Breathing

Dance4Him · Post by **Dance4Him** » Tue Sep 21, 2004 12:21 pm

I have just started to play the flute but am having a hard time breathing and holding it for more than three notes is that normal?
Also breathing while playing notes where many of the 'keys' are pressed down. like on D2
Any advice?

ick27 · Post by **ick27** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 11:51 am

Sometimes it's easy to confuse breathing and blowing. Breathing is taking in air, and blowing is sending it out. Blowing produces the tone, and is what causes the most problems in general. Do you mean that you can't blow for very long before you must breathe again? If so, this is something all of us have trouble with. I doubt the problem is not taking enough air in when you breathe since most of us breathe a lot naturally. What may be happening is you are blowing more air than you need to. If the space between your lips is large, it will take a lot of air to play and you'll need to breathe frequently. If you use a smaller opening between the lips, you can keep a high air speed without using a lot of air, so you can blow for much longer. The best way to get an understanding of how this works is to watch a good flutist up close as they play. This response might be a little off topic, but you asked a lot of questions at once!

flutituti · Post by **flutituti** » Thu Sep 23, 2004 6:56 pm

My 9th grade flute teacher taught my band a way to take in lots of air pretty quickly so you can blow for a longer time. i think it helps....
This is how it works....
Say poe, then say poe silently as you take a deep breath. this way your throat is open wide allowing more air to pass.

powayflute01 · Post by **powayflute01** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:31 pm

Actually, a very common problem for beginning flutists is embochure configuration. I know that when I started playing the flute, I had EXACTLY the same problem. When I went to my first flute lesson, my teacher explained that my air stream, rather than being one straight stream of air, was splitting off into two smaller streams on my lip plate. The result of this is that it takes twice as much air to make about half the sound. However, I don't know that this is your problem...I'd say you should find a flute teacher in your area and go to them about it, they could probably fix your problem right away!

Fluteoholic · Post by **Fluteoholic** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:23 pm

Yes, this is sometimes common for a early begginer. You should learn to control your breath and don't blow in big bursts of air. You should also learn to take a deep breath (quielty) and control the air speed.