TubeNet

On one of the horn lists a teacher asked about advice concerning a 12 years old student with asthma. A reference to the percussion section was not wanted. As some TubeNetters are into elementary teaching my reply also may be of interest here:

I have an asthma, which can mostly, but not always be controlled medically. I also happen to be a retired brass teacher now collecting all sorts of brasses. And I try to play them as much as possible both for the musical joy and for the obvious therapeutic effect on my lungs.

I wouldn’t advise a professional brass performance career for anybody with asthma. It happens that one has to play, when one cannot do so optimally.

But I would not exclude an asthma person from amateur playing. I rather would encourage that. Only one shall be prepared to handle some frustrations, but that goes for many more aspects of a life with asthma.

I love playing my descant horns, but I better fulfilled the spot as the lowest player, second or fourth depending on the setting.

One thing really necessary for an asthma person to master is to relax at will to counteract the tendency of cramps. This also gives an openness of all inner-body air passages, which is ideal for singing and wind playing. Especially the low range benefits by being full and alive. Actually I achieved my control of relaxation by working on the optimizing of my sound.

The horn and the higher trumpets are the most resistant, and hence the hardest, brasses to handle for an asthma person. Today I focus more on the lower brasses: euphonium, bass trombone, and especially bass and contrabass tubas. These are about the optimal handling of as much air as possible in a controlled way.

I understand the recommendation of playing long notes, but these easily lead to stiffness. During my work on optimizing my playing I found that the learning from playing long notes mostly is about controlling the phase, when the air is close to running out. Hence the warm-up system, which I conglomerated from all of my sources of inspiration, always starts with flexible activity and ends on a note, which shall be held as long as possible.

Klaus Smedegaard Bjerre

PS: I only once had to refer a wind student to playing percussion. He had a cleft palate, so he could never build any compression behind his lips.

I very much agree. playing a wind instrument is very good for folks with asthma and related breathing problems.

I wouldn’t advise a professional brass performance career for anybody with asthma.

Why not?
There was once a tubist in a symphony orchestra who had a lobe of one lung removed.

BTW - It is not who you are thinking about - that's a myth!

brianf wrote:

I wouldn’t advise a professional brass performance career for anybody with asthma.

Why not?
There was once a tubist in a symphony orchestra who had a lobe of one lung removed.

BTW - It is not who you are thinking about - that's a myth!

All right, then, if you know so much, who is it?

I'm using the tuba as therapy for asthma also. It has been helping, I think. My condition did not develop until I was older and had stopped playing the trumpet long, loud and high so I can't comment on the trumpet but the tuba seems to promote deep, open breathing with me.

I have to say that my experience has been different. I was a severe asthmatic as a child. I remember my mom sitting up with me all night on many occasions when I was suffering from attacks.

Thanks to tuba playing my lung efficiency at age 25 was: capacity 127% of normal and my expulsion rate was 123% of normal. It is still close to that even at my advancing age (tested about 6 months ago). I have taught a number of young players with asthma, and all of them eventually reached 100% or better lung efficiency.

I have not had an attack since I took up playing the tuba. I breathe very aggressively which I believe really helps.

There is a theory in psychology that I have to say I agree with: Samuel Adler (no, not the composer). His main work was on the Theory of Overcompensation: What ever YOU believe your weaknesses to be as a person, physically, will be the aspect of your life that you will overcompensate for and it will become the strongest aspect of your life.

I have a friend who was born without knee caps and had to have many surgeries as he matured to put in prosthetic knee caps. He had a good career as a professional football player. He could do "squats" with 600 lbs on his shoulders and ran an 11 second 100.

I have seen numerous cases of overcompensation (so good, some not so good) but have to say that I agree with Adler. I would push these students at the tuba as a therapeutic measure if nothing else - and get them really breathing, based on my own experience and performance improvements. Remember if you believe you will fail, most likely you will fail. You never know what you can accomplish with an open mind.

