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Getting the body ready for music.



 
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oj
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 06 Jan 2003
Posts: 1699
Location: Norway

PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 10:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Let me ask all on this forum a simple question:

How many of you do breathing exercises?

In the lesson plans in B.E. the first point is Breathing

But, honestly do you do this, or do you just skip ahead to the Roll-Out, etc. ?

This topic is not talked about on the B.E. forum, so by that one could get the impression that this is not important?

Speaking for myself, I have, over the years practiced breathing exercises, and I have not practiced breathing exercises.

Why?

I think that when we just do "some breathing exercises", we do not experience any real benefit from it. It feels like an unecessary ritual. Then, to save time, we just skip it.

But (a big BUT):

* Musicians are athletes.
* We use our bodies to produce certain very physical results.

When I discovered "The Breathing Gym" by Patric Sheridan and Sam Pilafian, I found something that was much more than just some weird breathing exercises.

It was about getting the whole body ready for music.

Tension kill sound, so first point in every "Gym" I do is tension release.

I do not need a lot of time for this gym, only say 5 minutes. The effect, and the reason I do it every time I'm going to practice is simple:

It works!

It is as though I can get my body and mind at a higher level, where playing is easy. Everybody has experienced this - "wow, today it felt great to play" - well this is what I aim for every time with "my Gym".

I'd like others to chime in. Also people who don't do such exercises.

Ole

P.S.
A little article about the "Gym":

http://abel.hive.no/trumpet/articles/dvd/breathing/
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mcamilleri
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Joined: 25 Oct 2001
Posts: 2076
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi OJ,

I have not been doing anything for breathing of relaxation recently, except the BE 'blow music off the stand' thing, as I know that my limitations have been all to do with lip position. All the breathing and relaxation exercises in the world would do me no good at all in that state.

However, since my lip position has improved dramatically over the last few weeks, and I am advancing through the lip slurs quickly now, I have just started doing the BE breathing exercise on page 20.

An important factor in breathing and relaxation exercises is how they work for performance. What happens in the practice room isn't worth a dime unless it can be transferred onto stage. Too many people have a relaxation or breathing routine that crumbles under pressure, and then they have nothing. All their security and confidence comes from a "ritual", and when that doesn't work they have nothing to fall back on - or even worse, they lose faith in their abilities because their "ritual" failed.

Breathing IS very important, but it is only one piece of the puzzle. Neglect it, and sooner or later it will limit progress.

Michael
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Larrios
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Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 794
Location: Serooskerke (Walcheren), The Netherlands

PostPosted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 11:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Ole,

I do use breathing excersises, but not a lot. I do the excersise mentioned in BE every day before I start the actual warming-up. Next to that, I find the hold till empty and crescendo #2 excersises sufficient to sort of 'wake up' my breathing engine. They are also part of my daily warming-up. Next to that, I try to keep my body is in healthy condition in general. Among other things, I watch my diet and I run just a few miles twice a week. I believe it's important to watch your health in general, so I pay attention to that daily, not only related to trumpet playing of course. Healthy lifestile and being aware of the importance of breathing should be valued by every human being, not just the athletes, in my opinion, but I'm sure we all agree on that.

I'm interested in the DVD and the book. I will look around if it's available here somewhere as well. As to tension release, it might be worth asking ourselves what causes these tensions. There are various ways to release tension, but wouldn't it be great if we could prevent most of the tension and stay in a higher mindset all the time?

Ko
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oj
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 06 Jan 2003
Posts: 1699
Location: Norway

PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 2:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ko,

You can get the DVD and book from Dillon Music (see link in my article).

I showed the gym to a brass band last autumn (at a weekend seminar). They liked it, the conductor in particular. On every reharsal with the band (this evening, btw) I have to take them through some gym. About 5 minutes long. Then we play some Salvation Army tunes - as a "musical warmup". The conductor are convinced that the band sound much better after this gym.

Here I'm showing them a "two way strech":

http://www.sembrass.org/?q=node/view/12

Ole
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Jacko
New Member


Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 10
Location: England

PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 4:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi All

I never studied music at college, sometimes I wish I had, but I had a number of friends whi did.

One enduring image was of one of my old friends taking a flute lesson (sorry to bring in the woodwind section!!). His flute teacher performed a number of breathing exercises which involved, above all, standing on the diaphragm whilst taking big inhales and long exhales.

All sounds a bit extreme but stamina, tone and volume went through the roof.

So......do you still need the Gym!!


Jacko
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HJ
Veteran Member


Joined: 14 Nov 2003
Posts: 387
Location: The Netherlands

PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good question, Ole.

I did a lot of breathing exercises in the past, and they just helped me through my worst times, so not at all for nothing!!!. Same as Andrew: my problem, as with most of us, is lip position. Now that my lips know what to do, I feel that I benefit much more from all the breathing exercises I did and still do. I posted this as a topic a while ago. I forgot about my breathing for a while and just focused on my lips via BE. When I added air to my relatively balanced state of chops, it really started to fall in place. The other way around does not work. Air does not set up the lips, it merely blows them apart as long as you do not know how to use them. At least, that is my experience. I really blew my ass off and got a feeble high C, and now with much less air I can play a fat ff G3.

I always start with a few stretching exercises to loosen my throat, shoulders, breast. Very simple and basic. Takes a minute or two.
What I like for breathing exercise is to blow through my horn (with mpc on it!!) as fast as I can. As if I want to loose all the air in zero seconds. I also like the hold-till-empty as a breathing exercise. In 'pops' book there was this extremer version: blow all your air till you are empty, then pull your stomach in towards your spine and then upward towards your lungs. This feels very powerful to me. It makes me realize which muscles to use when I need a bit of extra power in the upper register. I played sustained ff A3's using this system. But again: only if the lips are doing the right thing does this work at all.

Bert
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flugle-me-elmo
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Joined: 08 Sep 2002
Posts: 169
Location: Memphis, TN

PostPosted: Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hello everyone...

I marched in a drum corps this summer, and heavy emphasis was placed on breathing. Of course, the need was higher given that the extra athletic aspect made breathing smoothly more difficult, so we had to learn to control our breathing even when tired through a series of running/breathing exercises. While this may have been more geared towards that particular activity, I did find my playing to be better after such heavy breathing exercises. It forced our lungs to really open up....it didn't matter whether we were running or standing still, I felt a more full breath was the result. I think just doing some controled breathing while jogging or walking could help anyone's playing. (We did a kind of "in for 4 counts, out for 8 counts, with a crescendo on the last four exhalation counts, then would increase the exhale counts). I think I remember hearing that one of the general "schools" of playing used some of these exercises, but surely one of these great "heavyweight" posters could comment on that much better than I could. Anyway, that's my two cents...

Chris

footnote: To all those who frown on drum corps...IT DOES NOT RUIN YOUR PLAYING..I learned more about musicality and playing in all forms (quiet, loud, extreme dynamic contrasts, articulation, etc) than I did in any of my other educational settings. The instructors I had were top notch musicians and educators who heard my playing probably 7 hours a day and gave me great individual feedback on a level that a half-hour private lesson almost could not accomplish. Mostly, I learned about playing with an ensemble and the responsibilities of tuning based on pitch (whether playing the third versus fifth of the chord, etc). Sorry, I know this is the BE forum, but I just would like to avoid any possible flame posts from bringing up drum corps in my breathing experience or merely having the opinion discarded. Ok, so maybe that was my four cents...hehe
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oj
Heavyweight Member


Joined: 06 Jan 2003
Posts: 1699
Location: Norway

PostPosted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 1:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

"Your embouchure is your whole body"

…Hermann Baumann
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