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Re: Breathing

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2018-09-08 14:36

Actually tightening of the abs should increase air going out. If you just take a big gulp of air and release into the clarinet (doing NOTHING else), the initial sound would be at first loud then quickly diminish as the natural lung/abdominal pressure decreases (same as releasing a balloon you just blew up). So we need to do something to control air flow. When you do yoga, you start with a deep breath and a slow release of air. To achieve that you need to be using conscious control over the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. It should feel pretty much the same as that on clarinet, although maybe just a little more so on average.

But if you want to be accurate about the slowing of the air, it is caused by the diaphragm. Think about it, what is the opposite of blowing out? And what do we use to do that? And that would be the same when just "applying the brakes."

Now go back to our isometric exercise of our clasped hands. If you want a slow, fluid movement from left to right, you are putting more energy into the right arm muscles than the left arm muscles (but still pulling with the left arm muscles). Just substitute "diaphragm" for the left arm muscles and "abdominals" for the right arm muscles. You can easily see that you can keep putting energy into that system and not get any better results (just looking for slow, fluid movement). Point being, the same is true for playing clarinet. Use this "energy" to create a steady, resonant sound but by all means do NOT tense up and create strain to the point of pain as mentioned above. That's counterproductive.

.............Paul Aviles

Post Edited (2018-09-08 14:38)

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Breathing new

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2018-09-01 01:48