music matters

I received the Breathing Gym DVD for Christmas which I have gone through a few times now. I think it seems quite good as it covers quite a lot of breathing exercises from stretches to flow awareness and keeping an even breath, to using breath control to help with performance anxiety etc. A few of the exercises I had been shown already when a professional trumpeter came to Dubai and gave a master class, so it was interesting to see where he got them from.

I thought it would be an interesting thread to start discussing what breathing exercises, if any, you all feel have helped you to improve your playing.

I will kick off in that I have always had my warm up by using full breaths in whatever aspect of the warm up whether it is mouthpiece buzzing, long tones, or technical studies such as Clarkes (or more recently I seem to use the Vizutti ones), and always try to keep the tone going for as long as possible with an even sound.

How have you improved your breathing and breath control?

Graham.

cooljazz

HI Graham,

im intresting to get a Breathing Gym DVD. Do you think i need to buy also the book?. How do you work with the DVD, just for warm up one two exercice or dothe complete dvd. Do you have any comment after using this book since few month.

All the best stef

Sabrbc

Don't know if it will help, but I remember my one of the cornet players at my church enjoyed an article that a member of my family wrote on breathing. Here's the link.

Welcome to WindSong Press

rowuk

There are tons of breathing tips here at TM. My most recent post ist on the thread "delayed attack" by valejazz

Tom Mac

A little off the mark but still tangentially related; several years ago I was in the hospital for an arteriogram and was hooked to a monitor. My wife was in the room and inquired what the readings were. At the time I was resting listening to a book on tape. She asked about an indicator and the tech said that was my breathing rate (though he wasn't looking at the meter) and if it didn't drop below 6 breaths per min. I was ok. As he was answering her my bpm was 4. As you can see I was fine and actually lived to tell the tale. I attributed my slow rate of breath to trumpet playing. Have any of you experienced anything simiar?

T. Mac (breathing slow but deep)

trumpet blower88

With regards to the breathing gym, you'll find that it works best if you spread it out thoughout your practice session. 10 to 15 mins at the beginning is great for "breathing therapy" but you'll see much more of a differance if play a few warm up things, do some excersizes, play some more warm ups, and do a couple more excersizes. Then through out your practice session if you're having a bit of trouble, set the horn down and do a couple breathing things.

I havn't actualy seen "The Breathing Gym", but Pat and Sam are on staff with The Academy Drum and Bugle Corps in Phoenix and we do these EVERY DAY. I don't know if the DVD explains the "grouping" of the excersizes, for example Flow, Therapy, Relaxation, ect. But find an order to how you're doing the excersizes. Like, what we do is start off with some relaxation techniques, then work hard on some therapy excersizes to build up lung capacity and strength, then we spread flow thoughout the rest of rehersal.

BergeronWannabe

I found some really good stuff on Hatha yoga techniques on the internet a while back. I heard Maynard did these religiously...also you might want to check out Bobby Shew's site on the wedge breath.

Derek Reaban

Graham,

When I had a lesson with David Krauss (My Lesson with David Krauss at the Met!!) last year, he suggested that I need to breathe more slowly, through my nose, and really set up a pressurized feel with some resistance in my chest and then simply release the air into the horn.

At a Jens Lindemann Master class, (Lindemann Masterclass in Arizona (Overview!)) Jens commented that when he stands beside Allen Vizzutti he is very aware of the length of the inhale. Where possible, take longer, slower, relaxed breaths. It’s a very good way to diminish tension and harmful nervousness.

Enrico Caruso also advocates the slow intake breath through the nose (I’ve posted details about this in the David Krauss link above).

The other Caruso (Carmine) talks about the nose breath for different reasons (to reduce the problems related to resetting the embouchure before each attack), but the benefits mentioned by Krauss, Vizzutti, Lindemann, and Enrico C. clearly will piggyback with Carmine’s ideas.

So often, breathing exercises focus on increased capacity, and moving lots of air. The benefits that I have experience in my own playing using the “nose” breath are tangible, and I’m so glad that David identified the improvement that I would experience if I incorporated this simple change into my routine.

TheApostlePaul

Sorry to hi-jack this thread but something you said piqued my interest. You wrote:"to reduce the problems related to resetting the embouchure before each attack." Maybe I am misunderstanding, but I was under the impression that different notes require a different embouchure?

Vulgano Brother

Reseting the embouchure is sort of like changing from one string to another. (Back to to breathing.....)