Klarinet Archive - Posting 000174.txt from 1995/12

From: Jonathan Cohler <cohler@-----.NET>
Subj: Re: Circular Breathing
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 18:48:40 -0500

At 10:38 PM 12/7/95, Ed Lowry wrote:
>Can anyone give a good description (or recommend a reference source) concerning
>how to learn circular breathing?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Ed Lowry
>Sacramento

First, learn the basic action: fill your cheeks with air, push the air out
of your mouth using your cheek muscles while simultaneously sucking IN
through the nose.

Most people can master this in a few minutes.

Then circular breathing is simply a matter of:

(1) blowing normally
(2) while blowing puff out your cheeks like Dizzy Gillespie (i.e.
fill them with air)
(3) stop blowing from your lungs, and simultaneously do the basic
action described above
(4) just before running out of the air in your cheeks, start blowing
again

The problem you will encounter initially is that when you puff out your
cheeks, you will have trouble controlling your sound. Also, when you do
the action described above, you will have even more trouble controlling
your sound.

The key is, IGNORE THE BAD SOUND, and keep doing it over and over again.
All the time, in your practice, and eventually in your performances. Keep
doing it, especially when you think it sounds bad.

The main reason people don't learn to circular breath is they are afraid of
the bad sounds. Eventually, the bad sounds go away, and you will get good
at it.

The best time to learn circular breathing is when you are just starting out
on the clarinet, and your sound is bad anyhow. Then you don't have any
natural aversion to it.

The problem is most players wait until they are fully developed players
before attempting to learn it, and the bad sound puts them off. I have
several students who have learned to circular breathe within their first
two or three years of playing the clarinet. Now it is second nature to
them.

When you are first starting to circular breath, using a thin cocktail straw
in water is a good way to practice. Circular breath and try to keep the
bubble stream steady and even.

Circular breathing really is an invaluable tool on any wind instrument. It
not only allows you to play phrases, the way composers intended them, it
also allows you to be much more relaxed in all your playing. A good
portion of all technical errors in playing wind instruments come from the
tension caused when we begin to run out of breath, and the tension created
by taking a quick breath in the middle of a technical passage when we have
to come right back in again. Circular breathing completely eliminates this
problem.

It should be as basic as learning scales. Contrary to all the hype about
it, anyone can learn to do it, and everyone should.

Happy breathing!

------------------------------
Jonathan Cohler
cohler@-----.net