Appendix 1

Interviews

Interview questions for Willem van der Vliet

1. Could you describe the breathing technique that you teach and its benefits? Do you have a name for this technique?

2. How was this technique developed? What was/were the underlying motivation(s)?

3. How do you teach this technique? Which aspects of it do you find easy or difficult to teach?

4. What do you observe from your students when they are learning this technique?

5. What other instruments/singers have you taught apart from the trumpet? What feedback have you had from people who have worked deeply on the technique?

Interview questions for Frank Campos

1. From Ithaca College’s website, it says that you have an amazing range of musical styles in your performing career, as a classical and jazz soloist, and also as a member in numerous orchestras, big bands, and even period orchestras in USA. You are also currently the trumpet professor in the Whalen Centre for Music, and the ‘Clinic’ columnist for the International Trumpet Guild Journal since 1995. You also wrote the book Trumpet Technique in 2005, which is “regarded [as] the best single source on the subject”.

In addition to the above information, is there anything else of importance about yourself as a pedagogue that you would like to add?

2. During your clinic in the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in September 2015, Willem van der Vliet was also present as a guest lecturer. What were your impressions of his lecture?

3. How do you teach trumpeters to breathe?

4. What, in your experience, is the mainstream pedagogy on breathing for trumpet players?

5. In Willem's teachings: the breath is a way of connecting the player with their inner selves, and with the creative process of music making. This is accomplished by developing two things: first, the inner hearing of the student, and second, the stimulation of the soft palate. The first makes the student recognise the relationship between the sound colours and the soft palate. The second influences the soft palate so that the student themself can produce those sound colours. To stimulate the soft palate, Willem teaches to breathe in through the nose and mouth simultaneously; this raises the soft palate, which influences the opening, and the ‘form of the opening’ of the throat.

What, in your opinion, is different, new, surprising or innovative about this method? Do you think it could help trumpeters and why?

Follow up question

6. In your book Trumpet Technique, you mentioned that “It is not proper technique to breathe through the nose.” (pp. 38), but it is evident from your answers above that you have changed your ideas. How would you instruct trumpeters to inhale on the trumpet now?

Interview transcript – Willem van der Vliet

Transcibed by Danny Teong, 9 Jan. 2017

Ed. by Willem van der Vliet, 3 Mar. 2017

Danny (D): This is the interview with Willem van der Vliet, what’s today’s date… It’s the 9^th of January. So the first question, could you describe the breathing technique that you teach and its benefits? Do you have a name for this technique?

Willem (W): Mmm, you know, everybody is breathing, and the way you breathe also depends a lot on your personality, so the breathing is very much related to your psychological structure. The breathing, this technique [that I strive to achieve] is more like a process than something fixed, different from conventional teaching, and I hope that everybody can recognize something in it. I met many people who were involved in breathing and breathing technique, and finally, you could compare it to total breathing, [more or less] like yoga. But it rises above the physical; it’s more than physical breathing. Finally, you see that the breathing—first of all, maybe I should say that first – that all your possibilities you have, is the result of how you use your breath. [Everything you do is related to the breath], everything in your whole body is coordinated by the breath, and your possibilities are the result of how you use your breath, and also directly related to your psychological condition. When you don't feel well, you don't play well! So it means that your psychological condition has an influence on how you use your breath. It [can] disturb the contact. Breathing, breath, is something to connect yourself with your body. Many people are not in balance, and as a result, they don't experience real 'empathy' with themselves, they don't have good feeling connection with themselves, they don't feel themselves. On the moment that there is fear or anxiousness, it is because this particular connection is missing. But I would say, your blockage, and everything you experience during your playing, is also the result of the breath. So, the breath creates your possibilities, and the breath creates your blockage. And that depends on you, how you use the breath. And that [again,] depends on your psychological condition, and, the magic is that when you are making music, you rise above your personal limitations. You rise above controlling and thinking. Breath is also intelligence. Because it coordinates the body, coordinates all the cells, [and] all the processes in your body. So the breath is in a way, your natural intelligence. It's life's intelligence, you could say. But you only can experience that, if you can feel that breath is more than only the air you suck in and blow out, air is the energy. So air is directly related to your consciousness. On the moment that you feel that, you can feel that the balance you need to play the trumpet, is to create balance on all the levels: the physical level, the psychological level, and finally, on the musical level. Because music is the highest form of energy and in the same time, relaxation. I don't know if that is an answer. The benefits are, that what I try, and what I was searching for in my life, that the breath, gave me the possibility to rise above my own limitations. Sometimes I felt, when I was on stage, sometimes, it was my own limitations which stopped me from playing as I wanted. Sometimes you play really well, if you think: "This is it!" And [then] you want to control [or have a grip on it], it's gone! So it is rising above intellectual control, control of thinking. And name? There is no name for it. I mean, I think, it's Complete Breath, or realising that breath is not only air, it is life's energy, and life's energy is intelligence, universal intelligence.

