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Breathing  31 THE BIG FOUR: BREATH Much has been said about the need to practice long tones in order to develop a good tone. Few teachers would disagree; not many, however, follow through by insisting that long tones be practiced regularly. It is assumed that the student will be encouraged to sit or stand with good posture in order for the breathing apparatus to function properly. The idea of “sitting tall” is sometimes helpful in the effort to foster “sit like we stand” posture. Not only should the student have good posture and practice long tones, but he should also be aware that the volume of tone should be bold and aggressive. Nothing is accomplished practicing long tones with a weak sound. The student should work for a full, rich tone. Then, as he gains more control of the breathing process, he should reduce the dynamic level. Rarely does a young student play a “soft tone”; it is characteristically a “weak tone.” Long-tone practice at all dynamic levels should be encouraged as the student progresses. In working with students on improving breath control, I do not concern myself with how the initial breath is taken. It is far more important to be concerned with those muscles that get rid of the air rather than those that cause the air to be taken in. In telling young students to take a big breath several things can happen that are detrimental to a good tone. The inevitable problems of excessively lifting the shoulders and the subsequent tightening of the throat causing restriction of the tone are the most obvious results of artificial deep breaths. It is far better to use more of the air that is taken in normally than to take in too much air and then hold it back while playing the instrument. As stated before, a person has a much more positive control of the muscles that expel the air than he has of those muscles that cause the air to be taken in. If a student sustains a tone for 32 Inside John Haynie’s Studio maximum length, the next breath will be a full breath through necessity, and nature will see to it that it is taken correctly. This process of long-tone practice then is truly a forced expiration followed by an automatic forced inhalation. By going beyond the limits of normal breathing, the lung capacity can be increased and breath control can be improved. Through this procedure the student can become artistic in his breath control without ever hearing the word “diaphragm.” For those who want the whole truth, a study of the breathing process from an anatomical standpoint must be made. When Dr. James Lakin’s article “Basic Respiration for Wind Instrument Playing,” appeared in the April 1969 issue of The Instrumentalist, it was the best explanation I’d seen of the complete process of respiration in laymen’s terms. Dr. Lakin allowed me to copy the article to distribute to my teaching assistants that year. Lakin wrote: Expiration, the mechanics of releasing the breath, is that part of the respiratory cycle which should be of greatest interest to the teacher and wind instrumentalist. The release of the breath, in conjunction with proper embouchure formation, enables the player to produce a tone on his instrument . The quality of the resulting sound depends, in large part, upon the degree of control which he is able to exert upon the expiratory mechanism. The greater the control of the breath, the greater the control of the tone produced . Thus, to produce a tone which is controlled in every aspect, the performer needs to be able to affect the maximum amount of control over the muscles of expiration . Notice that no mention has been made concerning the diaphragm. […] the diaphragm is the chief muscle of inspiration , contracting in a downward direction. Since a muscle may contract in only one direction, let us state once and Breathing  33 for all that air cannot be pushed out of the lungs by tightening the diaphragm. On the contrary, the diaphragm must be in a state of relaxation during expiration. When the expiratory muscles contract they serve as a second-hand hammer to push the air out of the lungs. Thus, it may be said that the diaphragm does nothing voluntarily to assist in expiration. It serves only as the middle-man, so to speak, between the abdominal muscles and the lungs. Often students say, “I can’t do that,” but...

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