is it possible for ur lungs not to be strong enough to play the flute? I mean does it really take that much air to play it??????

Yes, that is possible. Only the first cople of weeks. Then you will start to take less frequent breaths and play smoother. With enough practice, you can play for 16 seconds (I did once, and I regretted it)w/o breathing.

uuuuuhhhh Y did u regret it, ive held it for about that long too, is that bad or sumthin or were u just out of breath?

I`ve been playing for 5 years, and when I started I would get short of breath quickly. I found the more I praticed on a concert F, I found that it wasn`t really "working" for me. So then I thought if I were to do "breathing excerises" (breathing deeply in and out for about 5 minutes, which you will get light-headed soon, but it works.)

Soon after for about one to two months, I found myself able to hold a concert `F` for about 32 counts (4 whole notes). Now as I play more regularly, I`ve noticed that I can hold it out.

Practice hissing exercises to expand your lungs:

Breath in for 4, then hiss out for 4, letting all the air out of your lungs
in for 4, out for 8
in for 4, out for 16
in for 4, out for 32


You can do more that one round on each set of counts, but make sure you get ALL the air out each time.

Good luck,
Gumdrop

hey thanx for ur replies, but can ur lungs not be strong enough ever? i kno its hard at first and it usually gets easier, but i still cant make a sound and its been 3 months and im blowin into it right so i dont kno whats wrong or what im doin wrong.

Lungs??? What?? Since when do you use your lungs?

It`s called the diaphragm. Don`t use your lungs. You never use your lungs. Good musicians breathe from their diaphragm, which are a group of muscles in your upper belly area, and not in your chest.you should be able to sit still and beathe in without moving your shoulders. The only thing that should move when you breathe properly is your belly, which should be expanding. Practice this in front of a mirror, try not to move your shoulders or chest.

http://fluteland.com/fluteland/members/lessons/video/asx/Breathing_for_the_Flute_150.asx
That`s a helpful breathing instruction video, it will teach you all about proper breathing, and hopefully improve your ability to breathe.

thanx

Here`s a bit of info from Alexa Still, a famous flute player:


Arnold Jacobs is a legend. Known as "the Man With One Lung", Arnold was Tuba player with the Chicago Symphony, and a worldwide respected breathing expert. He lectured at medical conferences, and taught anyone who breathes for a living. He also had the equivalent of one lung- a half of each was removed when he was in his forties. Besides being an awesome musician, he was a gifted teacher and a wonderful person. You can read about him in "Arnold Jacobs: Song and Wind" Brain Frederiksen, edited by John Taylor, published by WindSong Press Ltd, second printing 1996, ISBN 0-9652489-0-9.

This is a brief summary of the very important bits of knowledge that I figure relate best to us as flute players, based upon my four lessons with Mr. Jacobs. By all accounts Mr. Jacobs taught each as an individual, and there may be very different aspects of his knowledge available from others. I hoped to learn more, and had expected to be an assistant and observe his teaching throughout this year, but tragically he passed away in October. I feel very obligated to do what I can to spread understanding of his teaching.

Firstly and most importantly, please go and look up a medical dictionary. Better yet would be to try and visit a pulmonary ward of a hospital. The most important aspect is to understand your body and how it works. You need to know where the lungs are exactly, how the diaphragm functions, and how your rib cage works. You need to see this for yourself! Hospitals often have wonderful life size training charts, which can show the bones, the muscles and the organs.

The lungs are very high up in the chest, beginning above the collarbone, and finishing some way up inside the rib cage. (This was news to me, and to most lay people I ask!)

The diaphragm is an involuntary muscle. We don`t even know what it feels like- there are no nerves to tell us. It sits connected from the base of the ribs across the top of the stomach area organs etc. When you breathe, it automatically moves. On the inhale, it contracts downwards compressing organs etc down further into the stomach area. On the exhale it loosens, so the middle rises up into the rib cage forming something akin to an upside down bowl shape.

The ribs are well and truly anchored at the spine, and (aside from ribs 11 and 12 at the very bottom) anchored firmly in front of the chest at the sternum. Ribs are curved and shaped in such a way that they rotate slightly at the spine, and the chest takes on a bigger size when we breathe normally- by raising the sternum at the front of the chest.

The intercostal muscles moving the ribs can only lift or compress downwards. They overlap, and can be used to counteract each other to manipulate the chest shape or compression but only in a seemingly up or down motion. They cannot magically make the chest expand sideways.

So, how does this affect us?

We are taught traditionally to breathe "low" down. We are taught to use stomach muscles to expand the stomach area to breath better (sometimes the word diaphragm is used quite incorrectly). Personally, I also used a tremendous amount of effort attempting to expand my back/stomach to breathe better. Jacobs showed me that because the lungs are very high up, the lower expansion doesn`t achieve a whole lot. Letting your chest rise and expand upwards (normally!) is more efficient and provides much more space for lung expansion than only letting the lungs expand down in the rib cage. Also, your diaphragm will accomplish all the necessary movement around the bottom of the rib cage all by itself, with no extra effort, if you let it. This is the purpose of this muscle, and it does a great job provided you don`t hold those stomach muscles tense or firm when inhaling. I refer to this as normal, because it is. If you work yourself into a state of desperately needing lots of air in a hurry (i.e. during or after running), this is exactly how you will breath. Try this, and you will observe your chest desperately heaving and your diaphragm doing its job.

