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Basically the process is the same as if you stand over a sink, fill up your mouth, then start to put a small stream of water in the sink.

While you're doing that, breath in (and out) at the same time.

Circular breathing is the same thing, only using air instead of water. Using your mouth (cheek) muscles, push air out while you breathe in.

Some people actually puff their cheeks, but only while they're doing this. It's easiest if you have articulations, but I've heard really accomplished people do it during any type of phrase.

Jim Self taught me how... I understand how it works...

But I couldn't do it!

Here is what he taught me:

Go to McDonald's and get a straw. Blow air out with the straw. Inhale some air through your nose and puff out your cheeks. Hold the air in your cheeks and get some more air through your nose. All this while you are blowing out a steady stream of air through the McDonald's straw!

Funny thing is, I've had three students I told that and they learned how to do it!

I guess it works!

I was taught that while circular breathing can be useful in a pinch, it is almost useless as it produces so much tension in the face that over time your sound and even intonation is distorted by the use of this technique. While it may occassionally be useful, on the whole it is more important to learn to take quick HUGE breaths and manipulate the air in a consistent manner.

Circular breathing is a gamble between how much time you need to sustain and how much tension your face can endure before your sound/intonation changes significantly. That's why I think it is more important to focus on developing solid air support and utilizing the full lung capacity in full efficiency.

That's a great point. I might add that I learned while I was playing flugelhorn, which has a MUCH smaller air requirement than a tuba. And in 20 years of playing, I could count on one finger the times it actually came in useful in legit music.

I used it on trumpet with some success but I cant make it work on tuba. Maybe I need to buy a cheek stretcher.

I hear they come in several sizes, depending on what you play...

I learned how to do it while I was sitting around at home watching late night TV.

Really -- I was just sitting there, then the thought popped into my head, and I went "pff-sniff" into my hand. Eureka, as they say.

I've posted about this before, but I don't want to type it all, so here's a short version:

It's just like how you can chew food and breathe at the same time, except that you replace food with air.

(that's not even what I thought of on that night, but it's yet another visualization to think about)

Clark Terry was a master at it. I've seen him play phrases that went on forever without stopping to breathe.

Then again, there wasn't much that he couldn't do as well or better than anyone else.

I have a booklet on how to circular breath that came with my didgeridoo. The concept is that you store air in your cheeks to blow out with when inhaling through your nose. You need to learn to close off your throat while breathing in and pushing out with your cheeks at the same time. I have never been able to do it, but the instructions I have do suggest using a straw and water to learn.

I'd rather not use a straw & water, because if I mess up, I'm going to have one nasty coughing fit.

It can be learned without straws or anything. It's a mind thing more than something physical.

I bought a Sardinian wind instrument (The Sards are a a distinct people living on an island close to Italy) on a craft show. The thing´s sound resemples a mixture between oboe and bagpipe .
The real nasty thing: you stick TWO of those (different pitched) in your mouth (twice the !!)
A Sard was playing it using circular breathing and explained the technique to me. (Basically the McD-Straw-thing mentioned earlier.) Oboists do it all the time to get rid of excessive air.

I never believed it could be done on tuba.
Years later I listened to Travelin´Light by Sam Pilafian and suddenly heard him sniff during a long note, which proved to me that it COULD be done on tuba.

The knack is to make sure there is no sudden change in pressure/air speed as you change from cheek- to lung- air supply. You´ll have to fool around with different ways to seal off and reopen your mouth cavity with the back of your tongue. (Form the sound "ng" as in "tongue", this seems to work better than a kind of swallowing motion of the whole throat)

tubeast wrote:The thing´s sound resembles a mixture between oboe and bagpipe

Wow! Both obnoxious, too loud AND sharp!

tubeast wrote:Oboists do it all the time to get rid of excessive air.

Oh, definitely -- in double-reed class, I found myself doing a "circular exhale-inhale" to try to get fresh air into my lungs while playing oboe. It takes some strength to keep up that kind of air pressure, and I just needed more oxygen in my muscles.

I never believed it could be done on tuba.

As you've heard, it certainly can be done. It gets pretty hard towards the bottom of the staff, and it's exceptionally difficult when you start adding ledger lines, too.

The knack is to make sure there is no sudden change in pressure/air speed as you change from cheek- to lung- air supply. You´ll have to fool around with different ways to seal off and reopen your mouth cavity with the back of your tongue. (Form the sound "ng" as in "tongue", this seems to work better than a kind of swallowing motion of the whole throat)

Another knack is to reduce the change in vowel sound in your mouth. That's why it's so much easier for woodwinds, because the oral cavity doesn't matter as much in regards to tone color as it does for the brass, especially the lower/bass brasses. If we're not careful, we get an "oo-eeyow-oo" effect -- remarkably like a didjeridoo, actually.

I'd say, for someone trying to learn it from scratch, it should be learned in three parts -- the simultaneous air movement (mouth out, nose in), smoothing the transition from "mouth air" to "lung air", then reducing the "oo-ee-oo" effect. Probably in that order, too. Figure out the basic movement, learn how to sound like a didj (really easy for us tuba players), then clean up the sound quality.