Stav,
Besides long tone and breathing practice there's other important
factors to consider. If you practice breathing exercises and run ten
miles a day etc. it won't help if your embouchure is too big.
Inhale through a large opening to get the most air in quickly, but
exhale through a small opening to conserve the air. So, learn to
inhale quickly, quietly and deeply (as Neptune advises) but check the
size of the opening in your embouchure.
Also we can blow slow to conserve air.
Peter
> >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
>
>-
>____________________________________________________
>
-- Peter Ross http://www.cloudhandsmusic.com P.O. Box 55055 Seattle, WA 98155 206-587-7262 206-364-2341 FAX ____________________________________________________
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