D: How was this technique developed? What was/were the underlying motivation(s)?

W: Well, it was always that, [as I told you before,] on the stage, during the concert, you are really confronted with your limitations. Sometimes at home you had a wonderful feeling, and you thought, you could play everything, eh, very easily. And then on the stage, you experience that it was not, in that kind of circumstances, possible. And then you are confronted with that what stops you from playing well. And my motivation was, how can I rise above these 'good-and-bad', and 'better-than'... How can I find this balance in myself that I am not disturbed anymore by myself. Because you are always disturbed by your reaction to circumstances. It's you who stops yourself from playing well. I remember that when I was irritated by some conductor, [colleagues or the acoustic of the hall]. Sometimes I thought to myself: How is it possible that this man is conducting? And when I was irritated, I played badly. I had to understand that it was my judgment about this man which stopped me from playing well. So I had to stop judging the circumstances, reacting to the circumstances. And later, I suddenly felt that the moment before you play, that is the most important moment. There you could feel, [whether] the note is there or not. When I grew older, and got more experienced, I felt on a certain moment, in a way, the whole piece already, that I felt all the notes, all the difficult lines, they were already there, and I only had to connect myself with it. It sounds strange, but I remember a piece, that I had a difficult thing to do, in a famous hall, and suddenly I felt totally free of all frustrations and free of all [things, for example:] it's difficult, or famous people [in the hall], [am I playing well] this kind of bullshit. But [those] were all pictures in my own head, and I had to get rid of all pictures I made of, for instance, famous concert halls, famous conductors. It's just to sit there and be yourself, and then you play well. Forget reputation, also your own reputation. When you are willing [to be vulnerable] to miss notes, and [you accept that you are not perfect,] that everything can go wrong, then you play best! Because you surrender to the moment. In [that] moment, the real moment, [it feels] timeless and spaceless. And that was the moment where everything was there. It sounds strange, but I don't know, my english is not so good to explain what I want. Is that more or less...?

D: More or less, so is that how the technique was developed, in a way?

W:  Yes, by falling and standing up. Making mistakes, and...

D: And always trying to find the--

W: Yes, yes, find more balance and more easy, you know, and always searching for what are my limitations. I always wanted to break through the limitations; I wanted to understand this. I remember once I was 30 or 33, and I actually had all the work and all the jobs that I wanted. And I thought, what do I want more? I realised that the reputation, or fame, this kind of things, are all bullshit. The only thing, or the only desire I had, was to understand the ‘uncontrollability’, could you say? When you are the stage, and everything seems not being controlled, that you cannot control it. I wanted to understand, what is this, and what is the secret behind that you cannot control this situation and how, still, that you can reach that point, that what I want, happens, without controlling. And that took 25 years or so.

D: How do you teach this technique? Which aspects of it do you find easy or difficult to teach?

W: Well, this is very difficult to teach, you know, first of all, it depends on the quality of the ears of the student. You have to learn to feel, and you have to learn to listen. [Listening is also a ‘breath activity’.] And listening and feeling are very much related. The better your ears are, the more you discover all the colours, you know, in your sound. Because, I told you already, that controlling the whole system is impossible. But your ears, are always open. So with your ears, you hear the sound, you can search for the sound you want, and suddenly something happens in your body, which you cannot understand, that's the point. So what I do is first... The first blockage that most people have, because you know I work with people who [think they] have embouchure problems, they call it embouchure problems, but mostly it's breathing, breath contact and articulation [problems]. The way of belly breathing, or lower breathing, is often a misinterpretation of the breathing technique of yoga. People went there for a few lessons and they thought they knew what it was all about. But the lower breathing is only the one part of the whole breathing. It's low, it's wide, it's high. So in certain asian tradition, they say the breath has 6 directions. Down and up, to the sides, and one forward and one backward, and you should find the balance in this 6. But what is mostly forgotten, it's the higher part of the breathing. People say, lower breathing is important, and they forget that finally, there {gesturing around his head}, there is the magic. Of course it depends on the contact, the lower contact and the wide breathing, here {points to lower pelvic area}, and here, what is it called?

