Does anyone know a way to improve breathing/lung capacity? My problem with a low whistle isn’t the fingering - its not having enough air to finish even a short phrase. I don’t know why, although I suspect that childhood lung problems followed many years of obesity and smoking (I stoppeded over 20 years ago) didn’t help.
Is there anything I can do for it, or is it time for me to start thinking of finding a good home for my low whistles?
I would think of working at low whistle as good respiratory therapy in and of itself. I can’t think of something better which would increase lung capacity, other than, possibly, aerobic exercise…such as brisk walking.
And maybe shorter than typical phrasing with more breathing spots…hard thing to do musically.
Swimming is good Chuck. Either just ordinary swimming or kickboard work. It will do your back a lot of good too. I’m not certain, but I’m fairly sure that swimming is recommended for asthmatics, some of whom go on to be champions.
I swim about 3-5km each week in three sessions. I still sometimes have breathing problems but it does help. You might want to change the low whistles you use. High backpressure will mean fewer breaths. So I have to choose between overtons (which take a lot of effort at teh top especially) and Copelands which are easy to blow but require very frequent breaths. Grinters are a nice compromise, but this is really only a problem I have with low D and below.
You might want to look into taking some singing lessons from a classically trained singer. I did it years ago and I could not believe the extra capacity that she found in my chest. I’d just go and tell the teacher what you want and I’m sure you’ll get what you need.
Mike
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you breathe with your chest - your lungs are in there, yes, but you breathe with your diaphragm, which is not in your chest but below, just above your stomach.
Many people think that to take a deep breath, you push your ribs out and raise your chest - nope… you pull your diaphragm down and allow your stomach area to expand - that pulls in a really deep, deep breath. You will get so much more air into your lungs than you are used to.
Practice that intake for a while, and you will find that you can take it in very quickly and take a long time letting it out. Very helpful for keeping your breath in a tune and not ending up on the floor blue in the face, LOL! Also, it is good to take a series of deep breaths in a row and let them out slowly before you embark on such oxygen depleting exercises as playing a fast whistle tune or diving deeply under water. You won’t be gasping.
Hope that helps…
You should also be sure you’re breathing with your diaphragm, not your ribs. When you inhale, it should be mostly your belly that expands, not your chest. Practicing that will increase both the amount and the strength of your breaths. One professional flute/bagpipe player told me the way he works on that is to lie on the floor with a telephone book on his belly. Just make the book go up and down as you breathe. After about a year I’ve found I rarely have to think about it any more.
Steven
Look into some Yoga books, and check out the sections on breathing exercises. Some great stuff there.
What low D are you playing?
Here are some pointers on breath support I wrote with regard to Overton, but the should be generally useful.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=9250&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30
If you have been smoking for a long time, you might have chronic bronchitis. You may have your lungs checked by a specialist. Some medications might be helpful in that case.
Look at Arnold Jacob’s breathing exercises: http://www.hsu.edu/faculty/bucknej/Resources/Trumpet%20Talk/Arnold_Jacobs.htm
My doctor told me that when he was in med school, one of the lab exercises involved measuring all the students’ lung capacities. The pot-heads always had the biggest lungs.
Aaron
Hmmm…there is an interesting similarity between an incentive spirometer and a bong. (I can’t believe the smoke wouldn’t somehow diminish the benefits, though.)
Yes, swimming is very good.
I have just come back from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland
where I swam every day. Thats a sub-tropical place you know.
Can you swim in Wollongong right now?
How’s your custard apple tree? Got any fruit?
Hmmm?
well, i recommend yoga. but i’m going to go out on a limb here. i find it hard to believe that you don’t have enough raw lung capacity. when i first started playing the flute, i got winded easily, but the problem was not lung capacity. It was a combination of a) over blowing and thus wasting breath, b) not taking proper inhalations (i.e. with diaphram etc), and c) not knowing how to comfortably phrase tunes so i effortlessly inserted breaths at the right time. so i don’t think you need to give up the low whistle just yet. just a bit of work on breathing, technique, and phrasing. that all (as if that isn’t enough!). good luck.
feadog’s got my vote for a well rounded answer.
As a newbie yoga practioner
for nearly 40 years, here is my serious comment
for to do breathing exercises:-
Focus more on the out breath.
Tune in to expelling so fully that it feels like
you innards are gonna come out.
When your lungs become so very hollow
all else will automatically follow.
(ie your in breath will be
spontaneosly deep and full).
This is my experience. I was an asthmatic child
but I can now run a mile on short notice (without prior training)
without getting puffed out.
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Some, like a large book and the website look promising.
FWIW:
My whistles are an Overton and a Dixon. I dumped my Susato a long while back. Much as I love the Overton, I usually reach for the Dixon because it seems to cause me less breathing distress.
I smoked for about 20 years, from age 16 to 36 Most of the time it was primarily a pipe. I have been smoke free since July of 1983, almost 21 years now.
I can’t swim very well, but I do engage in high-intensity water aerobics three days a week for an hour at a time. Strangely eonugh, while I am frequently short of breath in the pool, it isn’t as bad as I’d expect it to be. That is why I asked about breathing exercises.
I’ll just have to try to monitor myself better - maybe that’ll tell me something. And thanks again to all who offered advice.
