I’m a relative beginner on the Low D whistle, playing an “easy blower” Goldie on which the breath requirements are not excessive but I’m aware, especially for playing slow airs that my lung capacity (as an unfit 57 year old) is inadequate. I have two questions:
I’m learning to breath with the diaphram, the stomach extending out as I take in air, but then am I supposed to lift the chest and ribs extending the air intake further?
Does anyone have tips or exercises for increasing lung capacity . . . apart from obviously playing?
Don’t think about it, just play. Playing and more playing is the key.
Do you sing? It is just like singing really. You take a breath and you sing. Sure some trained singers do the diaphragm thing but they are trying to fill opera halls. Most of us just sing without thinking. Once you have the tune in your head try singing it to find where you should breathe.
Do you sit when you play? Standing to play can help in some cases.
I don’t think much about how I breathe when I play whistle. I do think about where I breathe. Just make sure you fill your lungs when you start. Then watch your phrasing, keep it musical and figure out where it makes sense to take a breath. It will differ from tune to tune but it becomes part that tune as you practice. It gets easier the more familiar you are with the tune and the more you play.
Thanks for the replies. Angel, I think I’m doing something similar to what you suggest. I breath in using the diaphragm and then let it out slowly through pursed lips. Feadoggie, you don’t mention HOW you fill your lungs. Do you breathe in with your rib cage rising and expanding, do you breathe in with your diaphragm . . . pushing out the stomach or do you do the latter then the former?
I found the same thing (the need for more air) when taking up flute after whistle . I think the stuff that singers do (e.g. as suggested by Angel) does help. I have now got lazy and settled down to “stand or sit up straight and the do stomach out diaphragm quick breath thing when I think about it”. I think Feadogie’s “Just make sure you fill your lungs when you start.” is where the chest gets filled and one writer (possibly Grey Larsen) suggests that the air in the chest is sort of an ‘emergency reserve’.
There is also some yoga-type breathing stuff that is described as aiming to relax the muscles between the ribs to make filling the chest easier. .
To quote Faith Hill (or Stephanie Bentley more correctly), “Just Breathe”.
As I said, I do not think about it. Thinking gets in the way.
If you were playing Highland Bagpipes, bassoon, oboe or English Horn, you might need more technique breathing but this is a whistle. It really is as natural as singing. Remember, it’s called “playing”.
Maybe I am in a minority here. I view the issue on a low D for most newplayers as being more about proper phrasing and less about big lungs.
Ok, I’ll also mention some of my experience coaching more “mature” players on the whistle. I frequently see cases where such players run out of air.
In some small number of cases, the player is also actually breathing out of their nose while they play. That’ll starve the whistle.
In other cases I see such players run out of air for their bodies before they run out of air for the whistle. That’s a real problem. If you had said you had a Goldie hard blower I’d have honed in on that. Spend your thinking time thinking about the tune.
But in more cases, it is a matter of not getting a full breath before they commence playing and not knowing when to take the next breath. Phrasing helps solve that issue.
Really, don’t spend time deep thinking about this, just play the tune over and over. It all works itself out.
Thanks for the answers. I think it concerns me because my interest is not in the ITM reels and jigs I’m learning to play the whistle on right now but more in Davy Spillane’s type of slow ethereal tune where there can be extended high notes and no chance of more regular normal phrasing. His type of music is where my ambition lies and for that reason, I want to do everything I can to maximise my lung capacity.
Then I’d suggest taking up the triathalon or at least the marathon. Those guys that blow up the spaghetti balloons to make animals and such from them seem to have strong lungs too. That’s a bit tongue-in-cheek but there’s no secret to developing lung capacity. The more you use 'em the better your capacity - oxygen uptake is a whole 'nother matter.
But as for Spillane, you have to understand his instrument and approach a bit. First off, he’s been at it for a lifetime and he has the head, hands and lungs to show for it. Second he uses a particular whistle geared for his style of playing. There’s nothing at all wrong with your free blowing Goldie. It’s a great whistle. But you might want to try a hard blower at some point (if you haven’t already). That would have a great effect on air use and the air pressure you need to make it hit the high notes. It changes the dynamics a great deal too. But it might help get you down the road a bit faster towards your goal.
