How do I get rid of airy tone when playing quiet?

[tonyycanolli]

When I play at a low volume, a lot of the sound I produce just sounds like I'm just blowing through the horn as well as producing the notes as well. And no matter what I do, It doesn't go away until I simply raise my volume when playing. However, this issue affects my sound for pieces that require a Piano or MetzoPiano marking, because the sound is so airy.

Any tips?

[GabrielRice]

From a physical standpoint, what almost certainly needs to happen is that your aperture - how far your lips are apart - needs to be a lot smaller. This will make the sound much more pure in soft dynamics and the tone production much more efficient in moderate and loud dynamics.

The very best exercise I know of for this is Carmine Caruso's "Six Notes." This is a great explanation of it from trombonist Sam Burtis: https://www.trombone.org/articles/view.php?id=154

And here are several video demonstrations of the Caruso method from Julie Landsman: https://www.julielandsman.com/gallery

[tonyycanolli]

Thank you so much! I’ll look into this!

[Doug Elliott]

There are a bunch of possible reasons for airy sound.
The first one I would look at is mouthpiece pressure. Soft playing needs almost the same mouthpiece pressure as mf or loud. If you are backing off the pressure when you play soft, try adding some and see if it clears up your sound.

The aperture is not an opening - it's an opening AND closing of the lips, which creates the little puffs of air that cause sound vibrations. Make sure you start from a closed position so there's no wasted air. Sometimes an airy sound is from breathing through an open mouth when setting the mouthpiece.

[mazman]

What’s the horn?