Do you know where your lungs are?

[viningda]

Do you know where your lungs are?

Yeah, I thought I did too... Some years ago I went to a respiratory therapist for a mild case of asthma. She hooked me up to the high tech machine to measure my capacity. I took a big swig and was quite pleased with myself when she told me the reading of 3.5 liters.

"hmmm", she said..."I would have expected better from a person of your size - didn't you say you played trombone?"

I was offended! "Well", I said, "...I have been studying breathing to play trombone my whole life! I know how to breathe!"

"What, exactly are you thinking when you breathe?" she inquired.

"Everybody knows you're supposed to breathe low - support from the diaphragm, down here", I said, as I pointed to my bellybutton.

She looked quizzical as she informed me that the lungs are actually behind the ribs, not down by the bellybutton. She encouraged me to try the machine again, with an understanding of where the lungs actually reside...

humph...who was she to tell me? She didn't play trombone! I went ahead and tried again, deciding it was best to humor her.

...The reading? 4.5 liters!

____________________________________________________

Does this story resonate with you? Are you "filling up like you fill a glass of water"? Are you diligently "breathing low" when you play? Why wouldn't you? It's what we teach.

Unfortunately, it's also wrong.

If you are subscribing to these breathing myths, you are creating tension in your playing. If you are teaching these breathing myths to your students, you are spreading the tension to your students and it is proliferating like crabgrass! Your students will, in turn, tell their students to breathe low and the misunderstandings will continue for generations.

Learn the truth about breathing...

http://www.mountainpeakmusic.com/Tuba.asp

[viningda]

The diaphragm is the primary muscle of inspiration but it is not all muscle. In the center of the diaphragm is a circular tendon called the central tendon which becomes muscle as you travel outward toward the edges of the diaphragm. The diaphragm provides about 75% of the work of inhalation and, as you exhale, the diaphragm is relaxing. The other 25% of the work of inhalation comes from the external intercostal muscles. You have two sets of intercostals - internal and external. These muscles are responsible for the movement of your ribs - the externals swing the ribs up and out and the internals bring the ribs back down to their neutral position.

The diaphragm is usually involuntary (good thing - imagine having to issue instructions to breathe as you sleep!), but it responds to our request for a big breath when we order it.

Every breath we take we use the diaphragm to inhale. It is not optional to use the diaphragm. This is why directives such as "breathe with the diaphragm" are confusing; you might as well say "smell with your nose"!

The circular diaphragm connects to your sternum in front, to the two ribs coming off the sternum at the bottom (there are two more ribs below on each side called floaters that do not travel all the way to the sternum), and to the spine in the back. Since the diaphragm and the ribs are attached to one another, rib movement and diaphragmatic excursion are indelibly connected to one another. As your diaphragm makes its descent, your ribs swing up and out of the way permitting your diaphragm it's full range of motion so you can fill up your lungs completely.

Ironically, all of this talk about anatomy is useless unless you improve your playing! The point of my original post was to highlight the idea that there are inaccuracies embedded in our pedagogy. In my case an inaccuracy resulted in poor breathing which ultimately led to my development of dystonia. You better believe that ALL of my students know where their lungs are and how breathing works for real!

If a metaphor is not accurate or may be misunderstood (i.e.: breathe from the belly or some such), it is not worth using. It doesn't matter if the metaphor is widely used or accepted. If it is potentially dangerous (as it was for me), don't use it.

http://www.mountainpeakmusic.com/Tuba.asp

[viningda]

The aberrant breathing resulted in years of operating on about 80% of my available capacity. Unbeknownst to me, this disrupted what I now call embouchure equilibrium...

Consider that when you blow, you balance the air flow with lip tension and there is a fluid equilibrium between the two. As the range and/or volume change, so do the air flow (both speed and amount) and amount of tension in the lips and surrounding tissue.

When the air flow is chronically reduced, the chops have to make up the difference. The equilibrium is disrupted and you end up working much harder than you have to.

Years of doing this created such an unreasonable load on my facial muscles that they began to spasm. The spasm developed into a habitual movement pattern represented by unhealthy neural pathways associated with playing - this condition is known as embouchure dystonia.

Now that I have recovered I can reflect with eyes wide open. Aberrant breathing was just one of many factors which created the problem - but it's one that is 100% avoidable. If you've ever known anyone with dystonia, you know that rarely does one recover. There is no medical treatment, in fact, nobody is completely certain what causes it. Everything I have submitted here is speculation drawn from personal experience.

One of the strategies which helped me recover is to redefine my definition of embouchure...the new definition:

...a three dimensional entity in motion created by the movement of air past lip tissue.

For me, it is meaningful that the definition include movement (dystonia is the lack of movement) and air flow. For me, an embouchure does not exist without air flow. For me, you cannot take a still picture of an embouchure - it is 3-dimensional.

