Chiff and Fipple Forums

Take a look at the incentive spirometer (https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/use-inc ... meter.html). The hospital gave me one after I spent a few days there after surgery.

When you lie all day in bed, your lungs tend to deflate, so you don't get enough oxygen and you are at risk for pneumonia. The spirometer helps turn deep breathing into a kind of game, because you try try to keep the little disc in the air as much as you can.

Or just tell the nurse, "It's OK, I brought my flute along!"

Re. Psychological impacts of breath control, deep breathing, meditation and flute playing the Japanese zen practice of Suizen comes to mind. Shakuhachi playing as meditation.

fintano wrote: ↑Wed Sep 28, 2022 2:48 am Or just tell the nurse, "It's OK, I brought my flute along!"

Many, many years ago, I seriously cut my left thumb on the crude table saw I had rigged up at the time. We bandaged it up best we could and took me down to the local hospital, where the surgeon (with the reassuring name of "Dr Stubbs") rejoined a tendon, sewed it all back together and bandaged it heavily to immobilise it. I asked "do I come back here to the Emergency ward to get the stitches out?" to which he responded "Good God, no. There are sick people out there!" But he did warn me that I was going to require a lot of physiotherapy to get good movement back. And he wanted to see me at some point to make sure all had gone well.

When I went to see him some months later he was astonished how well it had healed. "That physiotherapy really worked!" he exclaimed. At that point I confessed I had found the physio really awful and despiriting - it didn't seem to be going anywhere. So instead, I pulled out my old treble recorder and started playing it. Using the thumb hole was murder at first - you could really imagine the join in the tendon being dragged through a slightly too-small channel. But, bit by bit, it became easier and smoother in operation, until I no longer noticed it. "Treble recorder, eh? I'll keep that in mind" says Dr Stubbs.

We often snarl at our instruments as causes of repetition strain injuries and other maladies, but they can be part of the solution too!

I confess that I was intrigued enough about the potential flute benefits of the PowerBreath gadget to order one. Of course because it was featured in an NPR (USA) story, I got an email a few days later that due to heavy demand it wouldn't ship for a while. So don't bother ordering one any time soon. When it finally does arrive, I'll report on whether using the gadget turns me into the next Matt Molloy.

Conical bore wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:56 pm I confess that I was intrigued enough about the potential flute benefits of the PowerBreath gadget to order one. Of course because it was featured in an NPR (USA) story, I got an email a few days later that due to heavy demand it wouldn't ship for a while. So don't bother ordering one any time soon. When it finally does arrive, I'll report on whether using the gadget turns me into the next Matt Molloy.

You do realize that in an interview Matt recounted having been diagnosed, and I believe hospitalised for a time with Tuberculosis. He felt that smoking and the crazy lifestyle of being on the road all the time contributed to this. The wonder of modern pharaceuticals saved the world a great fluter. And, I shouldn´t be surprised perhaps a little moderation!

Bob

Adding to Nanohedron's tale of using his flute as a "peanut" shooter, we were celebrating a fellow flute player's 60th birthday with a house session. When the birthday cake came out loaded with candles alight (plenty, but not 60) he covered all the tone holes and the embouchure of his flute with his mouth, took a deep breath and.............yep, he blew them all out, much to the amazement of all present.