This is a breathing/air problem. I’ve been working on embouchure all week, trying to, among other things, get a clearer upper register, stop octave dropping, and get a louder lower octave. But most of all, I’m trying to use less air. I’ve been doing things like making octave jumps without changing the amount of air flow, loud notes, quiet notes, and long notes. Well I finally got sick of this last night and played a few tunes.
Doing the long notes, I decided to put a metronome on and measure how long I could hold each one. It was pretty much 12 seconds in the lower octave and 11 down to 8 for the upper octave. But when I went to play the tunes, I could only do about 6 measures of, say, a jig or reel played at around 120bpm or higher.
Any idea why? The first thing that would come to mind is that I’m concentrating on fingers rather than lips, but I played some tunes that are so automatic I would hesitate to believe that. Another thing is that one is having to breathe more quickly while playing, but even the first phrase was short. The only thing I can think of is that with the constant adjustment of the embouchure for each note, I’m winding up with a sub-optimum air flow.
Damn, this instrument takes a long time to master.
Wy not just concentrate on the music and play it? I recall a few posts back you mentioned how much better you did when you stopped “concentrating” on embouchure and just played. Read my previous “Ah Ha” post where I got hung up on that for a while. I think many of us do get “hung up” on stuff that we should just overlook and play the music.
Are you certain you are taking completely full breaths when playing tunes? This is something I still have to concentrate on as I never got in the habit when playing whistle.
Is air venting out your nose as well as your mouth when you play tunes?
I think there is also a tendancy for one’s embouchure to become less focused as one tires or quits paying (strict) attention to it, but this issue just seems to work itself out naturally as you put in more playing time.
I also tend to run out breath more quickly when I play dance tunes than when I play long notes or airs. A couple of thoughts:
First, you use more energy when you play dance tunes, in terms of emphasizing the rhythm with your breath, tapping your feet, and moving your fingers. It’s possible that you actually need more air, so don’t be too hard on yourself about it.
Second, it’s natural to tense up a bit when you play dance tunes, which can also make you take breaths more frequently. I sometimes experiment with playing a slow, relaxed air first, and then, using the same deep long breaths, I play a dance tune. When I do that, I find I can get through the entire A part of a reel, or even longer, without having to take a breath. That’s including glottal stops and pulsing for articulation and rhythm, which you can do without actually taking a breath.
I think the trick is to take the long, supported breath approach that you would use for an air and apply that to dance tunes. Easier said than done, but it’s possible.
I trained for years as a classical brass musician, and played professionally in a few orchestras/ballet pits/quintets until my mid-twenties. Good strong breath support is obviously a must, as it is in any wind instrument. Part of my training, and that of virtually every classical brass player (at least in the U.S., if not elsewhere) was based on Chicago Symphony tuba player Arnold Jacobs’ breathing exercises. Done regularly, they really work. A page describing them can be found here:
Certainly other factors, such as embouchure and level of tension and playing technique factor into air use, but developing a strong base of air support and learning how to control its release makes a big difference.
It’s funny, because I sometimes have the opposite problem to Chas: I’ve developed big lungs and can often play for quite a while without needing to breathe at all. (Maybe I’m just full of hot air.) But I play Irish music, which sounds strange and almost bland to me without the occasional judiciously dropped note to make space for breathing; really adds to the rhythm of the tune and opens up opportunities for variation. The nice thing about having good air support is that you can choose your breathing spots, rather than having them forced onto you. Which makes your playing more relaxed, which allows you to concentrate on other aspects of your technique and the tune’s contours, which makes playing more fun and more musical. Lots of benefits to building that air support.
This also reminds me of something someone else posted here once (I forget who, but thanks for that reminder!), something along the line of “always breathe before you have to breathe”. It does wonders for tone and the tune, to be sure you always have an adequate supply of wind behind that flute.
Now what I really wish is that I could have transferred every (useful) learned skill from brass directly onto flute. . .
You’re absolutely right, of course. Thing was, I wasn’t able to recapture my “Aha moment.” So I thought if I tried some exercises for an extended period now and then, maybe that would help. I swore I’d spend a week solid, or at least till something had improved, but for me, discipline is a King Crimson album. I broke down after four days, but I think it did help some. For some reason, though, I wasn’t able to make, like, six months’ worth of progress.