Band Teaching Tips 1 - The Secret to a Good, Deep Breath

We all breathe. (It's true!) However, the simple mechanics of everyday breathing does not provide enough air for good wind performance. Wind players (including performers on both woodwind and brass instruments) must take in more air so that there is enough pressure to maintain a good tone. It is sometimes difficult to describe how to achieve this without use of imagery. Yet, with a little practice, you can easily train yourself to take in a good amount of air with every breath.

In traditional terms, wind players talk about "breathing from the diaphragm". This is not exactly how the body works, but it is a useful description because it involves using the stomach muscles to add extra room for your lungs to expand. (The more they expand the more air they can take in.) So, we will be starting from a very well-established practice.

Before we go any further, it is important to note that wind players do NOT breathe through their noses (unless they are circular breathing, which is a very advanced skill and arguably unnecessary in 99% of music). Your nose is a filter, designed for efficiency rather than volume. To get a deep breath - one that really fills the lungs - you must breathe through your mouth.

So, here is the secret: breathe out before you play.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but if you give it a try, you will undoubtedly find that you take in more air than you ever did before.

1) As you are preparing to play, push out all of the air, using your stomach muscles to squeeze out everything you possibly can. You want to try to starve yourself of oxygen for just a moment.

2) When you reach the moment at which you can push out no more air, your body will almost involuntarily gasp for as much as it can get. In fact, it will take in more than it needs because now it thinks it's desperate. You've just tricked it into taking a deep breath!

3) This breath in will usually be a fairly quick one too, and you don't want the air to get "stale" from not moving, so as soon as the "gasp" is done, turn that air around and let it out through your reed, mouthpiece, or whatever and make a sound.

This little trick is something that oboe players have known about for years. When oboe players breathe, they have no choice but to exhale first. (They don't use as much air as other wind players.) It makes them look like they're about to die from oxygen deprivation, but it actually is quite effective in the performance of long solos.