THE IMPORTANCE OF MASTERING BREATHING TECHNIQUE FOR WIND INSTRUMENT PLAYERS

One of fundamental skills required to play any wind instrument is proper breathing technique. We are
taught in our young age how to breathe – „from the stomach“, as they say, because that is the easiest
way to explain a child what should be done to achieve a proper breathing.

But as we grow older, we realize that it is much more complex than just „breathing from the stomach“.
Some new terms appear, such as „support“ or „consummation“. It is very important that we understand
how breathing works, what muscles do we use while doing it, how to control them and use them to get
the most out of our breath when we play. But let me tell you a brief story first.

It was a long time ago when I started singing lessons. I was drawn to singing almost always, but I've
never given it any serious thought until I heard a girl singing in an old castle of Carlstein in Prague. She
was singing with the accompaniment of her fellow colleague who played the lute. The were both
dressed in XV century costumes, and the empty and vast room they were standing in was quite ecchoing
their music. I was quite enchanted by her voice and decided that I want to learn to sing like her.

I had a brilliant singing teacher, she was a mezzosoprano and had perfect hearing too (although she
never bragged about it). She introduced me to some fantastic exercises for breathing and explained
what muscles we use, what do I need to exercise and how to control my breath so I could sing higher
notes or longer phrase. Soon I found myself needing much more strength and air for singing than for
playing flute. The result was as you would expect it to be: I started feeling much more comfortable and
confident when playing flute, whether it was a long phrase or high pitched note of any dynamics. You
can take a free guess: this major improvement in my flute performance was coming from singing.

The point is: singers and/or singing can help you – A LOT. You don't have to become a singer, we're not
all really cut out for singing - but keep in mind that singing technique can immensely improve your
performance, which ever wind instrument you play. It is of vital importance that you can sing your
phrases with your voice very freely, because if you're shy or stiff when singing, you will be too when
playing, no exceptions.

What singers often call „appoggio“ (ENG: support) is actually the use your abdominal muscles to sustain
the air stream as much as possible and hereby prolong the exhale – in other words, to have longer
breath. Do not think you use only diaphragm for that, no – you are actually using a whole lot of
adbominal muscles for these actions. By exercising them, you will have more strength and more control,
and also more awareness of the muscles.

Every single wind instrument player should be aware of all of this and invest time in practicing breathing
as a part of warm up routine. We often neglect breathing technique and forget that many problems
could be solved if we only knew how to control our breath – you can control your pitch, sustain long
phrases, add power to your articulation if you want so, perform dramatic changes in dynamics
effortlessly, and so on.