I just started swimming regularly this fall, four days a week. Partly because I need some exercise to feel well during the dark months. But especially because I thought it might help me playing flute! I joined my daughters’ synchronized swimming team. Now I’m spending lots of time underwater, doing demanding things with my brain and my body.
And guess what! I think it’s helping! My phrases are getting longer between breaths, and I’m more efficient with my diaphragm. I’m sure that improving embouchure is also a factor. But I’m curious whether anyone else is finding that cardiovascular exercise helps their playing.
I swim three or four times a week, specializing in freestyle and breaststroke which both require a rapid inhale and a gradual exhale. I have just moved from the pipes to the flute, and find no problem making it through a long phrase in one breath.
My difficulty is finding a tasteful time to breath though.
This got me thinking. I’d like to get to swim this winter (I’m a cyclist primarily). However, my schedule doesn’t really permit me to make it to any of the pools around much. I’m wondering if anyone’s figured out any breathing exercises that can accomplish the same effect?
What, Corin, you mean you don’t want to swim on the Coast of Maine in the winter??
I’ve found no correlation whatsoever with what kind of shape I’m in and how long a phrase I can play on the flute. I think the biggest factor for me is how active my allergies are. I think my breathing passages are often just not open enough to get a big gulp of air.
One thing to point out is, the type of swimming Jennie’s doing is anaerobic, so I probably wouldn’t expect it to have the same effect as the (aerobic) distance running that I do.
i read somewhere that flute playing air requirements are about the same as when engaged in exciting conversation.
i can’t swim but i can talk for hours, that’s enough right?
Actually, the kind of workouts we do for synchro can be rather demanding and aerobic, since we warm up with laps and do lots of sprint-like moves. At other times we joke about it being a “hypoxic” workout because we’re supposed to do it without breathing! It varies depending on what we focus on.
Someone did suggest an exercise for breathing that involved walking. Sorry I can’t remember which chiffer came up with it. Let’s see if I can sum it up here. While you’re briskly walking, breathe in for a count of two. Breathe out for a count of four. Breathe in for two, then breathe out for six counts. Increase the counts for breathing out to eight, then twelve, then sixteen, then back to eight, six, and four.
I’ve tried this on some of my walks. It’s an interesting discipline, and can be varied by breathing in quickly between counts, as in a tune. It takes some pretty intense concentration!
Probably Lixnaw is right. But there are times in between playing that we all need to be somewhere else. Or our families need a break. Swimming is helping me create a good balance.
Jennie, Chas was right…those workouts are a anerobic vs aerobic. When you push yourself that hard and get “hypoxic”. You’re actually going into anerobic metabolism. I won’t bore anyone witht the full physiologic explanation, but basically, that’s how you build bursts of speed, strength and power wheras aerobic workouts tend to be more for improving endurance, burning calories and fat.
