Hey people i play the alto sax an i have a question. Have u ever seen those guys like Kenny G play where they dont have to breath, it`s like they play and breath at the same time. I wonder if any of u ppl know how to do that i would really appreciate it

Hello advanced;

It`s called circular breathing. It is a Technique that won`t take you more than a couple of weeks to learn. You start off with a straw and a small bottle of water, you know, like a coke bottle, or something with a small neck, just so you can keep the water from bubbling out and making a mess. Fill it only about 1/2 way. Using the straw, blow into the water while breathing in through your nose. I know it sounds impossible, but think circle,and at first short breaths. the Idea is to keep the water bubbling constantly while breathing in and blowing out. After you can "Circular Breathe" with the water bottle, move to your horn and find a note that you can do it with. One that offers simular resistance (pressure)to the bottle. then move to other notes and you are off ro the races. This techinque originated in Africa with flute players and snake charmers.

thanks

i`m sry dude but it is impossible for the lungs to take in air and release it at the same time.
The proper way to circular breathe which will take quite a while to fully master. is simply.
Take in a deep breathe through the diaphram. If your chest goes up first when u took a breathe u did it wrong. you should fill your stomache up first.
next begin to blow fast air in a controled manner out of your mouth.
When u have exhuasted about 1/2 of your air begin to fill your cheeks with air slowly.
to perform the process of circular breathing u must stop the air flow from coming in through the diaphram and push the air in your mouth out with your cheek muscles.(tounge may also be used in begginging until u strengthin cheek muscles.)
while you r pushing out the air take a quick breathe in through the nose. the pushing out the air from the mouth and breathing in must all happen within a fraction of a second. or u will break the sound. once u have taken the breath resume the air flow from the diaphram quickly.

::WARNING::
This technique has flawes unless mastered.
1. When switching from diaphram to air in the cheek muscles there will be fluctuations in the intonation of the note.
2. Unfortunatley the belief of being able to play forver still cannot be reached by this method. If u circular breathe for to long you may become dizzy, faint, or worse case scenario die from to little oxygen in the blood. eventually u will run out of air in your diaphram.
3. third and finally once you have gotten good with this technique you will need to not puff your cheeks nemore. unless u chooose to look like dizzy gilespie then fine. puff your cheeks. Eventually you will strengthin your cheek muscles and not need to puff them up s much. u may though need to take more breathes.

I hope this has helped all you guys out there. Now don`t faint or get sick cuz of circular breathing and tell them i told u to do it. i don`t want ppl bugging me about this later.

Peace yall. The One Tenor out

I agree iwth james there he has the right idea on how to circular breathe. I am farely good at it but i have a friend who is a trumpet player who is and expert at it. We have this thing we do in band called breathing records where you try to hold your concert b flat as long as you can. He had to stop because class had ended. He got the one note for 25 minutes and 16 seconds, and that was because class was over. I have later heard him play a song that was 30 minutes long without taking a breath, so practice at it and it will work.