a woman playing the flute

Breath support

ByBret Pimentel

Quick: define “breath support.”

I fear that to many woodwind players (or wind players in general, and maybe singers too) breath support is something mysterious. I have often had teachers stress to me the importance of breath support, but I can’t remember ever having one explain clearly what it is.

I’m teaching a woodwind methods class this semester and trying hard to make large and complex aspects of woodwind playing accessible to non-woodwind players, enough that they can effectively teach beginning students in a school band setting. I’m stressing breath support in the class because it cures so many ills—more on this momentarily.

So the working definition that I have been using with the class is this:

Breath support is the engagement of the abdominal muscles (including the sides and lower back) during exhalation.

On their recent test, I asked the class to define breath support, to explain a simple way of teaching it to beginners, and to tell why it is so important. Needless to say, I had made all of these things explicitly clear in class, in lecture and in a pre-test review session.

Many of the non-wind-players in the class did very well on this question—they had taken good notes in class, and were able to regurgitate my definition without any trouble.

Some of my wind players, however, apparently didn’t feel the need to pay attention in class when discussing something so simple as breath support, and then weren’t able to give a clear definition. Many of them discussed inhalation, used vague terms like “good air,” or rambled on about posture. I had more than one student stress the absolutely vital importance of keeping the feet shoulder-width apart, a concept that they didn’t get from me and with which I don’t necessarily agree.

Another very common error among the low-scoring wind players was the idea that breath support comes from the diaphragm. The diaphragm is, of course, the star of the show when it comes to inhalation—it is the contraction of this muscle that stretches the lungs, allowing air to rush in. But the diaphragm only flexes in that one direction. Exhalation (in normal breathing) is the result of that muscle relaxing. Of course, for wind playing, the simple relaxation of a muscle can’t provide the kind of air control that we need. Thus, the abdominal (and perhaps intercostal) muscles are also engaged to control exhalation.

Doubtless these vague or erroneous ideas come from my students’ private teachers. Don’t get me wrong: these are good concepts, and even arguably somewhat related to breath support, but they are not breath support per se. I think it’s a shame that there is so little clarity in wind pedagogy.

The example I had given in class for teaching beginners about breath support is to have them tense their stomach muscles, as though bracing for a punch to the gut. This allows them to feel the sensation of engaging those muscles; beyond that it’s a simple matter of reminding students to use their muscles to squeeze the air out of their lungs.

My students mostly also did well at indicating the importance of breath support. I was looking for them to prescribe increased breath support to solve saggy tone and poor intonation. Some also pointed out that it can improve inconsistent response, and even sluggish articulation. In my own playing, I can sometimes solve even more remote problems, like fingering issues, by focusing on breath. (This is likely entirely in my head, but if it works…) One student pointed out that a lack of good breath support will cause students to “fail miserably.” Too true.

How would you have done on my test?

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  • A woodwind player’s introduction to: Native American flutes

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    There are many Native American flute traditions, but the one commonly called the “Native American flute” today is the endblown Lakota-style flute, native to the Dakotas.

