STARTING STUDENTS WITH NATURAL BREATHING LAUREN RUDZINSKAS, DMA

Starting Students with Natural Breathing

Lauren Rudzinskas, DMA

When we first introduce brass students to the concept of breathing, the goal is to do anything to avoid the pinched, unfocused, airy sound often caused by a student hunched over, leaning in the chair, or holding the instrument completely incorrectly. In a valiant effort to get students to utilize air to create full sounds, we often resort to using words like big, more, or loud. I would like to suggest an alternate approach; instead, try using words like “open” and “relaxed.” When students are new to an instrument, the tendency is often to resort to shortcuts to facilitate performing in a way that their technique has not caught up with. This can create bad habits which lead to longer term issues with performing and even health issues. If students are not making an effort to breathe in a natural, relaxed manner, often the act of breathing to support the sound of a brass instrument can create a great deal of tension. This, coupled with improper posture and inconsistent inhalation creates sounds that are pinched, airy, and without a core.

When working with brass players, a great place to start is to encourage students to relax and consider their posture. Ensure that students are sitting with their backs straight, feet touching the floor (if possible), and with their head and neck aligned with the spine, not angled forward or down. Students should be asked to bring the instrument to their face, rather than allowing the weight of the instrument to dictate posture. For instruments such as trumpet, trombone, and mellophone, the tendency is to lean forward due to the weight of the instrument or to collapse back into the chair and pinch arms at the side of the body. With tuba, euphonium, and horn, the shape of the instrument often encourages students to contort their body to fit the mouthpiece. Wherever possible, it’s important to correct these issues; for example, using a block under a euphonium or a stand for the tuba. Posture is an important component of efficient breathing because improper posture creates tension in the body which interferes with the ability to get a relaxed inhale and can lead to a performance-related injury in the long term.

Some excellent ways to teach students to achieve relaxed, deep breaths are practicing long tones. One such example is to take the Remington F-Interval Study (a chromatic long tone exercise alternating between F and chromatically descending pitches) and allow the student to take as much time as needed between each set of two notes. Gradually have the student work to make this breath more efficient, until over time they can breathe in time. In the context of a large ensemble rehearsal, this may not be possible. Instead, using the same exercise, require students to stop a half-note short every two measures so that they have time to breathe. Assigning a designated spot to breathe will encourage students to get in a great breath and have air to spare, rather than

waiting until they are on empty and breathing in a small panic that is sure to encourage tension. Over time, you can shorten the space to breathe, change how often it occurs, or change the range of the exercise so that students can practice these skills in other ways.

Sometimes students need a more concrete, visual example. In this case, the physical effect of encouraging students to roll back or lower their shoulders can be a great place to start in eliminating tension. Especially in younger students, the act of holding a larger instrument can be physically taxing. Students often put themselves into uncomfortable positions to facilitate holding the instrument. Taking a step back to acknowledge the tension in the body, and release it, will allow the student to open-up and take a relaxed breath without tension-cultivated poor posture getting in the way. For this same reason, it can be beneficial to take students through a mindfulness relaxation exercise, encouraging them to close their eyes and notice the places where they hold tension. Imagine the tension blowing away in the wind and take a relaxed breath. Further imagery such as picturing a ping pong ball in the mouth to visualize opening the oral cavity can be particularly effective such as for low brass musicians.

Because the demands of playing a brass instrument are significant, sometimes as musicians we complicate a process that the body has designed to be as efficient and natural as possible. The respiratory system is comprised of a series of components that allow your body to breathe. While both your mouth and nose do allow air into the respiratory system, beginner brass musicians should be strongly discouraged from breathing through their noses. This is a common problem in young musicians that can lead to significant issues. Not only is it more challenging to get a good quantity of air in through the nose, but breathing through the nose creates significantly more tension. Any tension created during the process of breathing negatively impacts the air brass musicians use to create sound and it is almost always the case that a breath taken with tension will result in a pinched sound when exhaled through the instrument.

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Once air enters through the mouth, it is delivered by the pharynx (a tube we all know as the throat) and into the trachea which connects the throat to the lungs. Air finally travels through the bronchial tubes before reaching the lungs where it is controlled by the muscles in the diaphragm.

When describing to students what it feels like to breathe, it is important to note that the shape of the lung differs slightly based on an individual’s gender at birth. Because of this, some students may respond differently to examples. Those assigned male at birth have lungs that are pyramidal in shape and people assigned female at birth have lungs that are more prismatic in shape. This means that common explanations of how to breathe such as expanding towards the belly, or down may not apply to everyone. Encouraging students to take a relaxed, deep breath like they are yawning and being aware of where they feel their body expanding can be a great way to include everyone and encourage exploration of breathing in a natural way. This also encourages students not to “push” air into a specific place in their body (such as pushing into the stomach) which can create tension and feel unnatural for different body types. To dispel another popular misconception, despite anatomical differences, there is not one gender that is able to breathe “bigger” or “better” and no one should ever be told that they do not have the lung capacity to play an instrument based on gender. “In other words, large lungs are not necessarily associated with a larger airways size than in a person with smaller lungs.” What is important is how efficiently the musician uses their respiratory system, not the size of the person or their lung capacity. Teach students to breathe properly and understand how their body can do so in a natural way and brass musicians will have a better sound and longer phrasing.

REFERENCES

Torres-Tamayo, N., García-Martínez, D., Lois Zlolniski, S., Torres-Sánchez, I., García-Río, F., & Bastir, M. (2018). 3D analysis of sexual dimorphism in size, shape and breathing kinematics of human lungs. Journal of anatomy, 232(2), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.12743 LoMauro, A., & Aliverti, A. (2018). Sex differences in respiratory function. Breathe (Sheffield, England), 14(2), 131–140. https://doi.org/10.1183/20734735.000318

Dr. Lauren Rudzinskas teaches trombone at the University of Akron. Rudzinskas has a dynamic career as an accomplished trombonist and pedagogue performing as a chamber musician, soloist, freelancer, clinician, and presenter. She is a founding member of Calypsus Brass, an innovative ensemble praised for its commitment to performing new works, giving masterclasses, and creating high-level professional recordings for underrepresented composers. Praised for her sound and technique, Rudzinskas has been a featured solo artist with a variety of ensembles as well as an active recitalist. As an accomplished arts administrator, Lauren serves as the General Manager of the International Women’s Brass Conference. Dr. Rudzinskas earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trombone Performance and Literature with a minor in Pedagogy and an Advanced Certificate in College Teaching at the Eastman School of Music where she also earned a Performer’s Certificate and was nominated for the prestigious Artist’s Diploma. An advocate for diversity and inclusion initiatives, Rudzinskas serves on the advisory board for the Chromatic Brass Collective and is President of the Board for the Future in Music Program.