D: Ribs? Under the armpits?

W: Yes, more or less there, there is a point where it should be wide. And this should be wide also {points to floating ribs}, and then you feel the lower part of the belly, goes it, and the upper part comes out, that you feel this {demonstrates}. And then, to keep the balance, you know, to physically control is almost impossible, but when you listen to your sound, and you recognize that point, what I sometimes call the zero point, or hangtime, you remember what An Chun said? That is the moment where you have to touch, that's the point where all the other things in breathing find the natural place. The magical point in breathing, is the transition from the inhaling to the exhaling. And to that point, where you don't know if I'm [still] inhaling or already exhaling, in that point, if you surrender to that point, the rest of the physical body finds its natural place. And there is a transition moment from ‘in’ to ‘out’, from ‘out’ to ‘in’. And [in the same way,] also from ‘in’, to the [first or] next note! And also from one note, to the other note, one phrase, to the next phrase. Do you know the conductor Celibidache? He could be [a] terrible man for musicians. And once I remember a story -- I have played there for a while -- and there was a violin player who told this story, when they had a concert in Vienna. No not Vienna, Venice. There was a concert and the conductor was very excited: "Wow now I know the secret!" And what is it then? He said it's the transition of one group to the other group, it's the transition from one melody, it's the transition from one note to the next note, you know all this, he understood. And he was very happy and was "oh now I know". And the next day, he thought, "wow we're doing the same tomorrow!" And as I understood from [the] musicians, he never found it anymore. Because he thought he could control, and then he started yelling to musicians, that “you don't understand what I mean", and so on and on. But the secret is this, it is the transition from one moment to the next moment. What you said, what you [can] call hangtime, that's the moment. Even when you talk to somebody, you make this movement. {gestures} So you first connect to yourself, hang point, and then you speak. And that is the magic of the beauty. That makes the line on the screen is nice, or that the sound is nice. That's the inner reality of beauty, it's not a mental thing. It's above this.

D: So what do you do to teach people to get to this...?

W: First of all, develop their ears. Listening, the colour of the sound. Listen to musicians, who play or sing like this, so singers... The first man who, where I recognize this, was Alfredo Krauss. And I don't know exactly what he sang, it was very nice with a piano, an old recording, and he -- I recognised something what I had recognized in myself some weeks before. I thought, how can I control this, how? I felt suddenly, in the back of my mouth, was something, which had huge influence. When this happened, suddenly other things were the result of it. I didn't have to control everything, I didn't have to practice all day to control. Because it is there when you breathe like this. But sometimes I could do it, and other times not. So I wanted to understand, what is this? And then I realised it was the soft palate [which is well known in singing technique. The soft palate has far-reaching consequences, much more than assumed, in general]. And then Alfredo Krauss, he spoke about it, and I met somebody from the opera in Berlin, he said, "Alfredo Krauss, he's, how you say, he's ‘misforming’ the soft palate of his students, they all had an extremely high soft palate." But I realised that, that was my direction. And then I met a french-spanish artist, and he said, "Well I know this, I use this when I make my sculptures. I have the image in my head, as long as I am connected with this image, my hands follow the image. When I start thinking about my movements, then I make a mistake." And then, I think this happened in two weeks. But that's what we were talking about, "intention", you remember? Suddenly, I knew I want to know, I want to understand this. And then I met a yoga teacher, he was an old man, and he was very intuitive. I said I want to understand, and how can I control that soft palate? And he said to me, "Start humming, especially head voice." You know the exercises I gave you, that's what I started to do. {Hums} And then I felt suddenly, this movement at the back of my mouth, and then when I try to do it on the trumpet, and I thought suddenly, wow, this is much nicer, and easier for my lips. What we were just doing [earlier in lesson], when we were searching for the hangpoint. I was so enthusiastic, excited about it, that it went on all my life. And I recognise it also in sports, I recognise it in movements of animals, I recognise it in all philosophies, and suddenly, I understood much more of the old scriptures, you know, from 1000, 2000 years ago. And I thought, wow, this is what they have meant. Recorder playing in the Renaissance, some of the musicians are talking about it. I know this from Frans Brüggen. He knew about it. But only a few [others knew about it]. And then the only thing you can do is, listening and listening and how can I... And the abdomen, that's what we call the lower breathing, often, is so over-emphasized. That you get this {drops belly}. And if you start from this [‘sagging’] point, you create blockage. You feel already the space in your head [is blocked].. Okay I talk too much...

