Author: SunnyDaze
Date: 2019-04-17 23:57
Hi,
Thanks, yes I think long notes with diaphragm breathing is absolutely the way forward.
The currently established theory of the chemistry of chronic hyperventilation is a bit tricky to understand. Here it is (below) in case you are interested. I think it might be quite useful for musicians to know about I think, because I gather it's one of the major medical causes of stage fright.
First, a person breathes high in the chest and too frequently, usually while under stress. This causes them to breathe out too much carbon dioxide. They still get plenty of oxygen, but the body does not measure oxygen in the blood, only carbon dioxide.
The carbon dioxide is meant to be in the blood, dissolved as carbonic acid. When there is insufficient carbonic acid in the blood, the pH rises (becomes more alkaline) which is really not a good thing. When there is not enough carbonic acid, the oxygen in the blood cannot be effectively released to the organs, even though the oxygen is there to be delivered so the body becomes short of oxygen.
The body responds by breathing faster (I think to try to get more oxygen to the organs, but I can't remember). This additional hyperventilation then gets rid of even more carbon dioxide, which is not that helpful. This can then become habitual, especially if a person is under stress long-term and so habitually hyperventilating.
In order to sort the blood pH-imbalance out, the body excretes bicarbonate ions in urine (sorry TMI) which makes the blood more acidic again. The bicarbonate has to go out as magnesium bicarbonate salt, so the person is then also excretes a lot of magnesium, and ends up magnesium deficient. So all of this together throws the body all out of whack in lots of ways.
Hyperventilation is triggered by stress, but one of the major symptoms is anxiety, which is why it is useful to know about for people who might need to avoid stage fright. Without knowing how to stop it, a cycle can take hold. It turns out that knowing the right way to breath in stressful situations is a really good idea.
The answer, ideally, is to take slow diaphragm breaths, and not fast chest breaths. It is thought that people like me who have got into the habit of hyperventilating can struggle to adapt back to the right kind of breathing, because the body gets a steady equilibrium state of having the wrong carbon dioxide level in the blood and resists being reset.
One of my missions in learning to play the clarinet is to sort out my breathing so that instead of habitually hyperventilating just a little bit all the time, I will get really strong diaphragm breathing. My hope is that if I practise my scales like a good citizen three times a day, I will be able to reset my blood chemistry, which is a little off-whack from having been under stress for a long time. That's the plan. This means doing it right though, and using my diaphragm, rather than getting in a big fluster and using my chest breathing.
I hope you don't mind my spouting biochemistry detail like this without being asked. I'm a biomedical research scientist in my proper life, and also a bit of a talker. I'm just a beginner clarinetist.
Thanks so much for all your good advice on breathing and clarinet playing. It's helping me such a lot in my small mission. :-)
Sunny
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