The Importance of Breathing

[JaybirdNC]

I have recently put my little book "The Tao of the Mandolin" back online in a form that should be more accessible than my previous attempts, as a blog on WordPress. I was reading back over what I originally wrote in 1999 for the Comando internet discussion list, and I was a bit surprised to see that I had forgotten something I wrote about then--the importance of breathing naturally while playing to keep the flow of the music going. Here is the link to Tao 3:
http://taomandolin.wordpress.com/201...ieve-wu-wei-2/

After reading it again, I tried to practice what I preached back then, concentrating on breathing very naturally as I played. The results were astonishing! Just as I had said then, by breathing naturally rather than holding my breath or breathing sporadically, I could play much more relaxed and in the flow, achieving "Wu Wei," as the post talks about. I do not remember reading about the importance of this elsewhere, although I surely could have. In any case, I think it may be an important bit of advice that many of us overlook--or in my case, knew about and then forget.

John Bird

[JaybirdNC]

I haven't read the Forum that much in the past, but I just did a search on "breathing" and see that it has been discussed in this section. I apologize for bringing up something that is old hat--but I hope my little bit of writing helps someone else as much as it helped me...

[greg_tsam]

Learning to breath and practicing to breath is an important skill that is taught in many disciplines but it sounds kinda silly if you've never been exposed to it. But it's taught in physical activities incessantly. Any type of sports you can think of, martial arts, gymnastics, archery, meditation, yoga. So important but a lot of people don't know how to do it.

I had an instructor who would say "Breathe." during our routine and we would. At first I thought it was pointless and didn't participate then when the performance came I forgot to breathe and ran out of steam at a crucial moment. Learned my lesson the hard way and participated ever since. I've practiced breathing ever since. Sometimes I forget and it's usually after I've been struggling with something for a while that I remember to breathe.

[SincereCorgi]

Try learning a woodwind... y'all mandolin people have it easy.

[JaybirdNC]

I realized last night that I MUST breathe when I sing, and I am almost always "in the flow" and relaxed when I sing. So breathing jsut might be the key to making our picking sing.

Your analogy to archery and martial arts is very apt. I have an idea that breathing is the key to keeping the whole body and the whole brain relaxed. I really like discovering something that I knew all along...

[JaybirdNC]

Clarinet player since the fifth grade. I tried playing it again a few years ago and it darn near killed me!

[SternART]

About time for Niles to chime in on this thread........martial arts, wind instruments........

[Bertram Henze]

Reminds me of that story about the blonde girl who was having her hair cut at the hairdresser's, but refused to take her earphones out first. As it happened, they inadvertently cut the cables, and she dropped dead. They found the reason by listening to her iPod: "Inhale... Exhale..."

But seriously - breathing is nice, and one of the simpler benefits is oxygen for your brain, but you have to do it correctly, deep into your belly, that is. Shallow breathing into your chest, moving your shoulders instead of your diaphragm, won't help much.

[AnneFlies]

Playing and breathing - it's like meditation, only noisier.

[journeybear]

Nice piece. Just the thing for reading on a Sunday morning.

This is something I never really thought about much concerning playing - concentrating on my mind-to-finger coordination, mostly, with a little bit of eye-to-audience interaction thrown in (especially if there are pretty girls) - until a year and a half ago. I was auditioning for a gig playing Italian music in an Italian restaurant, and had taken the bus 100 miles to play a few tunes that I had been practicing fiercely for a couple weeks. There was a lot on the line, and I was nervous and anxious. While I was playing, and focusing on hitting the notes right, the owner was walking around the empty restaurant, listening from all over, and commenting rather nonchalantly about various aspects of what I was doing. At one point he said I should breathe, just relax, take it easy - from the far wall, fifty or more feet away, and from a probably conservative businessman nearly twenty years my junior, who probably has never meditated in his life. I guess I must have looked and been tense, and it surely was affecting my playing. Well, I did take a minute and just breathed (hey, I did the TM thing in the hippie era, and still use the technique, so I know what's what about that), and it helped - I relaxed a bit, I reduced my stress a bit, and I got the job.

So ever since then, I have at least been more conscious about breathing while playing. And I still find myself holding my breath while I am really trying to make sure I am getting it right. But now there is a little voice that pipes up and tells me to breathe, and it sort of sounds like his. Funny that I have to tell myself to do something that is natural and automatic. I guess it shows how much my mind is devoted to my playing at the time. Good thing my autonomous system is keeping other stuff running - you know, my heart pumping, my kidneys filtering, my liver removing toxins, my balance mechanism keeping me standing upright ... well, most of the time.

[mandocrucian]

From an old (NH) Comando list interview, now archived on Mandozine

= = = = = = = = =

Q4
Q - I am working on reducing the tension and the related effort in my playing. What methods do you use to reduce tension?

A - I've been dealing with reducing tension for years with the martial arts. It's really made me aware of how much body (and mental) tension can slow you down. First off, you don't want some funky way of holding the instrument to be working against you. The collapsed wrist is not good, and neither is the opposite - the over arched classical guitar wrist. It's like crimping the garden hose which reduces the flow of water. Sometimes students have their left elbow jammed against their side, and that impedes mobility; move the position of the instrument so more of the neck sticks out farther.

Then there's death grip. Various wrist stretching exercises will help counter this. I learned a series of these at an aikido studio, and after doing these daily for several months, I noticed an improvement of my vibrato which also led to easier string bending on the 8-string. I'd been using vibrato for many years, but these stretches loosened me up so that I finally reached the "point of optimal finger pressure". There are probably similar or identical wrist stretches to be found in yoga, or rock climbing etc.

Breathing. When the going gets tough, the average person starts to hold their breath. But the opposite is what you should do. You can do exercises to counter this tendency. While playing a scale pattern, inhale for the duration of 2 bars (or 4 bars) and the exhale for the next 2 measures (or 4). One can also play tunes inhaling on the passage and then exhaling at the end of the phrase. Sort of synching up your phrasing to your breathing like a horn player or a singer.

There are also various deep breathing exercises which may or may not be combined with various body motions or stretches. You can find these in various martial arts, yoga, or various relaxation/meditational exercises. Here, you get into the area of mental perceptual shift, getting into the "zone" state that athletes of all sorts" describe. I figured if these things can enhance performance of fighters, it could also be applied to playing, or even to just listening.

http://www.mandozine.com/resources/CGOW/niles.php

[homejame]

yes and yes. a large part of my problem has been lack of self confidence . Fortunately through hard work( open uni ) and good mentoring I'm finally overcoming the head down when I walk into a room routine. Head up means I'm talking to people directly- and head up means my breathing is a lot better. Been out on the cycle this morning and done about 25 miles on country roads ( tarmacked - but very up hill and down dale)- again - breathing - open air . go for it.