D: No, no, no, it's good because we are still missing one part. So the thing that you didn't mention was that, how in the inhalation do you get to that high soft palate? Or what do you teach to students to get this high soft palate?

W: Well, I do not directly start with the soft palate. First of all, when the soft palate is not working, and if people want to be secure, they want to be safe, it's all based on fear. And on the moment that you are afraid, the tongue goes backward. Because you want to run away, like animals do. I know this from musicians, for instance [in jazz music], you're sitting there, and suddenly you have to stand up and go to the front and play a solo. At that moment you are very vulnerable. You need vulnerability. Because you must be able, or willing to die, in a way, then you play better. But if you want to run away (‘flight’ behavior), as a result of that, [the breathing is disturbed, and] the tongue goes backward. And then you disturb the whole breathing. So first of all is keep the tongue forward on the long note. {Demonstrates} When you walk on the street, keep the tongue there. That is the first thing. Then what I ask them, if you keep the tongue forward, you're walking on the street, how does it feel? Do you feel the difference in the personality? We say in dutch, how you are in your skin? How do you feel? You feel different, when the tongue is tensed, or backward, it has a mental result. The whole body is tensed. That's [the] first thing, tongue forward. Because I learned in a certain Tao scripture, that every tension in the body is also in the tongue. So by using the tongue, being aware of the tongue and relaxing [and widening] the tongue, you create already possibilities to get rid of tensions in your body, as well. So that's the first thing. Then what I did also, was that the nose breathing had a totally different influence than the mouth breathing. Mouth breathing only could lock you, tense you, and block you. {Demonstrates}. But the nose breathing gives a different influence on your diaphragm, and then I discovered that the soft palate created a balance in the whole system. You know, what I told about breathing having 6 directions. And I also learned in eastern philosophy, that the quality of an action, whatever you do, depends on the direction of the breath. So it was not the strength of the breath, it was the direction of the breath. There were 6 directions, so there should be a balance. And I felt that the soft palate create that balance. And the tongue forward -- when the tongue goes backward, then you lose the balance. It's all about the two. The tongue, and the articulation, creates a connection, from there to there, and to there {gestures in the 6 directions of the breath}. When the tongue goes backwards, it's doing this {mimics choking}. So the nose breathing, and especially the noiseless nose breathing. It's not {sniffs in strongly through the nose}, no, you suck in the air as if you suck in the air here {points to forehead area between eyebrows}. In the beginning, I had, I told you once that I met a wonderful man, that he really knew about breathing, yoga breathing. [Unfortunately,] he died very young. But what I learned of him, that he said, “You can inhale here {points to nose}, also here {points to bridge of nose}, but you can also inhale here {points to forehead, between and above eyebrows}. And that is directly related to the soft palate. That’s what – I gave you the tube. It’s because the tube is creating that. And then you feel that, for instance, that the jaw, tensions in the jaw, eh, you got rid of it by using this. Because mental control, if you are afraid and you want to control, you want to survive, creates tension in the jaw. But that destroys the balance when you play the trumpet. I don’t know if this is more or less, ya?

D: To summarize what was the thing, it’s a kind of combination of mouth and nose breathing?

W: Ya, ya, ya, finally, my final aim is that the nose and the mouth breathing are in balance. So then I do this, I search for the balance between the two. And then, I feel then the soft palate comes up, at the same time, I feel that the throat opens, it frees [up], you know… And not only just open, the throat is not just open, but needs a certain form. And that form is, eh, creates itself, created by the breath.

D: What do you observe from your students when they are learning this way of breathing?

W: Well, first of all, the sound is getting better. It’s easy for them to express, the musical ideas, the, how you call it, the phrasing, this kind of things, and the quality of the sound is getting better, because the quality of the sound creates, the same time, that balance. But the same time, they get more self-confidence. Their personality differs, it changes. They get stronger, and they are more subtle, softer, the ego diminishes, you [know] that? Can you say that? But they feel stronger, with less ego. That I could say. That’s finally the result. But I don’t know if you have observed it.

D: Yea, that’s what I feel from myself.

