music retailers in the US. It specifically targets the turn-around, so that you learn to inhale and exhale with a pause in between.[/quote]

One rabbit hole that I went down looking at breathing devices got me to this thing: [url=https://www.thebreather.com.au/product/the-breather-australia/]The Breather - a "respiratory muscle training" medical device to strengthen breathing for a variety of conditions. Myself having sleep apnea it is an interesting suggestion that it can be (at least partially) reduced by strengthening throat/oesophageal muscles. However the website lacks the evidence it claims...

I looked into research papers and found a meta-analysis finding RMT may help but is unclear, and that oropharyngeal (mouth and throat) exercises are somewhat more effective for OSA than RMT. However, no investigations into effects on brass playing, an outrageous oversight.

Of course, this may be a distraction, but reducing sleep apnea while strengthening breath control is a nice thought!

Interesting and maybe beneficial in some ways, but not at all the point of the gadgets I'm suggesting, which are not about building any kind of strength but about 1. slowing down the exhale and making it more gentle and 2. practicing the quickest, most relaxed turnaround between exhale and inhale and vice versa.

Slipperyslide, first, I tend to have to review my key notes (from Doug) briefly before every practice. It helps to develop those new habits over time and re-train yourself. Second, though you might also need some experimentation, too, for what works best for you. Third, not dropping the jaw--especially for low notes--helps me better conserve air. You could also call this raising the jaw, too. Fourth, raising the tongue should help, too. You could also experiment raising the tongue to the top if your mouth for perhaps are more profound effect in your experimentation. It is like the thumb-on-the-bare-garden-hose-effect someone mentioned.

I'd try for mindful practice before I look to gadgets. People tend to want to buy something that will play the trombone for them--from air to better high notes to what have you--not saying you are doing this here. But I see that tendency, esp. with younger people. There isn't something that plays the horn for you. You need to do that with consistent, daily, mindful, and purposeful practice. It compounds over time, like financial interest does. You want the compounding. You are in a good place.