 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Lisa
Date: 2004-12-02 02:30
I know this probably happens to you too sometimes, but I'd like to know what the cause and solution is for those times that the carbon dioxide gets stuck in your lungs while playing. (Sorry if this has already been discussed, but I didn't know what words to search on.)
I know the problem is that I don't use all the air in my lungs before inhaling sometimes, especially when I take a quick breath in the middle of a phrase to make it to the end. Then I breathe with everyone else at the end of the phrase and I feel like my body doesn't like the "old" air that stays stuck in my lungs for longer than it should.
Besides laying out for a few seconds, exhaling fully then inhaling again, what can I do to prevent this from happening in the first place? I think I need to unlearn something I'm doing because I'm noticing that it's happening more frequently over the past few months. AND, it doesn't happen to me when I'm playing flute or sax. I don't get why that is, either.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2004-12-02 02:44
You're more than likely just breathing in too frequently. Go over your music and see where you can get to exhaling all your breath. Go ahead and mark little breath marks here so you know not to exhale and inhale again until you reach one of those marks.
Another solution (one that I use) is to exhale through your nose whenever you get a chance. For instance, if I know a long run is coming up, I know I'm probably going to breathe in to make sure I have enough air. So to make sure that I don't ALREADY have too much CO2 in my lungs, I exhale air from my nose any chance I get so that when I get to that run, I can take a full deep breath FILLED with oxygen.
You can always allow some leaking out of the corners of your mouth as you play (but you didn't hear that one from me! . . .) Although frowned upon by some clarinetists, the general consensus is that it's not noticeable by an audience and there are plenty of pros who do it anyway.
US Army Japan Band
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Author: Jimmy Zhong
Date: 2004-12-02 02:48
From my limited experiances, flute and sax take more air than clarinet. Perhaps that's why you don't have any 'leftovers'
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Author: allencole
Date: 2004-12-02 17:44
I wondering if frequent breathing might actually causing a LACK of carbon dioxide? Carbon dioxide triggers your breathing reflex, and too much inhaling can get that turned upside down. Perhaps you're experiencing a slight case of hyperventilation.
Your sensation of having difficulty getting old air out and getting new air in sounds characteristic of this. Does the difficulty cause you to make some vocal sound as you try to exhale/inhale?
I've had this kind of sensation sometimes playing sax outdoors on really not days. Generally in a very loud situation where I'm pumping a lot of air. It occurred largely during a time when I suffered from untreated sleep apnea.
Allen Cole
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-12-02 21:19
Interesting observation on something that probably happens to all of us from time to time......but we never think about it. Personally I think that playing too soon after eating can throw your breathing out of whack. Stress can do it too. But is it CO2?? We never really empty our lungs completely....intentionally.....do we? One's exhalation is not 100% CO2....it's partially Oxygen....I believe.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Brenda
Date: 2004-12-02 22:07
Sounds familiar since this is a problem I've struggled with. What's worked is actually a couple of things - my teacher would mark an X over the spot where I'd want to take a breath but shouldn't, and a breath mark a short while later on where I should breathe (when I really did run out of air), and then tell me to take an extra second to get a good breath before starting in again. This is just training to get me out of the habit of continually taking breaths - usually from nerves. Also, another remedy is to use a reed that's a little harder so it makes you work, and the breathing would automatically fall into place.
Allen said it well, that this is actually hyperventilation, taking in too much air instead of too little. If you know that you're coming up to a run where you CAN'T breathe, then time things to that you exhale in time to take a proper breathe just before that spot.
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Author: Rene
Date: 2004-12-03 10:31
Lisa, I have the same problem. But only sometimes. It seems to be related to body condition, or the type of piece I am playing, I do not know. It does not help to enhale only a little bit, nor less frequently. The simple reason is, that I am using too little air for playing. Or to put it positively, I am using the air too efficiently.
I am glad that some good player encourages me to leak, for that is what I am doing at times, though he would not want to make that advice in public ...
Post Edited (2004-12-03 10:32)
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Author: Lisa
Date: 2004-12-03 22:10
Thanks for such a great discussion and all the good suggestions! I agree that it might be hyperventilation since I can feel my lungs burning if I don't completely stop playing to exchange the air.
I like the ideas of marking where and where not to breath, exhaling through your nose and even leaking air from the mouth which I hadn't thought of at all! Nice to know that's how others solve the problem, and that I'm not alone in dealing with this!
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Author: Bart Hendrix
Date: 2004-12-04 22:52
For BobD
The air that we breathe in is about 80% nitrogen, 20% oxygen and small percentages of other gasses like argon and carbon dioxide. The air we breath out is still about 18% oxygen with carbon dioxide making up the difference. If that were not the case, there would be no point in learning how to do CPR. The air we breathe out must still contain enough oxygen to be useful to the victim, meaning that the partial pressure of O2 in the exhaled air cannot have been dropped very far.
And, you are correct, we normally breath out only a portion of the air in our lungs at any one time. In fact, no matter how hard we try, there will always be at least a little air remaining down in the alveoli. If your diaphragm were able to squeeze all of the air out of your lungs it would most likely end up doing bad things to your heart at the same time. It is not considered cool to stop blood flow and pass out during a performance.
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Author: Tim2
Date: 2004-12-05 02:44
I, too, have to deal with the problem of having air left in the lungs when taking a breath because of lack of oxygen. I always chalked it up to nervousness. Heart beats faster and what ever else in the metabolism... the oxygen in the lungs just gets used up faster.
For me, like stated in earlier posts, I plan where all my breaths are to be taken. I also plan some "what if I need a breath" spots. And most of all, I plan that I will be able to exhale the bad air before I breath in the good air when I do breathe.
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