W: Ya, so I felt, on the stage, suddenly, once I had – once I felt this. When I touched – when I put the tongue forward, and I started breathing, nose, mouth, and suddenly I felt such balance, I felt huge power, but no ego. Maybe you can realize this, understand what I mean. It’s, so there was, in a way, compassion, also with myself. I didn’t judge any more about circumstances, and I felt extremely strong. Yea? Can you imagine?

D: Yep {laughs} it is still difficult, but it’s coming.. So okay yea the final question: What other instruments/singers have you taught apart from the trumpet? What feedback have you had from people who have worked deeply on the technique?

W: Now first of all they must serve music, they must stand there, they are serving the music. It’s not me, but it’s the music. So, dienstbaar (subservient), you know? You know dienstbaar in.. being able, or willing to be the servant of the music. That’s in a way, I don’t know how you say in English, but… That’s one of the most important thing, and that they learn to observe themselves. And not to judge about themselves. Yea? So… Because on the moment that you judge about yourself, on the stage, you lose contact with yourself. The breath, you understand, if you judge about, if you judge about other people, the same. Because, judging about other people, about circumstances or the conductor, starts because you judge about yourself. And when you get free of it, because you learn to be yourself, without any temptation to judge, you see that your contact with the world around you also is different.

D: Ah, so that was actually for the previous question I guess?

W: Ah yea.

D: And then the last one is uh, so, did you, I mean, you taught also other instruments and also singers? This way of playing?

W: Yea, I have some singers, yes? You know I’m not a singing teacher, but, I mean, the exact articulation, this kind, that’s something special for them. But many singers, I had some people, who stopped – especially – who stopped singing. And they came in the conservatory as the great talents. And after 2 or 3 years, nothing came out anymore. And then you see that they were [educated in] this [over-emphasized] low breathing. You know, and this was forgotten and this was forgotten {gestures to side of ribs and point between eyebrows}. This creates the whole breathing. Yes, I have met several singers, but they stopped already. They were rather frustrated, that’s a pity, you know. And in a way, if you have an impression, of having failed, these impressions become part of you. And everything you do, later in your life, is also that, having failed, has an influence on it. So the way you treat people, or the way you educate your children, is often disturbed by the feeling of failing. You know what I mean, so it has a negative influence on the contact with your children, or with your students, or when you are manager with your staff, people who work for you, you know? So it has huge influence on the rest of your life and of others. When you can rise above it, you are happy, then you also create the same circumstances. That’s actually… what was it about?

D: You helped the singers to get over this problem or…

W: Well yes, I make them… well, I never worked with famous [singers]. Because I – who am I, you know? But, some of them, was one, great talented singer, and she stopped. But she loved singing so much, she start singing jazz music, and then I explained, what the result of this, this, support in the belly, you know, it’s absolutely terrible. It’s a very subtle, it’s up and down, you know, and wide and… my, I don’t know if I ans—you can make something out of it?

D: Yea, very much. So, people who have worked very deeply—

W: Deeply in this technique, ya?

D: What kind of feedback did they tell you?

W: That, what the, the main reaction that I get, of people I work a lot with, flute players, you know, and clarinet, and so they said: “I found again the pleasure in playing.”

D: From them, the flute and—

W: Ya, they said: “I found…” Yes? Because many, when they play, many of them, they were frustrated, you know, and that didn’t give them what they wanted. And they suddenly felt the pleasure of playing.

D: That’s very nice!

W: You know, separate from career, separate from—because they feel that they, when they play, they get happy. They don’t understand why, but – I understand why. Because they touched this moment. {Gestures over his head} Because on the hangpoint, is the moment when you touch a deep thing in yourself where it happens, there is the real happiness. You know, happiness of life is being connected with life, and that’s deep in you. And if you are trying to control, and then think, you’re never happy. It’s never enough… if you earn a lot you want more, if you know a lot you want to know more, you know, when you have 1 wife you want more…

D: {laughs}

W: Yea, whatever! You have 1 car, you want 2 cars, or a bigger car… And that’s when the ego rules. It’s… and then suddenly you can be happy with nothing. Just a simple life, you know, one [pair of] shoes, or two pairs of shoes, is enough. You cannot eat… yea, why should you be happy if you eat everyday in restaurant? Isn’t it? Or have more clothes? Are you more…? No, you are not more happy.

D: Ya. Okay, we have touched everything, so thank you!

