Klarinet Archive - Posting 000433.txt from 1997/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Oxygen to the brain was Re: Pino book
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 16:45:35 -0400

On Wed, 14 May 1997, Jacqueline Eastwood wrote:

> Perhaps some of the pulmonary-type experts on the list can enlighten us.

I wonder if I qualify as a "pulmonary-type expert?" I do breathe quite
often, and nearly every day! ;-)

What happens is something like this. If you are running short of oxygen,
whether from not having enough air in your lungs or from having the lungs
full of stale air, your body thinks you are going to suffocate. Then, a
panic reaction sets in. This is the much discussed "fight or flight"
syndrome. The pulse rate goes up, the blood pressure increases, blood is
forced from the smaller blood vessels to the larger ones in order to feed
the large muscles which may be needed in what the body expects is about to
be a fight for survival (this accounts for the pale face sometimes seen in
a person in a state of panic), and many other physiological reactions
occur. I'm not a physician, so I can't describe all of them in detail.

But, what is important for us as musicians is that the muscles begin to
tense. This can start in the large muscles of the arms or torso, and
progress to the hands and to the muscles of the throat. In the first
instance, tension in the hands and fingers is obviously hardly conducive
to good performance on a woodwind instrument. Second, the throat can
constrict to the point that the flow of air is inhibited.

When we practice, presumably in a relaxed state, the brain is memorizing
the neurological signals it needs to send to the fingers, tongue, etc., in
order to perform the various musical tasks we are rehearsing. These
signals are triggered by visual or aural stimuli - in other words, by the
sight of the notes on the page, or by the sound of the notes being
produced. The problem is that what is being stored in the brain is based
on the relaxed muscles we had when practicing. Now, if in performance the
muscles are more tense, the brain sends the signals it has memorized to
the tense muscles, and those signals don't work anymore.

So, the bottom line is that much of what we may interpret as problems of
finger technique may be more deeply rooted in breathing problems. The
solution? We have to either learn to perform in a more relaxed state or
practice in a state of panic. To me, the former is preferable. And,
practice has to be not just note and finger practice, but we have to
practice the entire physical, mental and emotional approach to the music
which we want to use in performance. Easier said than done.

Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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