Breathing- Part Two: Tension and Equilibrium

Nearly everything you do on a daily basis is a result of simply taking air into your body. Talking. Singing in the shower. Sighs. You take thousands of breaths every single day without even realizing it.

If breathing is so natural for us, then why do so many wind players struggle with taking a good breath?

The answer is actually pretty simple: Tension.

When we take in a breath before we play, a lot of us inadvertently tense up the muscles in our mouth, throat, and chest. Sometimes, it comes from trying to take in way too much air, way too quickly. Other times, it comes from taking a HUGE fortissimo breath right before we play a pianissimo passage. This results in a very tense feeling in the body, and for me, the tension I feel runs down the muscles in my left arm, resulting in a white knuckle death grip on my tuning slides.

So how do we fix it?

The first concept I want to address is just how badly your body wants to help you take a great breath, even before you play a single note on your instrument.

Breathing Exercise

To demonstrate, try something with me. Exhale all of the breath out of your body. Keep going. Keep going. Don’t hold your breath, keep that air moving. Now relax. What happened? Your body immediately replenished the air back into your lungs.

Now, take in a huge breath. When you think that you’re all full of air, take in a couple more sips of air. Now relax. This time, your body naturally exhaled the excess air.

Your body knows exactly what it needs to survive here on Earth. By playing your instrument, you are forcing yourself out of your body’s comfort zone. You are taking control of a bodily function that is normally an unconscious process. This can create tension in your muscles. By relaxing when you take a breath, and by not breathing to the absolute limits of your lungs, your body will think that it is in a happy place. A place where it doesn’t have an excess or deficiency of air.

Long story short, the human body strives for a state of equilibrium. When you take in a breath before you play, your body will naturally exhale, so you don’t have to try to squeeze the air out of your lungs to make sound happen. Just relax. Likewise, when your body starts to have too little air, it will tense up, telling you that you need to breathe. Never let yourself get below 30% of your lung capacity when you’re playing, or your body will start to tense up. This will create a sound that is far less resonant and pleasing than the sound that you hear in your head before you play.

Just relax. Let your body do the work.

Happy practicing.