    • It is a duct- or fipple-type flute, which means it easily produces sound, like a recorder or pennywhistle, though the construction is different.
    • Many of the commercially-available flutes are labeled as Native-American-“style” flutes, which has to do with US laws about who can and can’t sell products as “Native American.”
    • Many Native American “flutes” are sold as decorative or souvenir items, and not suitable for serious playing. My best recommendation is for the Butch Hall “concert” flutes (which I’ve reviewed previously). They are relatively simple in appearance (though beautifully crafted); some other makers’ flutes are highly-decorated, which does not guarantee high instrument quality.
    • Modern NAFs generally have five or six finger holes. The five-holed flutes usually produce a minor pentatonic scale, and the six-holed ones add an additional note (the major sixth scale degree) plus some additional possibilities for cross-fingerings. Playing chromatically requires skillful half-holing in addition to cross fingerings, and these instruments really are better suited to mostly-pentatonic-type melodies. Most high-quality flutes are capable of playing over one octave but less than two.
    • F-sharp minor and G-minor are common keys for solo playing, though many keys are available. If you need to play with Western-tuned instruments, you may wish to double-check before purchasing that a flute is tuned to your preferred pitch standard, as they are not tunable.
    • There’s no surviving authentic ancient repertoire for these instruments; they are thought to have been mostly used for improvisation. (Prior to the influence of Western musicians, these instruments likely did not adhere to Western-type scales anyway; some were built with hole spacing based on the player’s hand size.) There is some modern (post-1970) repertoire for the instrument, most notably the compositions of R. Carlos Nakai (who is also probably the modern instrument’s best-known performer; also check out Grammy winner Mary Youngblood).
    • There is some consensus for notating NAFs in the key of written F-sharp minor, and treating flutes in other keys as transposing. Nakai uses a kind of tablature notation system that closely resembles this, but is intended to use lines and spaces on a Western staff to express fingerings rather than pitches, so it can be used to notate for flutes with atypical tunings.
    • The Nakai school of playing often incorporates bird- and animal-like sounds, including chirps at the beginnings and ends of notes produced by sudden bursts of air. (The required airflow for “standard” tone is low compared to modern Western woodwinds.) Vibrato, trills and tremolos, double- or flutter-tonguing, pitch inflections and portamenti, and grace notes are also common. Digital delay effects are commonly used to suggest the flute echoing against canyon walls.
    • The only traditional ensemble for a NAF is pairing with a Native American drum, but NAFs are commonly played solo, or in New-Age-type settings.
    • Native American flutes, like most fipple flutes, generally respond well to a low, open voicing, though the tone aesthetic is broad enough to potentially accommodate other approaches.

  • Play reeds that fit

    ByBret Pimentel

    Photo, °Florian

    During a rare visit to a music store this week, I overheard a very young clarinetist asking a salesperson to help him locate some unusually stiff reeds. The salesperson was as surprised as was I that the young man was interested in such an extreme equipment choice—but apparently for different reasons.

    “You must be very talented to have moved up to such stiff reeds already,” the salesperson told the beaming prodigy. “How impressive!”

    To me, this is a little like congratulating someone on moving up to a larger hat size. “Oh, it’s nothing, really. I started out in a 7¼, but I worked really hard and now I’m ready for the 7½. But the real greats all wear at least an 8, so that’s where I want to end up.” Bigger isn’t better—you should wear whatever fits your head.

    A clarinet or saxophone reed should be an appropriate fit to the mouthpiece. There are a number of factors that determine what strength of reed is right for a mouthpiece, but, in general terms, most mouthpieces with wider tip openings require softer reeds to get good response, and most mouthpieces with narrower openings need a stiffer reed for stability and dynamic range.

    While each player is of course different, I think sometimes the factor of the individual embouchure is actually over-emphasized. The embouchure doesn’t and shouldn’t need unusual muscular strength to do its job—it requires delicacy and control. If you’re biting and straining against a too-stiff reed, you’re sacrificing both, and both you and your audience are suffering for it. For most mouthpieces, there is a narrow range of reed strengths that is about right, no matter how “strong” you are (or think you are).

    There’s no such thing as “moving up” to a stiffer reed, just “moving” to a different strength to suit a new mouthpiece or to correct an error in your previous reed choice.

  • Irish flute/whistle ornamentation symbols à la Grey Larsen, in Lilypond

    ByBret Pimentel

    If you are nerdy/awesome enough to be into (1) the pedagogy of Irish traditional woodwind playing and (2) open-source text-based music notation software, then you may want to check out my set of symbols for Lilypond, based on the excellent ornamentation system by Grey Larsen. You can get the .ily file on GitHub (and submit your pull requests to make improvements to my code).

    Cuts, strikes, rolls, cranns, etc.
    Cuts, strikes, slides, rolls, cranns, etc.

    If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Larsen’s system and you play pennywhistles or wooden flutes, then really I must insist that you buy a copy of his The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle immediately—his ornamentation system is clear and logical and should be regarded as the standard for teaching and learning Irish-traditional ornamentation for wind instruments.

    If you are unfamiliar with Lilypond, chances are good that you won’t like it even though it’s free and produces much better notation than the software you already spent several hundred dollars on.

    Also, it’s worth noting that Chris Throup already had a similar idea a few years ago. Mine is a bit more complete, but his is really simple.

    Sláinte!

