expanding lung capacity & "stealing" air

fii · Post by **fii** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:19 am

i've been playing flute for nearly 3 years, and one of the difficulties during practicing and performance that I found is breathing. i cannot hold my breath for a long time so i tend to take lots of air during playing. it becomes trouble when i have to play melody and the melody will sound weird if i break it (to take a breath). i also cannot "steal" air quickly and efficiently. for example, during lots of 1/16 note.

is there a method to expand lung capacity or to "steal" air quickly and efficiently? thanks for your advice

Phineas · Post by **Phineas** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:03 pm

Hello Fii

Check this out!

http://www.jennifercluff.com/breathe.htm

Phineas

fii · Post by **fii** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:49 am

Thanks for the article. It's really helpful

ick27 · Post by **ick27** » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:50 pm

Very often this is more a matter of air efficiency than lung capacity. More efficient use of your air means that you are creatining more sound with less air (this usually goes hand in hand with improvements in tone quality as well).

To practice improving this, I would suggest holding notes for a fairly long time at a comfortable volume (not too loud just yet). This is not just to see how long you can hold a note, but to see how much sound you can produce with a certain amount of air. Some things to experiment with are using faster air speed, using a smaller embochure hole (related to faster air speed actually), and trying to keep the sound "free" and not pinched down or stuffy sounding (by squeezing the lip muscles too hard).

Jennifer Cluff's stuff is always great, and probably covers a lot more ideas too.