Basic dos and don`ts:


Raise the front of the chest when you breath. Jacobs always said, "Do a Dolly Parton impression!" Breathing well should be this easy.

Relax your stomach muscles on the inhale. Let your diaphragm do its stuff.

Stand tall! Your torso, between the hips and shoulders, must be very upright for the ribs to rise properly.

Relax! Once you can sit/stand tall (that is if you normally slouch, this may force some atrophied back muscles into action), this should feel very easy and free. I notice a tremendous difference in tension between this method and what I was doing before.

Relax the throat. Plain old relaxed for the throat is best for breathing in. Often flute players stick the jaw forward to breath or lift the head. Either movement implies a certain level of tension in throat and jaw area, which will cause resistance to air intake, making inhalations slower and noisier. You can experiment with breathing through different size straws to see how wide an opening you need to make. I recommend dropping the jaw down slightly in a very natural, easy motion.

Let your shoulders ride your body. Don`t hold them rigid. Forget about shoulders and concentrate instead on your general posture in common Alexander Technique terms- as if a hair lifts you from the top of your head. The shoulders may rise a little with the chest since they are on top of the chest. This is to be expected.

Try to maintain the high chest position as long as possible. Think about the diaphragm moving up inside the ribs rather than letting the ribs collapse down on to the diaphragm. This helps create a big sound and reduces the movement required to raise the chest again. Avoid slouching at all times!

Two (of the many) exercises:
Breathing bag - used as a visual gauge of your capacity. Buy a small plastic tube of sufficient diameter to not cause resistance and that will fit in your mouth. Attach to that a bag that is slightly bigger than you can fill with air from one breath. For those with money to spare, an anesthetist`s rubber bag, from a medical supplies outfit, is great. Breath in as much as possible, observing in a mirror one`s posture and relaxed state. Breath into the bag. Observe the quantity! (judge by the wrinkles/saggy-ness of the bag) Try to breath back in this amount more rapidly- this is more akin to trying to breath in fast within the musical context. You can do a number of repetitions. Watch carefully in the mirror!

Measure your air intake with your arm. Fully extended arm =totally exhaled. Hand touching shoulder= fully inhaled. Try to breathe in and out accurately in thirds. Try combinations of thirds. Increase to increments of six. This leads us to a much greater understanding of our capacity at any one time. This is suprisingly helpful in performance!

Other important facts to be aware of:

The air capacity of an individual depends HUGELY on size, somewhat on gender (men are better endowed than women are), on age and physical condition. The small student may dream of imitating the lengthy phrases of his/her huge bodied teacher, but it is probably impossible.

As Arnold Jacobs would say, the music must be the priority in how we play. Creating wonderful music may mean that some people cannot get through certain phrases in one breath.

Different things work for different people. In keeping with the amazing diversity of body shapes, this method of breathing may be unnecessary for some people. I am reasonably big, and I got by just fine breathing the way I did previously. Therefore, it wasn`t "wrong". However, I do much better now using what I learned from Arnold Jacobs. I encourage everyone to learn about him or herself and figure out what will work best for themselves!

Alexa Still


Hope it helps,
Gumdrop

thanx for the very imformative post, u must have dun a lot of research, yes that deos help quite a bit, thanx for the time.

Actually, that`s all Alexa Still`s research. I thought I said that, but if I didn`t, I`m saying it now. Anyhow, she gave a seminar on breathing that I attended, and it was very interesting.

Good luck,
Gumdrop

theres a seminar for everythin these days isnt there?

YEA YOUR LUNGS CAN BE NOT STRONG ENOUGH. THIS IS MY SECOND YEAR OF FLUTE AND I HAVE ASTHMA SO I HAVE NVER BEEN ABLE TO HOLD MY NOTES LONGER THAN 6 BEATS. WHEN I STARTED CHORUS THIS YEAR MY CHORUS TEACHER HAD A BREATHING EXERCISE AND NOW WITHIN 2 WEEKS I CAN HOLD OUT A NOTE FOR 30 BEATS. WHAT IT IS IS THAT YOU PUT ONE HANDON YOUR STOMACH JUST BELOW YOUR RIB CAGE AND THE OTHER HAND ON YOUR BACK. SUCK IN AIR FOR ABOUT 4 COUNTS MAKING SURE YOUR STOMACH GOES OUT THEN RELEASE AND EXHALE FOR 16 COUNTS.AS YOU GET BETTER KEEP ADDING 4 COUNTS TO THE INHALE AND THE EXHLE. HOPE IT HELPS.

yea all these excercises are similar to what I learnt. To show how much beath u have play a note on your flute or sing one and get someone to put their hands on your tummy and push the air out slowly. then try this excersize without their help, pulling in your muscles yourself it takes practice! But yea you don`t really need to think about your lungs!

naw, you just need a bit of practice (unless of course if you`re asthmatic or have a sickness that affects your lungs then...) I`ve been playing for about a year and a half now, I`m smaller than most people in my band class (gots a small chest, I mean as in my lung cavities...yea) and I can hold a note (even the highest and lowest ones) for at least twenty counts, just keep on practicing