Klarinet Archive - Posting 000577.txt from 1999/01

From: Neil Leupold <nleupold@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] breath control
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 01:39:00 -0500

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, Meridith Miller wrote:

> Is there any way (other than long tones) that a person could work on
> breath control so as to build stamina for those long passages (like the
> ones I have to play in Debussy's Premiere Rhapsodie)?
> Your help is much appreciated.

The most prominent inhibitor to breathing stamina is physical
tension. Practice two things (maybe three). First, if you
aren't already breathing from the lower diaphragm and filling
your chest cavity from the bottom up, start doing that.

Next, when you develop the habit of always breathing from the
lower diaphragm, develop the secondary habit of pushing the
abdomen down and out. The autonomic function of the abdomen
is to contract, and your aim is develop a habit in the oppo-
site direction. When you first inhale, consciously expand
the abdomen downward and outward. But when you release air,
do not press inward. Rather, continue to press downward and
outward, causing the abdomen to remain expanded no matter how
much or how little air you feel you have left in your lungs.

Finally, when you have mastered breathing from the abdomen
and keeping it expanded during exhalation, direct your con-
scious attention at specific muscle groups and "let them go"
as it were. If sitting down, start with the quadriceps
muscles (thighs). With a full supply of air and the dia-
phragm consciously expanded downward and outward, relax
your thigh muscles and continue to release the air stream.
After you have done this for a while (days, weeks, months,
until it feels natural), extend that conscious relaxation
to other parts of the body. Perhaps the biceps muscles
next (upper arms). Those two major muscle groups alone,
when relaxed in combination with proper breathing tech-
nique, will produce a significant difference of physical
sensation, and you will find it much easier to maintain
expansion of your abdomen while releasing your air stream.

Your ultimate goal is to achieve habitual physical relax-
ation throughout your body, such that the only area which
manifests any "tension" at all is the diaphragm muscle
itself. All other areas are relaxed. They can be firm
as a result of technical development, but there is no
tension.

With the abdomen expanded during exhalation, and the major
muscle groups free of physical tension, you are afforded
greatly increased control over the volume of air that you
release from your lungs. You also achieve facility with
regulating the speed of the air that you release, which
is critical in the sense that you maximize efficiency.
The less air you release, the faster it needs to move
in order to sustain the quality of your tone via con-
sistent reed vibration.

Hope some of this is helpful.

Neil

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