How do you work on your breathing form?
Breath In
Breath Out
Repeat until tired of breathing…
Now are you asking about where to breathe or how to breathe (norcal made the obligory crack at the last one)
During Choir practice (yep, Im in a choir now) we have several different exercises to get our breathing patterns “warmed up”, but theres no way I can explain them (esp. since I cant do them that well) so… why am I posting? 
On the other side:
I once had my best friend slap me with a peice of sheet music when I took breathes in the wrong spot, but that didnt work to well, and its a pain to go through the trouble.
I usually end up drawing big red lines through the sheet music where I should breathe, and that works okay. That, and practice hard
(Last but not least, when you breath in different spots, it is not called screwing up, its called “reinterpreting”)
Um, Ive been playing for only six months, so ignore everything I say 
You mean, how do you learn to fit your gasps for breath into the music? Or how do you learn to support a good tone with your abdomen, chest and diaphragm?
I do a lot of finger exercises that require you to figure out a place to breathe while keeping a steady tempo. While playing tunes I take every opportunity I can to inhale, so a lot of quarter notes turn into breathing opporutnities. If a tune doesn’t have enough long notes to do that, I find a place to lop out an eighth note, so things like GAG turn into G breath G or EAAA becomes EAA breath. I’m finding as I get a new tune and go looking for where I’m going to breathe, it becomes more automatic in other tunes and situations.
As far as generating a good tone, listen to your mother. Don’t slouch, sit up straight, shoulders back not rounded, and use your abdominal muscles. Hold a note as long as you can, using as little breath as you can. Do this even on high A and B (warn your spouse to be in another room…maybe even another house). Be careful not to breathe out of your nose while you’re playing…you’ll be surprised how much air you lose that way.
Breathing can be divided into two areas – knowing when to take a quick breath while playing a tune, and developing your lung capacity so as to be able to hold out for those really long sessions. Here’s a few URL’s you might want to check for developing lung capacity – they’re for flute players but the principles work equally well for whistlers.
http://njnj.essortment.com/howtoplaythe_rfxa.htm
http://www.mostlywind.co.uk/breath.html
http://www.geocities.com/flutepower55/breathing.html
Geradine Cotter has this brief advice on breathing while playing a tune:
“It is not possible to make any hard and fast rules concerning
breathing and phrasing but in general breaths are taken at
the end of the 2nd, 4th, 6th or 8th bars of a tune. Experience
will tell you where to do this. Another point is that even though
it is possible to play a large part of a tune without taking a
breath, it is not the most attractive thing to hear – it leads to
a certain monotony in the music.”
from: Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor pg. 16.
Hope this is helpful!
Aww, you beat me to it! 
great minds think alike…
I admit it: I’m pro-breathing.
I don’t think that this has anything to do with the question DC-W was asking, but for the record – and with all due respect for Geraldine Cotter, a marvellous player by all accounts – this statement doesn’t stand up to even a few seconds of scrutiny.
I suggest you listen to how Geraldine plays, and if you need more advice, look around for some into which a little more thought has been put.
Steve
Sit ups and abodominal exercises
help. Aerobic activity helps,
especially lap swimming.
I’ve heard of lap dancing…is lap swimming comparable?
in my marching band we do an exerrcise where we breath in for 10 beats, at a moderate tempo. Hold for 10 beats. Then slip or suck in air on each beat and make teh breaths seperate. Then hold another 10 beats. then take one big slip and let it all out. Really expands your lungs.
andrew cassidy
P.S. this is all contineous, you dont stop inbetween each part.
I think lap dancing will cause you to lose your breath…but, um, i’m not saying i know anything about this…just speculation…
but the answer to the original question: yoga. will utterly transform your breathing. really. doubtless your lap dancing too…
My flute teacher kept telling me that you don’t want to inhale sharply, that you just allow the air into your lungs. I was still gasping. So he gave me a (sort of) exercise: stand (I stand when I’m playing, the same thing goes if you’re sitting), stretch both arms above your head, and clasp your hands together. That’s your optimum posture for singing or playing. Lower your arms, keeping the resto of your body in the same position. Now play a note until you have no more breath in your lungs, or just exhale until you have no more breath. Then relax and let air in.
Do it in front of a mirror and you’ll see that it’s your belly that expands the most, not your chest. That’s exactly how you want to breathe.
If it’s a matter of where to breathe, others have had some good advice. I would add, figure out where the important notes are, and never breathe there. Also, breathing too seldom is a disaster; too often, especially at first, is not such a bad thing.
Any singer knows this! The rib cage has a finite range of expansion, the stomach muscles don’t.
Your description of the exercise is exactly what we do in choir to warm up.