Your mileage may vary.

Roger

I, too, am an asthmatic. I've been playing the tuba and other wind instruments (on and off) for almost 30 years, and have been treated for chronic severe asthma for almost 40 (my whole life).

I agree with those who say there's no reason anyone should be discouraged from a career because they're asthmatic. If anything, the advancement of prophylactic (preventive) pharmaceuticals should make it easier. When I was a kid, if I had an attack, I had to take a pill and wait for it to work. G-d bless the person wo came up with the inhaler.

Wind instrument performance demands a higher-than-average (i.e., anyone who's just walking around, not an athlete, etc.) development of the muscles used in inspiration. That alone can be beneficial for an asthmatic, as the muscles would be better able to counteract the effects of a restricted airway.

In 2000, a ruptured lung (tension pneumothorax) resulted in a dynamic loss of efficiency. I went from a vital capacity of 5.2l to 1.7l literally overnight. I thought I was done playing, as ancillary issues also affected my playing. 4 years later, I missed it too much and bought another horn. I still didn't have it, but got a lot back in a short amount of time.

In my first lesson with Mr. Jacobs, we talked about the asthma thing. Well, I talked about it. His response (I'm paraphrasing...it was a loooong time ago) was essentially, "So what? Use your inhaler before you pick up the horn if you think you might have a problem while you're playing." We worked on some other exercises he thought might be helpful, then moved on. Never brought it up again. No need. Essentially, some people will see an obstacle and think, "Oh man...there's a hurdle...," and some will see it and think, "I can jump that easily."

Roger Lewis hit on a key word. I think the populace in general has more awareness now than a long time ago, but the key word is "efficiency." ANYTHING you do can be done in a manner that's efficient or wasteful or somewhere in between. This includes breathing. There's no such thing as 'increasing your lung capacity.' Instead, you work to maximize your efficiency. Your lungs are what your lungs are. Muscle development and efficiency are the determining factors in how well you breathe. Anything you do, asthmatic or otherwise, that offers muscular strength training is going to help. Tuba playing can be a much more pleasant way of doing this than sitting around and breathing heavily...unless you pick up the phone...

Additionally, breathing can be hindered by any issue affecting the physical location of the lungs, such as poor posture, obesity, etc. But stronger muscles will also be able to counteract those somewhat.

Short story long, I had a horrible history with asthma as a child (including many hospitalizations), and once I started playing a wind instrument, those problems, while not eliminated, were reduced significantly, as I was better able to cope with an attack. I was able to go a long way playing the tuba (and may still, yet), and was thankful that playing the tuba helped pay for all of my undergrad education and part of my graduate education.

I couldn't conceive of suggesting to anyone that asthma should be a reason not to do anything, especially with the medicines and therapies available today.

My daughter is a severe asthmatic. She is a 34 year old physician now and credits playing a wind instrument as one of the primary reasons she is alive and flourishing today. It was so bad at times when she was a child that my wife and I would stay up all night in shifts to make sure she didn't stop breathing. Can't count the number of emergency room visits. In her case I do believe playing probably saved her life. In any case, I can't see how it could hurt to play.

It worked for me too, I had a childhood hitory of asthma, bronchitis, pleurisy and pneumonia at one time or another, all of which disappeared after I started playing brass instruments.
is this enough to say that it is a cure? I wouldn't ahve though so, but I do think that modern thought is that asthma is not a bar to any sort of physical activity, and music will do no harm

I will just comment that there are a few out there, whose condition is so severe, or perhaps complicated by other conditions, that they have found that the stress of performing professionally, is the added factor that puts them over the top, in terms of dealing with asthma. It's one of those "walk in their shoes" type of things.

I've found that playing with dystonia is like that....I can do it IF the situation is "otherwise not challenging." I'm so damn happy to be able to play in an "otherwise not challenging" situation, (that is, at all) that not having to perform under conditions "where it really matters," doesn't bother me. I just be Much Happy!

MA