John Mohan

From: http://ducts.org/12_01/schleuter.html:

cmcdougall

Looks like some pretty good stuff to me.

trumpet blower88

Does anyone here not fill all the way up when you play? I don't want to start a huge breathing debate or anything, but could someone please explain the advantages in only useing enought air to get by rather than filling up all the way. It just dosn't make sence to my why you wouldn't...

Manny Laureano

There's no reason not to do it that way. Air is free and you can waste as much as you want... until they start taxing you for it!

ML

B15M

You can hear it from one of Charlie's students, Me!

The reason that I didn't take enough air is that no one had ever explained it to me the way Charlie did and does. I get busy thinking about other stuff and go back to the old way. Then Charlie stops me and tells me to breath and get my posture correct and it makes a difference.

I have been working on making it automatic so I never have to think about it.

tpter1

More often than not, when I hear or see problems in student's playing such as endurance, tone quality, range, phrasing, intonation, lack of concentration, (my own or students I am adjudicating) it is because they do not take enough air in. This is a wind instrument we play; air is critical.

Alex Yates

Related to this topic is the full expulsion of air. I feel this is a neglected part of the "tanking up" practice - with which I am in agreement. I think it is very important to learn to play fully, without decay in intensity, to the near end of the air supply rather than "conserve", leaving stale air within. When you empty the tank almost completely, your intake is quick, unrestricted and full. You shouldn't gasp, but if you realize how fast you can fill up when you really need air, it makes sense to play in this manner. There is no time to tense up and get in your own way.

The only time I don't fill to capacity is when I play piccolo. My method of breathing does not change, but my expulsion of air is focused much differently. (This is too difficult to explain without physical demonstration). It is almost like the difference between your "head voice" and your "chest voice". When playing piccolo, I focus the airstream to be more compact so it spins and resonates out of my "head voice". It is faster, but gentler. Almost with a "hee" oral cavity throughout. In this situation, the rate of air leaving my lungs is so much slower than the big horns that tanking up causes more harm than good for me.

B15M

I am a little confused but I think Charlie has taught me;
In the beginning take a slow full deep breath. (slow controlled in = slow controlled out) and then stay full if you can. I have a lesson coming up in two weeks or so and I will ask.

This has been talked about before and I remember people saying quick breaths... 1 2 3 4 quick breath before one.

Mzony

I have found that there is a certain point where the air that I am expelling creates tension. In other words, I find that if you play from full to empty, somwhere above empty the air gets harder to expell and creates tension/force in my body trying to expell it.
There are times where instead of inhaling, I exhale a little instead. It is not an active force of air leaving my body, just letting some c02 out. I do this at the end of Samuel Goldenberg and I also do it in the first movement of the Telemann.
I never talk about this, and nobody has ever instructed me to do so...So I thought I would put it out there.

Mike

Jerry Freedman

I just had a discussion with a Reinhardt student who told me about timed breatihing...you take enough air to complete the phrase, no more, no less