Hi,
I just ordered a Breath Builder that is supposed to help strengthen my breathing for playing flute. It did not come with any directions.
The device is a cylindrical tube with small ping-pong-like ball inside. One end is sealed and the other end has holes. There are two diameters of plastic tubing: one small and one larger.
Does anyone know how to use this thing?
That’s one of the gadgets where you blow in it to make the ball float and your supposed to time how long you can make it float. Depending on how hard you blow will affect how far up in the tube the ball will float.
I guess the goal is to increase how long you can float the ball at however high you want it to go.
Are there any pulmonary specialists here?
Cheers,
Aaron
addendum: This page has a link to a manual.
Have you thought about playing the flute more?
As was said, play the flute more - isn’t that exercise enough? Otherwise, consider this tool instead, which exercises both inhalation AND exhalation, and comes with a manual (you can see one on-line in .PDF format):
http://www.powerlung.com/
Kevin Krell
I googled on breath builder, then found a page called Welcome to Windsong Press ~ It has a bunch of info, but if you scroll down it shows your breath builder, tells how to use it, and has a video that you can click on that I guess shows how to use it, too. (I didn’t click on the video) So you can find out how to use yours!
M
Thanks WD! That video was most helpful.
I would play the flute more, but I don’t always have the practice space to do it. I can use the Breath Builder anywhere, anytime - such as when I’m waiting on the checkout line at my local supermarket.
You may need a license for that. 
You will run the risk of being certified.
If you explain that you play the flute that will only serve to confirm their suspicions !
i wonder if simple, old-school pranayama practices would be just as good, if not better. I’ve not tried a breath builder so I’m not sure how exactly it feels, but I could imagine that if you want to really increase your lung/breath capacity you don’t necessarily want to be stressing any muscles around the ribcage/diaphragm as that will just take extra energy, and hence shorten your breath. Are you supposed to blow harder and harder against some kind of resistance?
Ask any hatha yoga teacher to teach you Nadi Shodhana, Bhastrika, Kapalbhati, etc. and move slowly. Your breath will become deeper and longer. There are some great books out there on the subject, such as:
Prana Pranayama Prana Vidya by Swami Niranjanananda
and
Light on Pranayama by BKS Iyengar
mcdafydd,
Here’s how the Breath Builder works:
Attach a plastic tube to the spout at the top of the BB. There are two sizes of tubes: a large one for flute and a smaller one for other woodwinds.
Blow into the BB. The ping pong ball rises to the top. Exhale to keep the ball at the top. Then inhale with enough force to keep the ball from falling. The whole idea of this exercise is to keep the ball floating at the top.
There are 3 resistance holes at the top of the BB. You can increases the resistance by covering one or more holes as you exhale/inhale.
I believe the exercise is supposed to both strengthen breathing and keep it controlled.
Really, you should just play more-that way you get the fingerins as well as breathing right. I don’t mean to offend anyone with this, and I must note that more pipers than flute players are guilty of this, but there seem to be alot of people who, though they have invested the cash and inital effort in learning the instrument, after a few tunes resort to playing with idiotic gadgets, surfing websights devoted to the subject, and generally doing everything but improving and playing their instrument. So…get off the computer and play some tunes!
What?? Mark Eden kits don’t come with instructions?
if you want to improve your breathing, i believe it’s best to look at the way you hold your flute, the way you sit,
if you breath correctly,… buy a good tutorial, get a good teacher.
a good start is the main thing.
true true.. while 99% of what you say is right, working to build stronger breath will help reduce stress, build energy, increase tone and strength in flute playing, among other things. Although I’ve not yet seen Marcos Granados, all the other flute players I’ve talked to who have met him say that his tone and playing is some of the most amazing they’ve seen (he plays latin/venezuelan folk jazz stuff). And he works a lot with pranayama and increasing the breath. I don’t think that “just playing a few tunes” will have nearly the same effect on expanding breath capacity as controlled and focused practices.
now, after saying all that, I’m getting off the 'net to play a few tunes!
7:00 in the morning, If I played right now I would get evicted…
Any way, I think it was a high school choir teacher that told us to exercise our lungs by breathing in while counting to a number, holding for half of that number, and breathing out for half of that number. I found swimming to help more, but you cant do that at a desk.
As for playing, I make a note on where I should take a breath and work to get to that point without cheating. It is like all of the other things, keeping in time, keeping in tune, etc. consciously think on what you are trying to achieve and work on that one thing to perfection. Do you need a flute to say tu, tu, tika, tika, tu? Think of a tune hold the flute (or imagine holding one) in your hands, and play the fingerings without the pressure of hitting the right note.
If this helps, great, if not it only cost you some time.
Good luck. We are all going to the same destination, how we get there is less important.
Full disclosure: I am not a teacher, and do not play well.
Here’s something Paul McGratten taught the advanced flute class in the Catskills a couple of years ago- Take a deep breath in, hold the air, and while
holding the air try to push the air toward the front of your chest. Exhale. Repeat, pushing the air toward the sides of your lungs, then once more toward the back of the lungs. He seemed to swear by this exercise. Hope this helps.
This is typical of learning ANYTHING. You wouldn’t have to LEARN it if it was easy to do. After all, if it’s easy enough that you can do it without any training or learning, it’s just unskilled labor.
The more skill required, the more challenging it is to learn. More effort is required. This is usually a somewhat painful process, requiring either mental effort or physical effort. Much of this involves repetition and repetition and repetition, and practice to get closer approximations to an ideal.
While this is going on, you have a distinct sense that you suck at whatever it is. This can be painful and frustrating. In the corner of your mind, there is always the thought that there must be an easier way.
It’s so difficult to do this that many students resort to pseudo-learning activities, like buying reference books. They make flashcards as a prelude to studying, not realizing that if they’d spent the time studying they wouldn’t need the flashcards. They spend hours “organizing” things, like driving to Kinkos to have the spine cut off paperbound texts and holes drilled for 3-ring binders. They develop intricate color-coded underlining and highlighting techniques to organize study material . . . instead of actually studying it.
They don’t want to read the book, write the salient facts down on paper, and memorize it–that’s painful. Instead, they engage in pseudo-learning activities.
I spend a good bit of my teaching time campaigning against this sort of activitity, to little avail. (The students do it anyway, thinking I’m just a crotchety windbag who wants them to do everything the hard way. Which is true, since it’s the only way that works.)
I spend a good bit of my personal flute-learning time campaigning against my own avoidance maneuvers with even worse results.
Turns out I can recognize this sort of thing because I’m a master at it, myself.
It’s a lot easier to think that a gadget will help us learn something. It’s easier to think that spending hours in front of the mirror examining our embouchure will help us develop it. Far easier than making the painful effort to develop lung capacity and embouchure control by actually playing the flute.
Yep. I’m an expert at pseudo-learning.
Yesterday, after a poor practice session, I told my husband that I sucked (a word I rarely use) on the whistle. His response: “Aren’t you supposed to be blowing?”
Carefully.
Glad to see you back, Glauber. I was beginning to worry about you.
When did they let you out ?