Sam wrote:before I play I Hold my breath for about a minute and do that a couple of times , also when I have all that air inside my lungs I put pressure and I feel like I can move my lungs left and right , I feel like I can control my right lung and my left one whenever I want by just putting pressure . There's times that I breathe in and out so much and do all these exercises and I feel like passing out? Any comments? Opinions? Suggestions?
In his concept of
Song and Wind, Arnold Jacobs discusses
Wind as a phenomena that should occur outside the body, as in blowing out candles on a birthday cake. He did not ever want his students to think in terms of the air inside the body, as this leads to excess air pressure. The tuba is a high air volume, low air pressure instrument, so we never want to do anything that focuses the brain on the air pressure inside the body. This leads to closures in the mouth and throat, and prevents providing the lips with a thick column of air.
Instead, he wanted his students to focus on what he called "quantitative breathing" by filling and emptying the lungs to get used to what a full breath really is. You will know if you are taking large breaths when you start to get a little light headed after three complete inhalations and exhalations. Then, simply stop breathing until the carbon dioxide levels are back in balance and the light headed feeling stops. I would recommend getting a 4- or 5-liter breathing bag and watch yourself filling and emptying the bag. This kind of multiplicity of senses promotes faster learning.
One trick he did do with his students, when he wanted them to experience a very large breath, was to have them hold their breath for up to 30 seconds, building up a demand for air, as if they had been swimming under water for a long time. When they were finally allowed to breathe in, they would always take in a huge breath. This is the only example I can think of where he would have his students hold their breath.
As for being able to feel or control your lungs, I don't think this is possible. The nerves that control these areas send signals to the brain, but not at a level where we are conscious of them. In other words, what you think is happening is not really happening. The body just doesn't work that way.
As for the warm up, Mr. Jacobs had a few thoughts on this as well. The warm up is intended to connect the brain with the lip, so that we can quickly begin to express our artistic thoughts and immediately produce our finest quality of tone. When we think of warming up, we compare it to an athlete warming up prior to an athletic event, where they exercise and the actual temperature in the joints and muscles increases due to increased blood flow. For a brass player, this is not as important because the lips have an extensive system of blood vessels and capillaries present, which is why the lips are red in color. Because there is so much blood in the area already, the actual warming up process, where the temperature of the tissues is raised, occurs very rapidly. Mr, Jacobs warned against developing a need to have to go through an extensive routine in order to be prepared to perform. One may get into a situation where there is no time to do an extensive routine, but the job requires that you are ready to play at a very high level.