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Re: HELP I am freaking out - breathing

Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2017-10-17 20:26

jrain54 wrote:

> What I meant when I said
>
> > In all other aspects, I am fine on the clarinet
>
> was rather, if the breathing was not a problem for me at the
> moment then I would be fine as I have no other issues. The
> breathing is definitely affecting my playing...

But, it seems that you've missed my point. It isn't "breathing" that's causing your problem. It's faulty technique somewhere. It may well be that the fault is in the way you inhale or the way you try to control the air as you exhale to play - techniques you're superimposing onto the basic process - but that's less your breathing and more, at best, a misuse of the musculature involved in breathing. In any case, it's unnecessary and destructive tension that you're somehow introducing by something *you're doing.* My point is that breathing is a natural function and not something that has to be done "correctly" to play the clarinet.

There are lots of words in print and many spoken at clarinet lessons about how to "breathe," most of them aimed at improving response and beefing up the player's sound. But when those techniques are misapplied (misunderstood by the student and not corrected by the teacher), they can cause forcing and resulting tension as muscles are made to do things they don't do naturally. Hence, my comment that you're almost certainly "trying too hard" in some aspect or aspects of your playing.

The solution is to back off anything that's really effortful and revert to actions and feelings that are more natural and comfortable. I'm not able to see you or hear your playing. But what you describe as a feeling of "playing from the throat" screams of constriction in the wind path. It would help if you could really zero in on the sensation and find more detailed ways to describe it, because in doing that you might find hints to the source of the constricting tension.

Have you tried singing the music you're practicing? Then, trying to emulate the sensations you feel when you were singing? Try reading a passage from some text source (maybe this post or your own original post) and remember the feel of the vocal production. The point is that breathing in itself is not effort-laden and doesn't in itself cause constriction. If you can get back to a more effortless and less technically driven way of taking in air and blowing it out into the mouthpiece, you may be able to stop whatever cycle is causing your problem.

Just as an afterthought, do have a sensation of air escaping from your nose? If that's part of your "playing from the throat" feeling, it could open up another area of discussion.

Karl

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