But more than anything else, I still think it comes down to playing and playing and playing some more. There’s just no quick path (at least none of which I am aware).
Thanks Feadoggie. I try to do about an hour’s practice a day on the Goldie, sometimes more . . . but maybe I’ll dig my exercise bike out. Actually, according to an impeccable source who has played Spillane’s main whistle several times, and contrary to what you might think, it is very free-blowing, hardly any backpressure . . . . which makes the man’s playing all the more amazing, I guess.
Out of curiosity Feadoggie, how does a whistle with high backpressure change the playing dynamics . . . . in your opinion? Right now it’s all I can do to reach the high A to D notes on this whistle. I can imagine a hard blower would be a real eye popper.
Imagine blowing air through a 4"straw vs. a 4" piece of garden hose, in which case would one breath last longest?
Hammy Hamilton springs to mind, he writes in his flute book (i am not guaranteeing word perfect quote) “Playing the flute isn’t harder or takes more breath than having a conversation, and you don’t run out of breath talking, do you?”
I started playing the flute three months before the whistle. There’s more back pressure in whistles. At first I would breathe in and fill the lungs concentrating on my belly to fill my lungs and blow a note until I exhausted all air. After a few minutes I’d get light headed but that really helped because I’ve had no problems with high notes on the whistle.
I tried using a balloon to exercise my lungs and even though the back pressure seemed to make me work harder to expand the balloon, I never noticed any benefit from this exercise. I think having no back pressure works better to build up lungs. YMMV.
That’s what I did but I don’t know if you’d want to take up the flute.
Yes, he’s amazing. And I wasn’t saying his whistle is hard-blowing. My remark about the hard-blowing whistles was more to address your air usage issue on the easy-blower.
Playing dynamics first. I’m no good at describing the physical differences. And any analogy I would use could be argued against I’m sure. They are really just different interfaces.
In the past I’ve said that you play some whistles and some whistle play you. Free(er)-blowing whistles have a lot of leeway, or at least a wide range in how you blow them which results in changes in volume, pitch and attack. Free-blowing whistles will use comparatively more air to drive them.
It’s unfair to say that you can’t control those aspects on a hard-blower but the range is tighter, at least in my experience. Harder-blowing whistle use less air to drive them. But they require more air pressure to drive them. Like anything else you get to know your tool and make music - so no real issue there. It can be viewed as a matter of choice. Do you want to generate more air pressure or blow more air.
That was my point about singing actually. But most of us can still talk even if we can’t sing. Hammy wins.
The straw analogy is quite germane. Which gives me another thought. Has anyone tried inserting various diameter straws into a whistle windway to see how it changes playing characteristics? I’ll put that one on my list.
The trick in comparing whistles to flutes is that the whistle has more of a fixed requirement for volume of air dependent on the windway design where the flute is dependent on the player’s embouchure. The flute is really much more efficient - once you get the embouchure developed. They require surprisingly little air and still make a big sound.
MTB, just keep at it. It’s a long road. Relax. Spillane is a good player to listen to and has a great sound for players to try to emulate. Keep at it.
Mikethebook, I’d like to offer two breathing exercises.
#1: Lay on the floor with the heaviest book you own on your belly. Take long, slow deep breaths to raise + lower the book. Explore the limits of filling and emptying your lungs. Nothing rapid. No pain needed. Just carefully probe your limits.
#2: Lay on the floor, close you eyes, and focus your attention on your breathing. Calmly observe it. Then, slowly inhale your belly as far as you can. Then, over and above that, inflate your ribcage and upper chest. Slowly reverse. Approx 8sec to inhale, 8sec to exhale.
I got these from a music class I took that featured a “breathing gym”.
Breathing uses muscles. Muscles can be strengthened. Patterns can be strengthened.
Note: this is not a recommendation on how to breathe while you’re playing. It merely strengthens your breathing muscles and cultivates an awareness of your breath. Strong breathing muscles give you power and stamina. The awareness comes in handy when trying to find a good moment to breathe while playing, and, finding the right amount of air for the different notes and different octaves.
