Breathing Toys.... Arnold Jacobs

[biscuitsdonovan]

Hello I have a 6. Liter bag and the spirometer and the Voldyne 5000 and the tube with the straw with 3 holes in the top......so to speak can anyone tell me the best way to use all of these to get the maximum liters of air,I have 5ish 6ish right now I'm also a big guy if that helps with your answer to this post.


thanks, Matt

[fairweathertuba]

Yes, you've got plenty of air, I suggest to just practice taking quick breaths at the right places. If I had a 5 liter capacity I'd be jumping for joy! I scrape by with a puny 4 liters or so.

[biscuitsdonovan]

haha when I posted this I meant how to refine it and gain it is possible to gain lung capacity all the way up to 8 liters but no human can do this my point is the more air there is bigger and wider range and better tone and richer sound before I used them 4 years ago I didnt have such a good playing sound but now that I'm more mature I can really play now with that being said arnold jacobs used these for this purpose along with various warm ups and such but I'm just trying to get a more widder and richer range and ever since I've used these I have a wide range but I want it wider so this is the point of the post is to see how others use them to get a wider sound and range if that helps you see what I'm asking nice response though haha


thanks, Matt

[biscuitsdonovan]

yea I could try that fairweathertuba thank you


kindly, Matt

[ginnboonmiller]

I've never once left a concert thinking to myself, "man, that was freaking awesome. I could totally hear that guy's awesome lung capacity."

[Agelaus]

I am merely a student of an undergraduate level, so take my advice for what its worth lol, but I would approach your thinking as more of how you can use these toys to increase your efficiency of using your massive amounts of air rather than increasing the amount of air you have. I would imagine that as people grow some of their increased sound comes from lung growth, but some of it probably comes from the your muscles learning to coordinate better to increase your efficiency.

[fairweathertuba]

yea I could try that fairweathertuba thank you


kindly, Matt

Still, it would be a good idea to keep the spirometer and other toys around just for when you have music parties and beer and wish to compare vital capacities.

[Bandmaster]

haha when I posted this I meant how to refine it and gain it is possible to gain lung capacity all the way up to 8 liters but no human can do this

If you want maximun lung capacity, train to be competitive in free-diving. They have been known to build their lung capacity to more than 8 liters. But it also takes a toll on other body functions, so it can be a trade off. Training for cross country can also help build lung capacity....

[ASTuba]

I think you have your thinking a bit off. I agree with what has been said about expanding lung capacity by aerobic activity. There really isn't any other way to increase how much air your body can take in other than to put it through intense physical training and become a leaner, meaner tuba player.

However, we as musicians always think bigger is better, when, what it sounds like you're really wanting to do is improve your efficiency of air. It doesn't matter how much air you can move, if you are inefficient with the air creating buzz and sound, you're not going to have any benefits of the increased capacity.

When I want to work on efficiency, I always start with buzzing, making sure that I am not doing anything funny with that. I'm also a big believer on flow, so David Vining's Flow Studies for Tuba is one of the next things I go to. You really need to make sure you're doing this in conjunction with what your teacher's method is, so consult him/her as well. Good luck and let us know how this works for you!

[brianf]

Nature gives you your body and we all have different sizes and shapes. That is why clothing has various sizes. Body organs are the same, if you have the tissue for 6 liters of vital capacity, you will never get more. Now if you have that 6 liter capacity and only use 4 liters, here we can work to get you closer to your capacity of 6 liters - we call these people shallow breathers and they are a dime a dozen!

[biscuitsdonovan]

thanks for the help and beneficial help everyone all of this information has really helped and yes I meant more efficient air flow haha but yes thats what I was getting at If anyone else has any input please let me know your style and method to this.

thanks and kindly, Matt

[brianf]

Listen to what an effecient air flow sounds like:
http://www.windsongpress.com/breathing% ... rument.htm" target="_blank
about 3/4 of the way through - not bad for an old man!

[biscuitsdonovan]

oh yes this is an excellent video thanks!


Matt

[tofu]

I don't know what Carol Jantsch's (Principal Tuba Philadelphia Symphony) lung capacity is, but my guess is that it is not huge. She is not a large person. I saw her do a solo recital a couple years ago at NU and my seat had a side view of her onstage. Her ability to quickly get large breaths and use her lung capacity to its max was AWESOME and highly visible as well. I suspect that if someone wanted to maximize their air intake and use she would be somebody to have a few lessons with. It was highly instructional just watching her take in and use air to play.

The recital was very well done - she is an excellent musician.

[PMeuph]

I don't know what Carol Jantsch's (Principal Tuba Philadelphia Symphony) lung capacity is, but my guess is that it is not huge. She is not a large person. I saw her do a solo recital a couple years ago at NU and my seat had a side view of her onstage. Her ability to quickly get large breaths and use her lung capacity to its max was AWESOME and highly visible as well. I suspect that if someone wanted to maximize their air intake and use she would be somebody to have a few lessons with. It was highly instructional just watching her take in and use air to play.

The recital was very well done - she is an excellent musician.

I wonder if all the sports she played (Ultimate Frisbee, IIRC) and all the associated cardio training helped her develop lung capacity.

Personally, I find that swimming is a great exercise to develop lung capacity. Not only is it great cardio but it also forces you to take deep breaths in rhtyhm without the possibility of cheating. (I do three strokes than a breath on the fourth one)

[biscuitsdonovan]

yes Carol is a beast she is an excellent musician!

[biscuitsdonovan]

also Velvet Brown is a beast too. ya know.

[Roger Lewis]

When I was "in training" to play, I spent a lot of time in the pool. I would take as big a breath as I could and then swim as far as I could under water, come up for air and do it again. A few hours after doing this for about an hour, when you inhale you can feel the intercostal muscles complaining from being stretched. After a while, these muscles become like the waist band on a worn out pair of underwear and you are able to get more air in. My sternum does protrude a bit more than on other people, but I still have a 6 1/2 liter lung capacity today, just as I did when I was first measured in 1978.

Read Chester Schmitz's thoughts on air on his web site and just let it happen. You can do an awful lot with a little. I love Ellis Wean's playing and he's not a big guy, but he sounds like he's 7 feet tall and all lung. The secret is to make the most of what you've got. The "toys" help you visualize what you can't really see, but perhaps you are over-complicating things.

Breathe big, blow big.

Roger

[brianf]

I still have a 6 1/2 liter lung capacity today, just as I did when I was first measured in 1978.

Roger- Where did you find the fountain of youth? A lot of us would like to go there to regain our vital capacity lost due to age.

[Roger Lewis]

Hi Brian.

Basically I've never let myself get lazy. Over time, many players relax and learn to do more with less and they lose the capacity because they are not using it. I've never allowed myself to get lazy in my breathing and still swim a lot when the seasons cooperate. I also use an Ultrabreathe and a Sports model Powerlung to keep the inspiration muscles in shape.

I was tested about 6 months ago by my physician and he said that my capacity is still right around 127% of normal and my expulsion rate is about 123% of normal. When I had my physical for AT&T in 1978 those were the same numbers. The pulmonary specialist who tested me in 1978 was David Nadien's brother (former concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic) and we had a nice chat about music.

Maybe it's genetic?

All the best to you my friend.

Roger