I often get light headed when i play nad i have been playing for a couple of years now.... my teachers says that i am breating in to much air to often but i am not sure if he is right this has been happing for ever and i hav tried to inprove it ... does anyone know of some breathing exercises that would help or maybe others things that could be wrong that would be great thanks

PLEASE i really need help

Well your teacher should know best of all. He actually has the chance to watch you play and (hopefully) the knowledge to figure out what's wrong and what to do about it. It may be that you're breathing too often, and pulling in too much air. If that's the case, make a conscious effort to take fewer breaths, or at least shallower ones. Make marks in your music (where it makes sense with the phrasing, of course), and resolve yourself only to breathe at those marks, and no where else. If you're not pulling in enough air, and getting a little woozy from lack of oxygen, there are quite a few exercises that might help. Start lying down, and notice how you breathe. Naturally, you should feel the diaphragm moving. Make sure that when you sit up and when you stand that you feel the same thing. Many people "chest breathe," especially in urban areas. It appears to be a defense mechanism against pulling in excess smog (or other pollutants), but will also limit the amount of air entering your lungs when you breathe in the middle of a piece. Visualizing your lungs filling from the bottom, and only the top at the very end of your breath should help increase how much air you are pulling in. Another problem might be that you're storing left over CO2 in your lungs, in which case a quick exhalation before you inhale can do wonders. You can also use a modified circular breathing technique so that you are playing, but at the same time expelling CO2 through your nose (I do this occasionally, and it works pretty well). Expanding your lung capacity may be another good solution. Set a metronome at a medium tempo (Maybe 80 BPM), and inhale for 4 counts, then exhale for 4 counts. Do this several times. Then inhale for 6 counts and breathe out (forcing as much air as possible out, trying to completely empty your lungs) for 6 counts. Then 8, and eventually as high as 16 or 20 (though it will take some time to learn to go that long). Swimming can also really help improve lung capacity, especially if done regularly, so if that's an option, you might try it out. I hope some of that helps you!

sounds like you are overblowing, a common problem for younger flutists. You don't really need to blow that hard to produce a tone, it is the focus that you need to get a nice tone that will project.

Try this, play any scale holding each note for two counts at 60 to the quarter on the metronome

then breathe for two counts so that you are either playing the note or breathing in, try to take more are in than you expel and by the top of the scale you should have too much air, if you don't then you are blowing to hard on each note.

thanks oyu i will tey these things i am taking in more air then i blow out but it feels like my lungs are empty... this some times happen when i am not even playing i feel like i cant get enough i am breathing but it just feels wierd i do not know how to explain it