The Clarinet BBoard

The Clarinet BBoard The C4 standard

New Topic | Go to Top | Go to Topic | Search | Help/Rules | Smileys/Notes | Log In

Newer Topic | Older Topic

Management of Breath

Author: Anonymoose
Date: 2019-06-26 06:42

I've always blamed my reeds or my small lung capacity for bad practicing sessions, however I've recently discovered, through a breathing device called a "Voldyne", that I have nearly 6 liters of air!

This shows that my breath management, air support, is not very good.

What is your take on managing breath through long phrases, or even short ones? And what is your take on improving your air support?

Reply To Message

Re: Management of Breath

Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2019-06-26 07:41

Many very VERY fine players advocate some form of "guessing" how much air you need for the individual passage you have at hand. I have found that I am rather stupid, so it helps me to ALWAYS take a full breath and at the of a phrase (even if it is a one note phrase) I expell what is left and immediately follow with taking in another "full tank." So each breath is a two step process (unless I have a long phrase that takes me pretty much to empty).

The other thing to be aware of is that in ensemble playing (more than one of you per part) it is very simple to stagger breath (or phrase) so that you both can relax about where to breathe.

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

Reply To Message

Avail. Forums | Threaded View

Newer Topic | Older Topic

The Clarinet Pages

For Sale
Put your ads for items you'd like to sell here. Free! Please, no more than two at a time - ads removed after two weeks.