  • Using “borrowed” fingerings in EWI mode

    ByBret Pimentel

    The Akai EWI series’ “EWI” fingering mode is powerful and flexible. It bears a resemblance to basic saxophone fingerings (while wisely eschewing saxophoney compromises like rollers and palm keys). But with a little imagination EWI players can “borrow” a number of useful fingerings from other woodwinds, too.

    For clarity, I’m considering any fingering that appears in the EWI 4000s’s Reference Manual under “EWI Fingerings” as a basic, non-borrowed fingering. Some of the fingerings I’m listing do appear in the manual for other fingering modes (saxophone, flute, and oboe). Some of the fingerings aren’t great-sounding fingerings on the “real” (non-electric) woodwind instruments, but work beautifully on the EWI, which of course isn’t subject to the acoustical problems of air-filled tubes.

    And of course these fingerings work in any octave, which is not always the case with “real” woodwinds. I have arranged them octave-wise here in ways that will mostly look familiar to woodwind players.

    Right C-sharp
    Borrowed from: oboe, clarinet
    Provides a useful alternative in left-hand-pinky-heavy passages.

    Left E-flat
    Borrowed from: oboe, some clarinets
    In the example, prevents having to “jump” the right pinky from one key, over another, to another.

    Side F-sharp
    Borrowed from: saxophone, clarinet
    Similar to using the saxophone’s side F-sharp key or clarinet’s side F-sharp(/B-natural) key (shown here in the wrong octave for clarinet), except using the right pinky rather than the ring finger. Useful for avoiding the right index-middle flip-flop.

    Right G-sharp
    Borrowed from: oboe
    Provides a useful alternative in left-hand-pinky-heavy passages.

    1+1 B-flat
    Borrowed from: flute, saxophone, clarinet
    Similar to a standard flute fingering, or to a problematic saxophone or clarinet alternate fingering (shown here in the wrong octave for clarinet). Of course on the EWI there are no pitch, timbre, or response issues with this (or any) fingering.

    1+2 B-flat
    Borrowed from: saxophone
    A slightly lesser-known alternate fingering for saxophone (which, on saxophones, often sounds better than 1+1). Useful for transitions such as F-sharp to B-flat.

    Right B
    Borrowed from: clarinet
    Similar to the sensation of using the clarinet’s right B(/E) key, but in this case you must use the right pinky to press two keys at once. In the example, this allows you to keep the movement in one hand, rather than having to coordinate both pinkies.

    Side C
    Borrowed from: saxophone
    Useful in chromatic passages and trills for avoiding the left index-middle flip-flop.

    These fingerings of course only scratch the surface of what’s possible with the EWI-mode fingering system. But because of their familiarity and time-tested usefulness to players of “real” woodwinds, they can be adapted easily and fruitfully to EWI playing.

  • The amazing shrinking woodwind section: increasing demands on woodwind doublers

    ByBret Pimentel

    There is a long tradition of using small orchestras in musical theater as a money- and space-saving consideration. Presumably, if budgets and orchestra pit square footages were unlimited, full symphonic orchestras would be used for theater like they are for movies, with an 8-12(+)-piece orchestral woodwind section, plus perhaps a 5-piece saxophone section. But let’s go back a few decades and examine the compromises. Here are a couple of examples:

    Flower Drum Song

    (from original 1958 orchestration)

    1. Piccolo, flute, alto flute
    2. Piccolo, flute
    3. Oboe, English horn
    4. Clarinet, alto saxophone
    5. Clarinet, alto saxophone
    6. Bass clarinet, tenor saxophone

    You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

    (from original 1966 orchestration)

    1. Piccolo, flute
    2. Flute
    3. Clarinet
    4. Clarinet
    5. Bass clarinet, tenor saxophone

    The Flower Drum Song orchestration uses a 6-piece woodwind section. The bassoons, sadly, are the first thing to go. The principal flutist has to double on both piccolo and alto flute, an uncommon compromise in the orchestral repertoire, where the doubling is often relegated to an auxiliary flute part to allow the principal to be at his or her soloistic best on a single instrument. (The second flutist also doubles piccolo, which is a bit more common.) Similarly, the oboist pulls double-duty as soloist on both oboe and English horn. The full clarinet section is expected to double not on auxiliary clarinets, but on saxophones.

