Klarinet Archive - Posting 000081.txt from 2000/12
From: "redcedar" <redcedar@-----.au>
Subj: [kl] Breathing, the Diaphragm and all that......
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2000 03:48:20 -0500
Neil Leupold invited comment on his thoughtful post of 23/11, entitled
"Article: Breathing/Relaxation". My computer system has recently been
off-line due to service requirements, so I am slow out of the blocks
responding to this, but trust that I'll be indulged my comments and enquiry.
When I first started to learn the clarinet a few years back, I was
lectured - or should I say, harangued? - on the sins of inadequate breath
support and the importance of the diaphragm. Almost every lesson my teacher
would say - "breathe from HERE Mr O'Neile" - patting her stomach, and
sometimes whacking mine to make the point. When I asked why, the response
was inevitably the same - "you will never become a clarinettist unless you
do", and on one memorable occasion she added - "you may as well chuck the
clarinet out the window - now!" I eventually changed teachers. I read
Stein, Pino, Brymer and many others on the subject, and now Leupold, and the
message has always been the same. I can't argue that I am not highly
conscious of the point being made.
Trouble is, I was a competitive still-water swimmer from my pre-teens into
my early twenties, and in those days during coaching and training sessions,
the message was relentlessly drummed into me - breathe with the chest -
in-and-out - don't lift the shoulders - don't swell your stomach, keep it
flat. One lived in dread of the possibility of a loud and embarrassing
shout from the coach - "stomach in O'Neile - you're looking like a pregnant
duck!"
Now, some decades later, the clarinet world insists I learn how to breath
all over again - forget the habits of six decades - and I ask - do you guys
know how hard that is? I sometimes wonder if the clarinet teachers of
today, for whom the clarinet has probably been an extension of their person
since their childhood, and perhaps, with more experience teaching children
and youths than adults, realise what they are asking. Then again, maybe
those teachers have had success in effecting conversion of adults similarly
afflicted to myself.
Perhaps I am now unconsciously breathing "from the stomach", but I don't
think so, as, on the occasions I become aware of my breathing, I am
conscious of breath-control through the exercise of my chest muscles. I
don't know enough about physiology, or whatever science is involved. to
understand what I am doing, but I feel sure it is not as the books, or Neil
Leupold, say I should.
Notwithstanding this dilemma, my teacher for the past year has recently
offered the unsolicited advice that my tone is "pretty good", and although
he is a very critical judge, I also allow for the possibility that he may
have left unsaid: "for someone at my level of clarinet experience". I have
played in a concert band of about 40 players and I sense my tone is
indistinguishable from the other 10 or so clarinettists, most of whom are
more experienced musicians than I am. Nevertheless, my teacher makes the
comment from time to time that he observes my tone gets a "bit thin" when I
am tense. I also acknowledge that my breathing needs better management in
the sense that I sometimes to forget to breathe, and try to run on empty
with predictable results.
So, I am mindful of the correlation between tension and adverse tone
production, but I am still uncertain about the veracity of the point being
made about the diaphragm and tone production nexus. Can credible stories be
cited of adults, older adults in particular, successfully converting their
breathing style? Will a dreadful fate befall me if I never accomplish the
"correct" breathing practice? Is it possible to teach older adults to
re-configure their breathing patterns? How might that instruction differ
from what Neil proposes, or is it as Neil proposed? Am I perhaps breathing
"correctly" already, and how can I tell? Maybe dumb questions, but they
perplex me.
Anyway, as an aside Neil, I am pleased you offered your retraction on the
apostrophe as I was about to "hit" you with the book - Fowler's, that is -
"The King's English". As you have denied me my little rant on that topic, I
thought to quote you a small section of the text which I stumbled on in my
search for an authority on use of the apostrophe. The text seemed apposite
given discussions on list in recent weeks. Remember, it was written by one
from across the pond.
"...Americanisms are foreign words, and should be so treated. To say this
is not to insult the American language. If any one were asked to give an
Americanism without a moment's delay, he would be more likely to mention 'I
guess'. Inquiry into it would at once bear out the American contention that
what we are often rude enough to call their vulgarisms are in fact good old
English. 'I gesse' is a favourite expression of Chaucer's, and the sense he
sometimes gives it is very finely distinguished from the regular Yankee use.
But though it is good old English, it is not good new English."
Thought you would like to be aware of this insight. <WTFIC>
Michael O'Neile
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