Interview transcript – Frank Gabriel Campos

22 Jan. 2017

1. From Ithaca College’s website, it says that you have an amazing range of musical styles in your performing career, as a classical and jazz soloist, and also as a member in numerous orchestras, big bands, and even period orchestras in USA. You are also currently the trumpet professor in the Whalen Centre for Music, and the ‘Clinic’ columnist for the International Trumpet Guild Journal since 1995. You also wrote the book Trumpet Technique in 2005, which is “regarded [as] the best single source on the subject”. In addition to the above information, is there anything else of importance about yourself as a pedagogue that you would like to add?

Campos: Yes, I would like to say that I struggled with the physical side of trumpet playing in my youth, and much of my younger years were spent looking for answers. So I am always looking for ideas and information that will help me become a better player, even now.

2. During your clinic in the Royal Conservatory in The Hague in September 2015, Willem van der Vliet was also present as a guest lecturer. What were your impressions of his lecture?

Campos: I was very excited about what he was saying! These are new ideas in trumpet pedagogy, and it was lining up with things I had discovered in my own work but could not explain. The evidence of the position of tongue was starting!

3. How do you teach trumpeters to breathe?

Campos: Regarding teaching breathing, after preliminary instruction, a lot of verbal description is a waste of time. The students must learn from the breath itself. I use timed panting, which is panting like a dog, but through the nostrils, and other exercises that call for inhalation through the nose. The nostril inhalation is a very important part, I have found. I first came upon nostril inhalation in the Russian martial art called Systema. Here we have clear evidence of the benefits of nostril inhalation. When I heard Willem speak of this, I knew I would follow up and learn more from him. I am not aware of anyone who is exploring these kinds of ideas.

4. What, in your experience, is the mainstream pedagogy on breathing for trumpet players?

Campos: That is too big a question for now, but one thing that Willem and I agreed upon was that throwing the belly out when you inhale, as we learned to do from Arnold Jacob's teaching, was not helping some trumpeters play high, loud and long. Willem said he had met several low brass players with playing problems that are rooted in that way of breathing. Maynard Ferguson said the belly button should go inward, toward the spine, when we inhale. This type of inhalation, with its characteristic way of supporting the air, known to some as wedge breathing (Bobby Shew) and yoga breathing, can be taught easily with daily panting exercises. What I am suggesting is that there is still disagreement about how to breathe properly, and over the years, I have moved from the way many classical players support the air to supporting the air the way many lead players do it. There is no question which is more effective, and I have abandoned the Jacobs approach. It was good to hear that Willem, a fellow trumpet player and pedagogue, had done so too.

5. In Willem's teachings, the breath is a way of connecting the player with their inner selves, and with the creative process of music making. This is accomplished by developing two things: first, the inner hearing of the student, and second, the stimulation of the soft palate. The first makes the student recognise the relationship between the sound colours and the soft palate. The second influences the soft palate so that the student themself can produce those sound colours. To stimulate the soft palate, Willem teaches to breathe in through the nose and mouth simultaneously; this raises the soft palate, which influences the opening, and the ‘form of the opening’ of the throat.

What, in your opinion, is different, new, surprising or innovative about this method? Do you think it could help trumpeters and why?

Campos: The statement you have provided above is much more information than I knew about Willem's teaching! I am unfamiliar with his ideas about the soft palate or connecting with the inner hearing. I cannot comment on that until I know more. I am referring to the thesis that the nostril inhalation, and the combination of nostril and mouth breathing, have great potential to explore. I'm intrigued by the very forward position of the tip of the tongue as found in elite performers, which in exploration, shows that this is a position in which we can breathe through both the mouth and nose easily. I am intrigued by the other ideas you mentioned and trust you will share your paper with me as I want to learn about Willem’s ideas.

Follow-up question:

6. In your book "Trumpet Technique", you mentioned that “It is not proper technique to breathe through the nose.” (pp. 38), but it is evident from your answers above that you have changed your ideas. How would you instruct trumpeters to inhale on the trumpet now?

Campos: The statement in my book about nose breathing is one of many that need to be examined and clarified when we have more answers about the value of nose breathing or mouth and nose breathing. However, I would still instruct beginners to learn to breathe through their mouth as we have always done in traditional trumpet pedagogy. But when a more advanced student begins to do breathing exercises involving nose inhalation, such as nose panting, many naturally begin to employ nostril breathing to some extent in their playing because they recognize the value of it. Some teachers have questioned whether developing the habit of nostril inhalation is detrimental, but speaking for myself and my students, there have only been benefits.