I have air issues. I can`t play for a long time and sustain the long notes. I NEED TO BREATHE! My air support stinks! I need more air to play longer and support my sound. How can you improve your breathing? What do you guys do?

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And I want to improve quickly. Like in a week? I know it'll probably take a LONG time to have GOOD breathing. I know that athlete's have GREAT air support and could breath out for a long time. In drama class, we were seeing who could *psss the longest. And i thought i will cause i play the flute..but nope. This one really talented athlete *pssss for a LONG time. Double the time I did. amazing.

The trick to sustaining notes for a longer time is so almost get an ab workout while you are playing your flute. When you inhale, right before you make any sound, your abs should tighten to help control the sound and support it. You also need to probably work on making your embochure a little tighter so that your air isn`t escaping your mouth too rapidly. Always do vibrato from your gut, and not your throat! Practice vibrato by inhaling and playing a note, and then use those tightened ab muscles to expand and contract. That will fluctuate your vibrato. t also helps to give a bigger sound.

-Dennis

WOW! That helps a bunch! I`ll make sure to do that. I was hoping no one would say " takes years to develop..". yay! I`ll try that! THANKS A LOT!

Another thing, never raise your shoulders to take in a deep breath.

very true Kara. I can`t believe I forgot to mention that! You definitely have to relax your shoulders or your whole head will tense up and your sound will SUFFER!!

-Dennis

It`s not just that. It is not correct to take a breath and raise your shoulders because it tightens your throat which will give you that goat like vibrato. It also means that your taking your air in improperly and not taking a full deep breath.

If you are breathing correctly, you should be able to put your hand on your abdomen and feel it push outward when breathing in and when breathing out, it should move back in. When you raise your shoulders up to take a breath this is not filling your whole lung capacity and you are waisting air.
Think of it as you should become wider and not taller.

Hope that makes sense. I am not the best at words. Just try it both ways and you will see what I mean.

Kara, got to take exception with that, you should clarify that one should never JUST raise the shoulders, otherwise there is no support and the throat will tighten up. I used to always never raise my shoulders, then I worked with and observed great opera and pop singers and they definitely raise their shoulders when they bring the breath to the middle of the torso and have it inflate the entire torso, including rib cage, pelvis, hips etc like a big balloon

Patrick, these are the exact words from the Trevor Wye book, so you are disagreeing with him.

Of the many options about breathing, one clear point emerges, namely that is it WRONG to raise the shoulders when taking in a breath (a) it tighten the throat and ofter leads to a bleating, goat-like vibrato. which, in turn usually encourages the development of grunts, or vocal cord noises, whilst playing. Raising the shoulders also makes it impossible to properly control the expulsion of air form the lungs and it conflicts with the way it which the flute tone should develop with regard to the mouth and throat cavities. In short, DON`T.

But, yes, I do see where you are going with that. Where did that edit button go?

so I disagree with Trevor Wye, so what, i play with a relaxed throat, slow vibrato, very relaxed, and I sometimes raise my shoulders when i breathe

so I disagree with Trevor Wye, so what, i play with a relaxed throat, slow vibrato, very relaxed, and I sometimes raise my shoulders when i breathe

Kara, let me clarify further, I respect Trevor Wye and I think he is addressing what I mentioned earlier, younger flute players who ONLY raise their shoulders when inhaling, my shoulders raise as a RESULT of taking in a great deal of air when I breathe

It was interesting to read that quote from Trevor Wye. I often have this problem of grunts while playing.

I can correct it by just paying a lot of attention to stop it. It is probably caused by a wrong playing technique.

But I think that in my case, it is probably not caused by shoulder raising or "high" breathing. I do not run out of air (in normally long passages)and I study singing; correct abs breathing and pushing was the first thing we were taught to do and we continue working on it after 2 years.

Could you help in killing those grunts?

Sometimes those grunts are caused by tightening of the throat too much.

I have mentioned in a previous thread that swimming regularly has helped me much. However it may work better with older people than with young players.

The "trick" is to learn how to breath regularly, taking in air quickly and administering what you have got so that you can swim more strokes without having to take in air.

I set an objective of crawl swimming 25 meters (that`s the pool size where I train) breathing each four strokes minimum; each 6 strokes is also easily attainable.

These are quite moderate goals and are perfectly attainable at my age and you don`t need to be no champion for that.

But swimming is also fun and helps in many other aspects such as strenght building, relaxing and developing a team spirit if you do it at school or club.