Ah vs Oh and the Reverse Ho Ho Ho

When you inhale you want to get the air down in the bottom of your lungs first. To do this we need to use an oh syllable when we inhale, not an ah syllable.

The more attention you pay to this the better player or teacher you will be. This is the most important concept in Left Coast Horn Playing.

For a teacher it is easy to hear when the student is breathing from Place #6. The 'oh' sound is unmistakable when inhaling and the deep, round tone color is unmistakable when playing.

Make sure the oh sound happens from the beginning of the breath to make sure the bottom of the lungs fill up first.

Left Coast Horn Playing has produced many fine adolescent players. It's simplicity and focus on what works gets their minds and bodies working on the right things.  In our quest to make things simple we came up with this idea to get the air low in the body. 

Santa Claus says "ho ho ho" and so do we. But we say while inhaling! Say it strongly and use the Place #6 muscles. You'll note that if you breathe from higher up you will say 'ha ha ha' instead of 'ho ho ho.'