Incidentally, these subtle refinements in the definition seem to help my students quite a lot.

http://www.mountainpeakmusic.com/Tuba.asp

[viningda]

OK, I'll try to lay this out as plainly as I can...

When I was a youngster, I was taught to "breathe low" when playing. In fact, my teacher even laid me down and put a book on my belly button, asking me to imagine making the book touch the ceiling upon inhalation.

Does this sound familiar to anybody?

My contention is that teaching methods like this are potentially harmful for all the reasons stated above.

When we focus on pushing out our bellybuttons like this we are actually creating tension and inhibiting our intake. We are taking in LESS air, not more. This is, presumably, a bad thing for a brass player, yes?

Less air = more work for your embouchure muscles which leads to all kinds of problems (for me, dystonia - for others, perhaps less serious manifestations).

The point is, if these teaching methods are potentially harmful why are we so very protective of them? Why are they handed down from generation to generation without scrutiny?

DV

[averagejoe]

Everyone should download the 1972 Arnold Jacobs masterclass that has been on this website for years. He talks at length about breathing and the proper psychology (simply suck air) and cautions against yoga style breathing for playing.

[Chuck Jackson]

Less air = more work for your embouchure muscles which leads to all kinds of problems (for me, dystonia - for others, perhaps less serious manifestations).

Ok, I rarely post anymore, but I can't let this alone.

As someone who had a meaningful playing career shortened by Focal Dystonia, let me make one thing clear: YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

Focal Dystonia is a neurological disorder that has nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, to do with your air IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. For you to be purporting this myth on this board is an insult to me and anyone else who suffers from this disorder. You are not a Doctor, and any Doctor who may have given you this information is a QUACK. And I will say that right to their collective faces.

Let me put it another way. At the height of my playing career I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day, had terrible diet and exercise habits, and STILL HAD A 6 LITER LUNG CAPACITY. I still have the very same capacity. IT IS WHAT I WAS BORN WITH AND GREW INTO. YOU CANNOT INCREASE YOUR CAPACITY. Watch the Jacob's video and stop spewing this babble that you are selling as fact. You can PM me and I will send you the names of the 3 Neurologists who treated me and they will be more than happy to refute your "evidence".

Chuck"who still remembers how to play, but can't make it work, but who is OK with that because I have the memories"Jackson

[rocksanddirt]

in my totally uniformed opinion.....

the breathing instruction to 'breathe from the diaphram' and breath low, etc. comes from the tendency of uncooridnated 4th to 6th graders trying to get a full breath by lifting thier shoulders out of the way. The instruction is often included with the comment that air doesn't go into your shoulders.....

[iiipopes]

in my totally uniformed opinion.....

the breathing instruction to 'breathe from the diaphram' and breath low, etc. comes from the tendency of uncooridnated 4th to 6th graders trying to get a full breath by lifting thier shoulders out of the way. The instruction is often included with the comment that air doesn't go into your shoulders.....

Indeed. The problem is that once beginning band players finally learn to not tense their shoulders, then there is not enough taught to fill the void to transition from eliminating bad habits to fostering good habits.

As I read through this thread, I tried to think about how I breathe to play tuba. I've had years of band. I had six years of voice, with a good teacher who knew breathing and how to teach it. It has become so ingrained in me that I honestly cannot describe how I breathe. All I can say is that it feels that every aspect of my body becomes "larger" on the intake, and "smaller" in a linear progressive manner as I expend air over the embouchure in a controlled manner.

The best example I know of proper breathing is to observe a newborn infant crying. If you get the chance, hold a crying infant and pay very close attention, both visually and how the infant's physique feels in your hands and arms as the breath is inhaled quickly and completely in preparation for crying, and how the breath is expended progressively as the baby cries.

Now, go cry that you can't do it as efficiently for your size as the infant can.

[Scott Roeder]

Won't touch the dystonia part cause I don't really know enough about that topic. However what Prof. Vining is saying about the breathing is 100% correct in my opinion and this type of incorrect breathing he describes does result in less air intake. However his ideas on this topic as well the poor air negatively affecting the embouchure really are not new concepts. This same stuff is discussed in Also Sprach Arnold Jacobs by Bruce Nelson and Teaching Brass by Kristian Steenstrup, Vining just presents the concepts in a another way (which is good). The Teaching Brass book says that "Diaphragm" breathing can only account for 60% of your total capacity and to get full capacity we have to allow our chest to expand when inhaling. Here is the great thing about it though, as a teacher what I just presented here is way more information than what is needed to teach a student. In my opinion all we have to get the students to do is suck in air from the lips and blow air across the lips while keeping on "Oh" shape. The sensation of proper breathing should be taught from the lips and not from a geographical point of view. When we add geographical instructions we complicate the process. The other part of breathing is just getting the student used to the sensation of taking full breaths (this is a new skill for beginning students because they would have never done this before for regular "life breathing")

[Arkietuba]

I, as most everyone (if not everyone on here) was taught to breathe from the bottom...

