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Oddly enough this just came up on the woodenflute list. Since we’ve recently been talking about this I thought some might find it interesting - especially since a particular method book is mentioned
Loren
You CAN circular breathe on the flute. I do it, and it’s a very handy technique for all those fiddle tunes where it’s inconvenient to breathe. I was very determined, and practiced it every day for about 6 months before I could really say that I could do it. And practicing it sounds weird and horrible for awhile. Robert Dick’s book, “Circular Breathing for the Flutist” (Multiple Breath is his publishing company) was indispensable in the process.
It takes awhile of making ridiculous sounds by blowing air only from your cheeks while you develop the muscles to keep your embouchure stable while your cheek muscles move. And you have to do it every day or the muscles won’t develop. But it’s only 5 minutes or so a day, and the weird noises you have to make aren’t very loud. A nice side effect for my classical playing was that the muscle development has enabled me to play 3rd octave notes softly and sweetly.
The circular breathing work actually starts in the 3rd octave, where the lips are firm enough to create some resistance to the cheek muscle movements–so traditional players may have to learn some 3rd octave notes to start on circular breathing (my first successful note was high F#), but after awhile circular breathing can be done throughout the range.
NC<<