Circular breathing

Tim2723 · Post by **Tim2723** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:55 am

Anyone using that technique? Hints and tips?

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:32 am

didgeridoo

JordanII · Post by **JordanII** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:18 am

I don't know how to do it, but I heard it's not good for the tin whistle.

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 10:26 am

not enough back pressure

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:01 am

not much help...

there is a serviceable explanation on Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing

WyoBadger · Post by **WyoBadger** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 11:59 am

Basically what you do is fill your cheeks up with air. Then, while inhaling (quickly) through your nose, you puff out the air in your cheeks, thus maintaining a more-or-less constant flow of air. A fun way to practice is with a straw in a glass of water.

I can do it on brass instruments/didgeridoo, and I've heard it's pretty easy on most reed instruments. Never could bet it to work with whistle or flute, since puffing up one's cheeks requires a lot of backpressure, more than whistles have. It's a shame. Some of those Scottish pipe/fiddle tunes have NOWHERE to breathe in them!

Tom

edited to eliminate a needlessly repetitive, unnecessary redundancy

arnie · Post by **arnie** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:06 pm

I saw Colin Goldie do it with a low whistle. Amazing and strange to look at.

Guinness · Post by **Guinness** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:28 pm

Interesting. Well some of those Overtons, especially the top notes, have plenty of back pressure. Circular breathing on those might give me sore cheeks and sore ears!

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:37 pm

Brigitte · Post by **Brigitte** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:40 pm

double post

Brigitte · Post by **Brigitte** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:40 pm

You technically can do circular breathing even without having anything in your mouth "just" by using your lips to create the barrier for the "resistence" you need. This way - of course with quite some practice on it - it is even possible to do it on the wooden flute without loosing your tone or change it too much.

Most whistles allow circular breathing more or less well. The lower keys and the less resistence they have the harder it is to do but still with a good mouth control doable.

It can come in handy in those tunes usually played on fiddle or pipe with long passages when you never know where to snatch a breath or simply if you have forgotten to take a breath at some point and realise you run out of air before the next "good" break. Doing it through a whole tune to my ears usually makes me miss something, but say using it for a constand "one-note-drone" in a tune underneath other instruments can be a quite interesting effect.

Learning how to circular breathe work with most of the digest online you find on major didgeridoo sites, the straw method in combination with a nice bottle of wine to relax while practicing is a good start

.

Brigitte

P.S. Note, that I am not the player (though I play didge) but in the lucky position to listen to someone who does it very well I think

Craig Stuntz · Post by **Craig Stuntz** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:34 pm

I'm not sure why you'd want to. I think it would do for ITM what Kenny G did for Jazz. IMHO breathing is an interesting ornament. It would be like not using cuts or rolls, just to show that you could.

-Craig

LoLo · Post by **LoLo** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 2:55 pm

WyoBadger wrote:Basically what you do is fill your cheeks up with air. Then, while inhaling (quickly) through your nose, you puff out the air in your cheeks, thus maintaining a more-or-less constant flow of air.

Cheeks aren't trad... This is trad and Winiwini don't cheek it... http://youtube.com/watch?v=9VkJyM60m9s& ... ed&search=

joe13531 · Post by **joe13531** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 3:26 pm

Circular breathing is hard on the whistle due to the low resistance factor. I used that technique on the clarinet in the past, but have now given it up entirely. Sometimes it was helpful to get through a page of an Italian opera piece or concerto without a breath. I've since reconsidered it's importance and realized that in 99.9% of music I play, circular breathing is useless. Unless you are trying to impress someone or yourself, circular breathing, IMHO ruins natural phasing of a musical line and is essentially an a-musical technique. Singers can't circular breath and why should they? It would sound silly in singing, music or speaking a language to not have natural pauses. Music needs to breath. String players struggle with this and often consult wind players to learn breathing in music. Circular breathing is a neat parlor trick or "virtuoso" solo move, but I recommend NOT learning it. I've heard it ruin quite a few performances phrasing wise. BTW, the Didgerido or other drone instruments DO NOT APPLY to what I am saying. Circular breathing is part of their lexicon. Just my $.02

Signed,
Former Circular Breath-ist

WyoBadger · Post by **WyoBadger** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:41 pm

LoLo wrote: Cheeks aren't trad... This is trad and Winiwini don't cheek it... http://youtube.com/watch?v=9VkJyM60m9s& ... ed&search=

Wow, that guy is fairly amazing! Looks like he's using his mouth cavity without puffing his cheeks. Same principle.

Interestingly, I've heard that most Aboriginal players play from the center of the mouth; most white players (myself included) find it a bit easier to play from the side (though most of the really good white guys play centered too). Nobody seems to know why.

Tom