Recently, when Mr. Christian Carichner became the new tuba professor at UCA, I learned that was the complete wrong thing and he laid it all out point by point. He studied with Sam Pilafian and Pat Sheridan (who wrote The Breathing Gym) and he even gives lectures on breathing and The Breathing Gym...he knows more about breathing than most anyone out there teaching.

Basically, what happens is that your lungs expand in all directions in your torso (put your fingers in fleshy part of your shoulders behind the collar bone and you can feel your lungs push against that area when you breathe in). The diaphram basically separates your guts from your lungs and it pushes your guts out of the way when you inhale. This "pushing" causes your guts to go down and outward, which is what we are told to focus on. Your diaphram is an involuntary muscle and you have no control over it. So basically you should focus on relaxing and taking in full breaths where your lungs expand in all directions and not just 1.

[viningda]

Yes, Christian was my colleague at NAU for a short time and we had many discussions about breathing. Pat and Sam have also been to my Body Mapping sessions and endorsed my publications.

Anyone who's interested can hear me deliver a lecture at ITEC in Tucson in May. I have been invited to discuss my recovery from dystonia there. I'll also have a booth for Mountain Peak Music.

Clearly dystonia is a hot button issue for some because it is very emotional and personal. When I chose to go public with my story I knew there would be naysayers and doubters because nearly all the research points to a lack of medical treatment options.

My intent is to promote healthy playing in all musicians and, for brass and woodwind players, that means a clear understanding of breathing applied in musically meaningful ways.

DV

[TMurphy]

in my totally uniformed opinion.....

the breathing instruction to 'breathe from the diaphram' and breath low, etc. comes from the tendency of uncooridnated 4th to 6th graders trying to get a full breath by lifting thier shoulders out of the way. The instruction is often included with the comment that air doesn't go into your shoulders.....

As someone who teaches uncoordinated 4th graders (as well as uncoordinated 5th-8th graders), I will agree with this. It is a battle with every beginner I have to get them to realize breathing doesn't involve the shoulders. Most of them eventually figure it out (and then it's time for the tonguing battle, but that's another thread...). I, for one, never tell my students to "breathe low" or "breathe from the diaphragm." I find myself using the words "relax" and "expand" a whole lot. My goal is to get my students to breathe without introducing tension ("relax"), and to use their lungs to full capacity ("expand" - specifically the ribcage, which expands during inspiration to allow the inflation of the lungs).

Most kids, eventually, get the idea. I still catch them taking shallow breaths from time to time (which I call "lazy breaths"), but at least they know what I mean and how to fix it.

Getting kids to take a relaxed, full inspiration, is much easier, I think, then getting them to do a relaxed exhalation, with a good embouchure. With most kids, I either get puffed cheeks, tensed necks and shoulders, or both. Fixing that can be a real challenge, especially when kids start getting results that way.

[MaryAnn]

I have talked to Dave on the phone; Dave DOES know what he is talking about. Some people DO recover, BUT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IT IS POSSIBLE. Dave teaches trombone at NAU in AZ. He DID have dystonia, and he DID recover. If you are in the belief system that says "If you recovered you did not have dystonia to start with" then you are simply exhibiting the mental rigidity that is part of the personality structure of those who get dystonia. I know this because I know quite a few people with dystonia, and I have it myself, and yes this is a characteristic. As Dave told me on the phone, you can use this same personality characteristic to recover, should you decide to do so. Do not believe the people who tell you all is lost, because it is not "all lost" for everyone. You just have to find the person who can help you, and they are out there.

Each person's dystonia starts from a "specific malfunction point" and then spreads, through compensation, to "dystonia." Yes, it is a neurological malfunction, but it CAN be fixed. The key is for each individual to find where his specific malfunction point is, and then the path to righting that mess. Everyone has to find his own path, and that is the difficulty of the enterprise. With Dave, he found out what it was, with help, and if you go read his web site, you will be able to read his story.

Jan Kagarice of NTU has helped quite a few professionals recover completely from dystonia. Most keep quiet about it because of the belief out there that dystonia is incurable. Only the few with courage and the willingness to take heat from people who have NOT been able to find their specific malfunction point, are willing to go public with it.

I'm not totally recovered yet but still have some hope. And yes, for me it is maybe somewhat of what Dave said, but for me it is also how I focus on my upper lip. If I just change my mental focus, the wobble stops; however I cannot play softly yet, or quickly. I can get a good full set of long tones out, as long as I'm blowing. A good friend of mine found her problem to be in her neck; if she manages to relax her neck, her wobble goes away.

For people who either know or think they have dystonia, I moderate a yahoo group embouchuredystonia (all one word) and the archives are public. There are not a huge number of posts, and there is a lot of excellent information there.

MA