breathing

[fingers]

I play with an excellent drummer that has told be about how a teacher of his used to talk alot about breathing technique while playing. He talks about how proper breathing keeps you loose and relaxed. Has anyone every experienced or experimented with that?

[Ed Fuqua]

"Proper" breathing?

Joe just talks about being aware of your breathing in a loose sort of way. Holding your breath generally means you are holding tension somewhere and holding tension means you are not in the zone. He does talk about some mechanical ways to deal if it's really bad (inhaling on phrases that go up and exhaling on phrase that go down), but mostly it's a "tell" to be aware of when you're playing.

If you are playing in a relaxed and tension free way, if you're in the moment; your breathing should just be relaxed and effortless.

[Johnny L]

Originally Posted by fingers

I play with an excellent drummer that has told be about how a teacher of his used to talk alot about breathing technique while playing. He talks about how proper breathing keeps you loose and relaxed. Has anyone every experienced or experimented with that?

Not in practice...but I probably should thanks for bringing this up to talk about. I, for one, have no conscious idea what I'm doing.

Soon after I started running several months ago, I fell into a rhythmic breathing pattern sort of by accident...but I've found it feels good and has helped me with my endurance. I'm gonna try it while practicing too and see what happens.

[Mike Goodbar]

I had a teacher (classical) who emphasized breathing to help with phrasing--basically breathe as if you were singing the phrase. I still find myself doing that when I’m practicing classical pieces. You can hear Edgar Meyer doing it on the Bottesini album. He probably got that from me.

For jazz, I also went through a “Slam Stewart” phase of singing along with my solos, and I think that helped my phrasing for jazz as well, kind of help extend it more. I still hum and grunt a little when I solo, especially when I don’t know the changes.

[christ andronis]

Originally Posted by Mike Goodbar

You can hear Edgar Meyer doing it on the Bottesini album. He probably got that from me.

[Ray-man]

Air in, CO2 out = proper breathing.

Actually, I'd think it's much more important if you're singing and playing at the same time. But yes, proper breathing (slow in through the nose, slow out through the mouth) can aid greatly in relaxation and calming of the nerves.

[fingers]

Interesting...

I usually stand, stare out into space, and sing when I play.

I tried the opposite at a gig this weekend and a rehearsal yesterday. I sat on an adjustable stool, both feet on the floor, spine pretty straight. I played with my eyes closed. I breathed deeply and tried to hear the notes in my head only. Maybe it is just the change of pace or rut breaker or something but I felt like ideas flowed much easier. My feel was aggressive yet relaxed. I was much less tired at the end of the night.

As a footnote... I moonlight as a recording engineer and I recorded a woman making a relaxation cd that she is going to sell. Listening to her for many hours (zzz) got me to thinking about breathing and relaxation and how it applies to playing.

[JTGale]

My breathing is always OK. No holding of the breath or anything. BUT, I do tend to jut my jaw out when I am concetrating on certain phrases. Maybe I am just being too intense. It usually takes a while before I realize I am doing it. Funny how my jaw can be sore the next morning!