Running out of oxygen

[RVC]

My Dixon Trad and I are working our way up the learning curve and I usually find myself having to exhale before I inhale a new breath. I run out of oxygen before I run out of air, if that makes sense. I watch the folk in the YouTube clips and they always seem to just inhale. A very newb question here I know but is there something wrong with my breathing? Should I be playing louder or inhaling less every breath? Fanny Power is what I am working on.

Thanks, and thanks for a great forum. It's amazing how much one can learn here.

RVC

[Innocent Bystander]

"Little and often" may be the key. If you need to exhale while playing the whistle, you're drawing too much breath. You can breathe out through your nose as you play. Take care with this, as it isn't a good thing to do on the high notes, where you need that pressure. Don't try to play too much on a single breath. You could, if you do it right, take a breath on every bar. Every other bar is usually plenty. (More than enough.)
If you're playing Planxty Miss Frances Power slowly, you could take a breath every couple of notes. Try playing it through like that, taking as many breaths as you can. It should give you confidence to breathe more naturally while playing.

[highland-piper]

You may not be inhaling deeply. I.e, maybe you're filling the top of your lungs instead of breathing from your diaphragm.

[bogman]

Don't even worry about it. There's no point in analysing your breathing for whistle playing. Ultimately it's easy, just don't expect it to happen straight away. As your general playing improves so will your blowing technique. Sometimes thinking about it too much is just a waste of time, just keep playing and if you do that _enough_ it'll come naturally.

[Reyburnwhistles]

RVC I'm familiar with this situation which happens when I play low air requirement whistles. My sense is that your carbon dioxide to oxygen ration is out of balance.... too much carbon dioxide. Thus your need to exhale. My solution is to play an instrument that requires more breath which will bring the ratio into balance.

Ronaldo

[hoopy mike]

There are alternative solutions - circular breathing, learn the pipes, etc, but I think that some breathing exercises might help. Try inhaling, hold for a count of 4, then exhale whilst saying "cup of tea, cup of tea, cup of tea..." or if you're partial to a tipple, try, "pint of bitter, pint of bitter..." until you almost run out of air. Do this a few times each day and see if your breath capacity improves.

[s1m0n]

Don't even worry about it. There's no point in analysing your breathing for whistle playing. Ultimately it's easy, just don't expect it to happen straight away. As your general playing improves so will your blowing technique. Sometimes thinking about it too much is just a waste of time, just keep playing and if you do that _enough_ it'll come naturally.

I'm with him. If you don't run out of breath while speaking, you don't have to while playing, either. Play more and it'll happen automatically.

[highland-piper]

I'm not a fan of the "happen automatically" theory.

In my own experience, the only things that happen automatically are bad.

After I learn how to do it, and practice it correctly about a million times, it becomes automatic, but nothing gets that way by accident. Speaking only from my own experience, and envying those who have things easier.

[bogman]

Automatically is probably a mis-placed word. Naturally is a better description. Breathing is a natural thing. The breathing while playing a whistle will fall naturally into place long before the fingers will. It's not an accident.

The use of your breathing to enhance the music once you can actually play the whistle has much more to do with knowledge of the music you're playing than anything else.

[Feadoggie]

It's really no different than singing. And the young ones seem to pick that skill up naturally.

Feadoggie

[crookedtune]

I find that I'm exhaling through the nose, while also feeding air into the whistle or flute by mouth. In this way, I run out of air well before I feel a need for oxygen. Then inhaling can be done in small "nips" during phrases, and deeper breaths at selected intervals. It comes in time through trial-and-error, and your body remembers what to do.

[AvienMael]

I think this is really a matter of figuring out where to breathe in each tune... and that is a skill which will become "natural" or "automatic" with continued practice over time... the whole, where to breathe -vs.- where to emphasize thing. As Bogman pointed out, over-thinking it could actually become counter-productive for some people. I like Ronaldo's suggestion for playing a whistle which requires more air as an immediate solution. I still find myself reaching for a whistle with a higher air requirement for the same reason, at times when both my mood and pulse are high. If you are a smoker, you may be more prone to this phenomenon... a few whistlers here have reported that they quit smoking in favor of being able to play better, as part of their reasoning.

[killthemessenger]

When I started playing recorder (and later, whistle) I had the same problem with the soprano, running out of oxygen before I came to the end of a phrase or series of phrases. I didn't experience it with larger instruments (alto, tenor). But now it never bothers me. So yes, you do learn to breathe at the rate required for each size of instrument by simply playing them. To that extent, it happens automatically, imo.

But - I do think that breathing musically in a piece of music requires some thought. After a while, that becomes pretty much automatic too, in dance tunes, which usually have a simple phrase structure. It may require more planning in slow airs. In other genres, like baroque flute/recorder music, breathing points have to be planned with some care.

[RVC]

Good morning, folks. I really appreciate all the responses and the info therein. I shall put what I can of it into practice and know the results will make me a better whistle player than I am.

What a great forum! Thanks.

RVC