Long tones - Practice playing long tones facing a wall (the wall bounces your sound back to you). Listen for strength of tone, clarity, and unwavoring sound quality. Play each tone until you feel it in your diaphram--that's where you want to play from. This will strenghthen your breath support and embouchure. Your sound will improve tremendously. Try this for 5 or 10 minutes every day or two.
Clean your mouthpiece! Make sure your horn is in tip top shape, especially if you play a reed instrument. If you don't, the reed will gunk up and it won't vibrate like it's supposed to. If you want a good sound, keep it clean. Got a problem with your horn? Why not have it fixed? Little things like minor adjustments can make a big difference.
Want to learn to improvise? Learn your scales. Start with one of the easy major scales like C major, then give D a try and then F. The scales are the building blocks of music. Master the scales, and you'll be on your way to jamming like the pros. Click here for more tips on improvisation. If you're just starting out, begin by learning ALL the notes on your horn. Even advanced players can get better at hitting all the notes (or more notes), or learning different fingerings for some of the notes. If you're good at this, you have good "facility."
Can you play with expression? When you practice, try to express some emotion by playing louder or softer. Try to make your horn sound bold and majestic, or sweet and melodic. Can you make it sound mysterious? How about jazzy? Have fun with this--music is so much more than just playing the notes...
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