Hi all, I am a second year horn player. My first year was in band, but I then switched to homeschooling, and am taking private lessons.

I'm having some small amount of trouble with a song that I'm doing for my recital. I'm playing the Imperial march (John Williams), and after I repeat the chorus, there's this little thing of about 10 measures of groups of slurs. I find that by the time I get to this part, I am out of breath, and the notes sound rushed instead of controlled. Any tips? The recital is this wednesday, so "developing my lungs" isn't really an option.

Any tips? I'll edit in the whole song later if I can.

In realty there are only two options to avoid running out of breath: use less air (and implicitly play quieter with a smaller opening between the lips) or breath more air in (in your case probably taking more breaths or deeper breaths which may mean a slight reduction in the length of a note at the end of a slur in order to accomodate a breath).

Some teachers recommend that you don't remove the mouthpiece from the lips when you breath as this can mean you need additional time to resettle them. You can breath in through the sides of your mouth and your nose. Some players dont believe it makes much difference most of the time!