    You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown is not quite as demanding on individual woodwind players; the first flute part does include piccolo (again, this is not typical symphonic-orchestral thinking), and the bass clarinetist doubles on saxophone. The double reed section is eliminated completely.

    photo, NK Eide

    Now let’s look at how these shows’ orchestrations have been revised in more recent revivals:

    Flower Drum Song

    (from 2002 revival orchestration)

    1. Piccolo, flute, alto flute, dizi in C, D, E-flat, F, and B, bamboo flutes in E, F, and G
    2. Flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone
    3. Flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
    4. Clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, tenor saxophone

    You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown

    (from 1999 revival orchestration)

    1. Piccolo, flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, soprano recorder, kazoo

    44 years later, Flower Drum Song’s woodwind section has shrunken from six musicians to four, but the number of instruments has boomed from 13 to 25. The first flutist is expected to play some “world” woodwinds in addition to an array of orchestral flutes, and the other three woodwind players each cover instruments from three or four woodwind families, with multiple members from at least one of those families.

    You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown’s revival after 33 years drops the woodwind section from five musicians down to one. The lone woodwind player covers seven instruments from (arguably) five families: two flutes, a clarinet, two saxophones, a recorder, and a kazoo (which, despite being vaguely woodwind-like in form, is not one). As the only player of each of these instruments, this musician should expect to be prepared to sound like a convincing soloist on each.

    Based on these examples and others, two trends seem to be emerging in theater orchestrations:

    1. Fewer woodwind players.
    2. More colorful orchestrations. In the case of both of these shows, the new orchestrations are not simply a slimming-down of a too-expensive woodwind section—new sounds are being introduced. In some cases these might be meant to rebalance the orchestra due to cuts in other sections, but it also seems that recent orchestrations involve creative choices tending toward a broader aural palette.

    Both of these mean greater demands upon woodwind players. 21st-century woodwind players need to be able to play a greater number of instruments, from a pool no longer limited to the orchestral woodwinds and saxophones, at a soloist level on each instrument. The common 20th-century clarinet/saxophone or flute/clarinet/saxophone doubler may find him- or herself less employable than in previous years, and less able to hide in the section on a weaker double. Double reeds are a must, and so are auxiliary instruments (piccolo, larger flutes, English horn, clarinets and saxophones of any size) and world or historical woodwinds.

    As the number of woodwind chairs shrinks and the standards of musicianship and versatility rise, the specialist and the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none will both be out of a job, and the rare jack-of-all-trades-master-of-each will become an increasingly hot property.

  • The future of woodwind instruments

    ByBret Pimentel

    Here are a few predictions (or wishes) about the woodwind instruments we might be able to buy in the future.

    Personalized ergonomics

    With the amount of worry musicians expend over repetitive motion injuries and other playing-related ailments, it’s truly baffling that instruments are still almost entirely a one-size-fits-all affair.

    For just one example: for generations, saxophonists have applied cork or other stuff to their palm keys to help avoid collapsing the hand to press them. Most of the finest saxophones in the world still offer palm keys in a single height, meant to accommodate child and adult hands, male and female hands, large and small hands. (A couple of exceptions are Keilwerth’s wrench-adjustable left hand palm keys, and Cannonball’s “Stone Series” instruments, which can be purchased or retrofitted with stone touchpieces of varying heights for both left and right palm keys.) And this is only one of the ergonomic issues of saxophones and other woodwinds.

    Imagine buying a production woodwind instrument that had fully adjustable keywork that could be matched to your individual hands. This could be done with interchangeable parts, or with keywork adjustable via screws or other means.

    Related to this is a need to re-examine the possibilities of plateau (“closed”) keys. Most of the modern woodwinds have at least some fingerholes or keys with holes in them, and these cannot be moved to accommodate ergonomics without affecting pitch and tone. But the touchpieces on a saxophone or bass clarinet can largely be located according to convenience, to open or close toneholes somewhere else on the instrument’s body. Our largely unfounded derision of plateau keys on woodwind instruments prevents us from embracing much better ergonomic possibilities.

    New materials

    Far too much credit is given to materials, especially if those materials are costly and pretty, for their contribution to an instrument’s sound. Inventors have created incredible new materials for aerospace, automotive, and electronics applications. Why couldn’t we make woodwind instruments out of amazing new materials that are inexpensive, crack- and dent-resistant, sustainable, lightweight, and beautiful? (Buffet-Crampon’s “Greenline” instruments are an example of high-quality instruments made from synthetic materials.)