Trill, thanks for your tips. That they come from a music class “breathing gym” is great. I will try them. I have a device called Ultrabreathe (http://www.ultrabreathe.com/) which may replace the first exercise. Basically it creates a graduated resistance to breathing in as heavier books would do but so far I’ve only used it breathing in with the chest not the diaphram. I may now return to it and use it with the diaphram and see how it works. It can also be reversed so you build up breathing-out muscles too. The second exercise is interesting too. Plus I’ll get back on my exercise bike. Thanks a lot.
Feadoggie, thanks for your additional feedback. I debated the hard/soft blowing choice with Colin when I bought my Goldie. Since I suffer with chronic daily headaches/migraines I decided the soft blower would be better . . . with not having to create so much pressure in reaching high notes. Plus Colin told me that in the last five years he has made the whistle head more efficient in its air usage . . . so a soft blower now doesn’t use nearly as much air as it used to. In fact I had a Kerry Optima before the Goldie, which Phil Hardy designed to have low air requirements, and I don’t find the Goldie uses discernably much more.
This might sound daft, but don’t worry about it. Breath problems are more to do with not having played long enough. Keep playing as much as possible then one day you’ll realise your not thinking about your breathing anymore.
This technique mentioned by trill has been applied by many singers. Though this is basic, many have neglected this as many people want fast results so they just scream out of their throat.
I have been doing this ever since I was 7 years old until now.
In singing we have what we call protagonistic or main muscle and the antagonistic or the supporting muscles.
The main is the abdominal muscle that supports the inflation and deflation of the diaphragm on front and side.
The support are the lats and the spinal erectae provide the support at the back.
The main and support muscles have a major role in sustaining long and high notes because long notes well…use a lot of air on a longer period of time.
Remember NOT to deplete or fill your air fully when singing or on playing, but you can on exercises.
If you fill it completely you will feel the need to burst it out. If you deplete it fully you will feel the need to engulf a lot of air.
In singing air budgeting is always observe and breath marks are placed on rests regularly or on parts where the keys are low (as it is easier to breath on low keys).
Most of the time breath marks are upon the discretion of the singer, but it is suggested that you breathe in air after the end of a line/phrase, as breathing in in the middle of the phrase sounds struggling.
It also applies to woodwinds where you cut the bars or measure where you feel you almost or totally deplete your air.
There are many exercises for diaphragm.
The Hiss is for capacity as it is filling then emptying.
If you want to strengthen your diaphragm do the
Hass…Has…has…hass..has in staccato but sustaining the SSSSS shortly
The staccato adds the motion of abs and back movement. It will also help you on air control and air budgeting.
Then if you want to increase the difficulty pronounce hash..hash… in the same manner
notice that the SH sound use a lot of air.
Then if you want to increase the difficulty do this when your walking then on running…
Sounds crazy, but I do this vocalization even when running on the thread mill.
Locomotion use a lot of air as you need more oxygen in your blood, so moving then doing this will strengthen your lungs, your diap, your abs, your lats, your spinal erectae, and your legs.
Thus achieving many things in one.
In fact when I first tried my low D whistle 3 days ago, I had to struggle as the breathing is like singing sustained high notes several times.
Whereas, you dont sustain many high notes of your range, many times in singing, you just do that on highlights most often.
It is like singing highlights many times
I have been coughing until now, but not as worse compare to the first 2 days. It is not due to virus but to the reflex that I am learning on Low D.
It took me 2 days to understand the whistle’s air requirements and air demands, and after vocalizing every time I cough suddenly the cough reflex stops.
Some people are talking about backpressure and how hard various whistle are to blow (that is, backpressure or resistance) but if I understand correctly the problem in the OP is the amount of air which passes through the whistle, the air volume or quantity rather than pressure.
On instruments with a high amount of resistance, such as the oboe, very little volume of air passes through, and I was told by an oboe teacher that the problem often is having too much air left in the lungs, so that the player has to exhale the stale air and inhale not to supply the instrument but to stay conscious!
On many whistles, on the other hand, the air flows through with practically zero resistance and a huge quantity of air is required.
I’ve bought and tried a large number of Low D whistles from various makers and the most air-efficient type I’ve tried is the MK. I can play much longer phrases on it than I can on, say, the Burke, which is the least air-efficient Low D I’ve come across.
Anyhow, keep playing! And regular exercise will help too… brisk walking every day, for example.
And try an MK if you can. You’ll probably find that you can play longer phrases.
