Klarinet Archive - Posting 000181.txt from 1995/12

From: Fred <fsheim@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Circular Breathing
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 18:48:47 -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
>
>

Hi Ed!!!!
I know of the following book:

TRENT P. KYNASTON: CIRCULAR BREATHING for the wind performer
Copyright 1978 by STUDIO 224
16333 N.W. 54th Avenue
Hileah, FL 33014

Other identifiers on the book are "COLUMBIA PICTURES PUBLICATIONS" and "PR
STUDIO PULICATIONS RECORDINGS", a division of Columbia Pictures Industries,
Inc. The book number is SB37. It does not have an ISBN number.
The book is thin, but gives a very, very detailed step by step
procedure on how to circular breathe.

Hope this helps!

Fred (fsheim@-----.com)