>From: "Stav Tapuch" <tapuch@hotmail.com>
>Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 17:04:58 +0000
>
>Recently I acted on the valuable advice to record myself with
>playing. From the recording I was astounded to what extent my
>pauses for breath were undermining the momentum of what I was
>playing.
>
>Any advice on how to lengthen the number and duration of notes that
>can be produced between breaths?
1. Practice, practice, practice, and go to the Shakuhachi Festival and
listen to Riley Lee talk about breathing exercises (if he does that
this year).
2. Instead of worrying about how many notes you can play between
notes, think more about breathing itself. The shakuhachi is a
wonderful instrument for "enlightening" you (and me) on how you
breathe - on, as Riley put it in one of his workshops, making you
aware of your breath.
Someone once asked Riley when he breathes during a piece and his
answer was, "I breathe when it's appropriate." Get a recording of
Yamaguchi Goro from late in his life. He breathes a lot and
apparently decided it was appropriate to breathe more often as he
got older. I can sympathize with that notion.
3. Memorize a piece. Playing from memory somehow makes it easier to
breathe appropriately.
>Also, any wisdon on how to shorten the time needed to refill your
>lungs?
Make sure that you're inhaling through your nose as well as your
mouth.
bj
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