BY ANGUS MCPHERSON
Wind players have long been jealous of strings, who can play and breathe at the same time. Although circular breathing has been used in didgeridoo playing for thousands of years, it was not until the 1960s that wind players began to adopt it in jazz and classical music.
How is it done?
Circular breathing involves storing air in the mouth and using that air to sustain the instrument’s sound – using the tongue to push the air through the instrument – for long enough to take a quick breath through the nose. The mouth and throat act in much the same way as the ‘bag’ does for bagpipes. The cycle can be repeated indefinitely, eliminating the need for the player to stop the sound to breath.
Circular breathing opens up new worlds for wind players. It allows them to perform extended jazz solos, play convincing string transcriptions and make it through those tricky, long passages with enough air to produce exciting dynamics. However, circular breathing does have its pitfalls. Here are the seven worst things about circular breathing:
1. It can take a long time to learn.
Anyone can learn circular breathing; all it requires is patience, persistence and time. While it varies from instrument to instrument, Robert Dick (who literally wrote the book on circular breathing for flute players) describes the process as a two year commitment.
2. You can’t do it when you have a blocked nose.
This is as frustrating as it is obvious.
3. Snorting
There is only a limited amount of air that can be stored in the mouth, so circular breathers have a very short window to suck in as much as they possibly can through their nose. If the player’s nasal passages aren’t completely clear, or they sniff a little too enthusiastically, the sound that results can be rather unmusical. Unless you are playing an animalistic, Jethro Tull-esque flute solo, this is something to be avoided. Musicians who employ circular breathing regularly in their performances tend to carry around an extensive pharmacy of high-powered anti-histamines, decongestants and nasal sprays to ensure their sinuses remain wide open!
4. Not knowing when to stop
When wind players finally free themselves from the limits of their lung capacity, the temptation is to go a little wild. Saxophonist Kenny G famously attracted the attention of the Guinness Book of World Records by holding an E Flat for 45 minutes and 47 seconds – a feat both impressive and tedious.
5. Drooling
The chewing motion of circular breathing has an unpleasant side effect: excess saliva production.
6: It’s bad for your health
This is not actually true. In 1999, an article titled ‘Unsafe sax: cohort study of the impact of too much sax on the mortality of famous jazz musicians’ appeared in the British Medical Journal. The article suggested that saxophonists, possibly as a result of their propensity for circular breathing, had a higher mortality rate than other musicians. The article was submitted as a joke (the authors recommended becoming a band leader to decrease the likelihood of an early death) but it was published anyway and several newspapers picked up the story. There is no evidence that circular breathing is hazardous to your health. In fact, there is even some research to suggest that didgeridoo playing can be an effective treatment for sleep apnoea.
7. People think it’s magic
An air of mystery surrounds circular breathing, as if it’s a special club that only the worthy are allowed to enter. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Anyone can learn circular breathing if they are willing to put in the time. All you need is the doggedness to persist through the snorting and salivating. Once mastered, though, there are no more excuses for ever running out of breath!
Image supplied.
