Breathing help?

[ShortButSweet]

I've been playing the flute for 8 years and seem to have a much smaller lung capacity than most other flautists who have been playing as long as i have. it's very distracting in most pieces. I am a pretty little person in general, I'm 5'2 and weigh 90 pounds, which could contribute, but i don't want to blame it on that. does anyone have any breathing excersises that could help my lung capacity?

[Tarandros]

I've been playing the flute for 8 years and seem to have a much smaller lung capacity than most other flautists who have been playing as long as i have. it's very distracting in most pieces. I am a pretty little person in general, I'm 5'2 and weigh 90 pounds, which could contribute, but i don't want to blame it on that. does anyone have any breathing excersises that could help my lung capacity?

I think small lung capacity is unlikely and it could possibly be more to do with controlling the outbreath. The air pressure and the rate at which it leaves the body should be controlled by the abdominal muscles. It should feel as if you are filling your stomach up with air and then the air filling upwards towards the top of the lungs when you breathe in. So when the inbreath is complete, your stomach should feel inflated and you then control the outbreath by squeezing the abdominal muscles and keeping the stomach pushed out. In some ways, it's like the way the bag in bagpipes supplies the air with gentle pressure from the arm on the bag ... In this way the outbreath can be made to last a very long time. This is the technique used by singers as well as wind instrument players, and also in the Chinese martial arts and meditation context, where iit is known as 'reverse abdominal breathing'.

One way to practise it is to lie on the floor with a weight on your stomach, such as a heavy dictionary. Breathe in, inflating your stomach, place the weight on your stomach and then form a flute type embouchure and breathe out as slowly as possible, controlling the outbreath from the stomach, so the weight on your stomach lowers very slowly. It takes a while to get used to but after a few sessions of this, you should be ready to put it into practice in flute playing. Kind regards, T.

[ShortButSweet]

I've been playing the flute for 8 years and seem to have a much smaller lung capacity than most other flautists who have been playing as long as i have. it's very distracting in most pieces. I am a pretty little person in general, I'm 5'2 and weigh 90 pounds, which could contribute, but i don't want to blame it on that. does anyone have any breathing excersises that could help my lung capacity?

I think small lung capacity is unlikely and it could possibly be more to do with controlling the outbreath. The air pressure and the rate at which it leaves the body should be controlled by the abdominal muscles. It should feel as if you are filling your stomach up with air and then the air filling upwards towards the top of the lungs when you breathe in. So when the inbreath is complete, your stomach should feel inflated and you then control the outbreath by squeezing the abdominal muscles and keeping the stomach pushed out. In some ways, it's like the way the bag in bagpipes supplies the air with gentle pressure from the arm on the bag ... In this way the outbreath can be made to last a very long time. This is the technique used by singers as well as wind instrument players, and also in the Chinese martial arts and meditation context, where iit is known as 'reverse abdominal breathing'.

One way to practise it is to lie on the floor with a weight on your stomach, such as a heavy dictionary. Breathe in, inflating your stomach, place the weight on your stomach and then form a flute type embouchure and breathe out as slowly as possible, controlling the outbreath from the stomach, so the weight on your stomach lowers very slowly. It takes a while to get used to but after a few sessions of this, you should be ready to put it into practice in flute playing. Kind regards, T.

thank you, i'll try the dictionary thing.

[Zevang]

What really put my breathing in shape is swimming, 2000 meters two to three times a week. But it's just me...

[Callidor]

I've been playing for a little over two years, but since I've never had a teacher, I still consider myself more or less a beginner - I too struggle with breathing, and feel that I need to take breaths more frequently than more proficient flutists..I'm also going to give the weight thing a try and see if I notice any improvement.

[Tarandros]

ShortButSweet and Callidor: I hope the method goes well. It's important to imagine the breath as being in the stomach and try to inhale from the bottom of the stomach first and imagine the air filling up towards the top of the lungs. Then the air is exhaled from the top down, but forced out from below by the abdominal muscles. Once you get proficient, you should be able to play quite long passages and still have a reserve of air at the bottom, so you can then take quick inbreaths for shorter passages to top it up. With the weight practice, please don't use too heavy a weight as obviously you don't want to do yourself an injury, so I'm not talking about twenty five pound weights or anything like that - a large dictionary is about heavy enough - the point of it's to get used to controlling the outbreath using the abdominal muscles and the weight helps you focus mentally on this as well as assisting in feeling the contraction effect. I think also if you keep in mind the squeezing the bagpipe bag image, that's a good visualisation that should help the process. Regards, T.

[fluteguy18]

Just to throw my hat in the ring, I use a completely different approach to breathing. Well... it's not totally different, but different enough. I use the method that Nina Perlove uses, and you can watch her video about breathing on YouTube. She has a lot of great exercises in that vid. I first tried this method a few years ago in a masterclass she gave on breathing (shortly before she started her RealFlute project on youtube).

[Callidor]

Oooh, I'll be sure to check that out as well. I love her videos.

[Gege]

I have played off and on for 25 years. I can tell you my breathing capacity is directly related to my aerobic activity. I have a sit down day job and when I skip the gym for any amount of time I can not play long phrases easily. 20 minutes twice a week of vigorous, sweat enducing exercise on a bike, running, swimming cures it in about 10 days to two weeks.
Also...if you have a student model flute or an instrument that is not in good repair you are working way too hard. Get a good instrument and make sure it is in good repair.

[Callidor]

I want to bump this thread with a question. I've recently started taking lessons (finally), and the one thing that I'm still most frustrated with is my breathing. I feel like my tone is pretty good, and I really believe I could actually become a decent flutist, were it not for my extremely limited breath capacity! Basically, it feels to me like the one major obstacle standing in my way to serious improvement.

I'm definitely going to revisit the advice posted here, but first I just want to ask - Is this normal? I really don't know any other flute players who are at about my skill level, so I don't know whether or not this is a common problem. Do you more experienced players remember a time when you were limited by your breathing? Did it just get better gradually, or was there some magic moment? I guess I just basically want to know whether this is something all beginner flute players struggle with, or if it's a problem unique to my learning process (and ShortButSweet as well, although after 8 years, I'm sure she's a very competent flutist.)

[twiggy208]

Callidor, I've been playing for around 9 years and I guess I'd call myself fairly experienced by now
I remember when I'd struggle to play a short 2 bar phrase in one breath and it really annoyed me that my lungs were so weak! However, steadily over time (so slowly you sometimes don't realise it) you will be able to play longer and longer passages. I find to make my breath go longer rather that simply playing long notes (which by the way DO help ) I find a passage of semiquavers that I can easily play either gradually playing it slower and slower, or speed it up until i can play it twice in the same breath! You'll find with the second way that over time you need to play the notes much faster, you'll just be holding your breath for longer
Trying that technique with scales should also make you more competent at them too

Good luck ^.^