It`s the most important aspect of playing, right? So how dyou do it..like really proper..i know your not meant to lift your shoulders and stuff..but i just forget about all that stuff when im playing and i take really wimpy little breaths-especially in prformances.

Breathing exercises. Completely expel the air from your diagphram and lungs. Inhale, filling your diapragm first, then your lungs, until you can`t draw any more air in. Hold your lips tightly, forming a small slit to create some resistance, and exhale, again from the diaphragm first, until you can exhale no more. Repeat the procedure two to four times right before you start playing. Also, practice holding you trumpet, or just your mpc in normal playing position and practice inhaling deeply through the corners of your mouth on either side of your mpc. Being able to do so will help you get a full breath at places in your music where you need to grab some air, but have only a quarter or eighth rest to do it. If that doesn`t work well for you, there are devices available online and at music stores that you blow through to help build your breathing technique.

Forgot to mention that posture (back straight and vertical, feet flat on the floor at about shoulder-width apart, elbows at approximately 45 degrees down from horizontal. Don`t lean forward as doing so compresses the diaphragm, thus decreasing the volume of air that can be inhaled. Also, I try to read the music to one side or another of my trumpet instead of over the top of it. That allows me to keep my chin up, which helps keep the throat open for more free flow of air, in and out.

http://www.windsongpress.com/breathing%20gym/breathing%20gym.htm



Here is a link to the breathing gym. Its a book/video set that contains alot of info for breathing for wind instruments. Check it out, i am in my third season of drum corps and we work from these exercises. Sam and Pat even come out and work with the corps in person, its really cool. After my first season of drum corps My tone, endurance, and volume in range increased. The breathing exercises are really cool because how definate they are. Check it out!