    A move to new materials could reduce investment in instrument purchase and maintenance, prevent the heartbreak of a new clarinet or oboe cracking, stop over-harvesting of certain woods, and reduce repetitive-motion injuries.

    And it wouldn’t be the first time woodwind players gave up traditional materials for better ones; there aren’t a lot of players still using boxwood flutes and clarinets.

    Imagine, too, the possibilities of reeds and pads that are long-lasting, stable, and consistent.

    Player-maintainable

    It’s axiomatic among woodwind players that good instrument technicians are getting harder to find. In my rural area, it’s a 2½-hour drive to a city where I can get my high-quality instruments worked on competently, by people doing instrument repair in their homes rather than in music stores or commercial repair shops.

    Many woodwind instruments have at least some adjustment screws or other relatively intuitive ways to keep them adjusted and playing well. Installing pads is still somewhat of a specialist art, but imagine how that could change with improved materials for pads and for toneholes, and with approaches like MusicMedic’s “self-leveling” Neo Pads.

    Imagine instruments that are user-adjustable using common household tools or tools included with the instrument, supplemented with detailed instructional videos. Some routine tasks like pad or bumper replacement could become the player’s responsibility, or something that could be done by a minimally-trained music store employee, school band director, or private teacher.

    Your turn

    Let me know what features and qualities you would like to see in the woodwind instruments of the future!

8 Comments

  1. Bret, this is without a doubt, the best article I have read on breath support in wind instruments.

    Thank you for writing something that is so clear, and straight forward.

    You are right, it is a shame that there is so little clarity in wind pedagogy.

    Reply
  2. Pingback: The Bassic Sax Blog » Blog Archive » Breath Support

  3. This article is excellent. The point about the abdominal muscles is so simple, but obvious. I also feel like I have never had breath support explained clearly. Thank you!

    Reply

  4. Bret, thanks for this article. This will go great in my woodwind methods class this semester!!! Thanks for putting into clear wording what I have taken for granted for too many years.

    Reply

  5. Great article! I played the saxophone through middle and high school and never had a clear concept of what was meant by breath support. Now I’m starting to play again after a 10 year break and I’m trying to start from scratch to keep from re-forming my old bad habits. This article is the first to give me an actionable idea of what breath support is and how to improve it. Thanks!

    Reply

  6. Very good points and good distinction re: the physiological functions of the diaphragm and the abdominal muscles. Your approach is not a full-proof, practical solution to this important topic, however, due to the fact that if the player is NOT filling the lower part of the lungs, then the “stomach” muscles have nothing to support. In other words, some of your wind students were justified in re-focusing the issue on the inhalation.
    Until a player can at least somewhat correctly “breathe low” i.e. diaphragmatically, all the abdominal force in the universe will have nothing to connect with. It is my mission as a woodwind pedagogue and human being to get people breathing lower: exclusively chest-breathing is VERY predominant in modern industrial culture, bad posture IS a contributing factor to shallow breathing, and awareness of the movement of the diaphragm IS at the core of wind performance breath support.

    All that being said, most players (who have some tiny bit of ability to breathe fully i.e. fill the lungs from bottom to top and not just top) DO need to hear about breath support exactly as you describe it in this post: ultimately, you are absolutely correct in terms of this is where the “support” aspect of the equation happens, and more players and teachers should have awareness of this. I’m just pointing out that a finely tuned and lubed engine will take you nowhere with no gas, or with gas in the tank and a broken fuel pump.

    Reply

  7. Dear Bret,

    Thank you for your efforts to try to focus on breath support. It is indeed very difficult to find scientific information; for example at Pub Med you won’t find any information about the function of the diaphragm.

    I don’t agree (totally) with your definition. At IEPE (see http://www.revalidatie-friesland.nl/IEPE) an unique international Educational Project about embouchure, breath support and singing (2-11-2013 beetsterzwaag, the Netherlands) a state of the art artistic and scientific overview will be given with the participation of European Professors/top speakers in the field of music medicin and topartist to combine theory with practical work for musicians and practioners (doctors and therapists). I can’t attach the brochure of IEPE, sorry..

    with kind regards

    Reply
  8. Pingback: How to Control Your Breath When Singing - 9 Essentianal Tips

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