The following are some saying that I live by as a flutist: “All aspects of music are directly to breath,” and “What you breathe in is what you put out through your horn.”
First let us talk a little about breath support. To me breath support involves using the diaphragm muscle to make sure that the air is being pushed out of the lungs steadily with a certain amount of pressure. We must make sure that we are letting the diaphragm expand fully to take in the maximum amount of air possible, which is done by letting the air fill up your lungs like a balloon, there should be no pressure in the upper chest, it should all be open. Now that we have all of this air we must use it properly, to attain a “Supported Sound.” I’m not really sure how define a “Supported Sound,” and I don’t know if anyone really can, to me they are just talking about a good tone. We are looking for a sound that is very full, dark, and very rich; we are looking to eliminate the very wispy flat sounds, the stuffy sounds. First off we must have our embouchure set before we begin which is a totally different topic. We need to use this Diaphragm muscle to push the air out of our lungs correctly. It must be pushed out with pressure, and intensity, or as one of my educators likes to call it a certain amount of velocity. Using this muscle is the only way to really keep the air stream steady, and therefore keep a good tone. When we are using this muscle we are striving for warm air, if you can feel this muscle working and moving like when you breath a warm breath that fogs up mirror you are definitely on your way to good breath support
The “Supporting of Sound” in music is something very hard to explain to students both new and old. First off I feel that it is essential to make the student understand where the diaphragm muscle is, what it does, and how to make it work properly. Make the student breathe out all of the air in there lungs and hold it for a few seconds. Now tell them to put their hands near their naval and tell them to take a deep breath like when at the doctor. They should really be able to feel the muscle. Now they are at least of aware of exactly where it is. Now have them pant like a dog for a few seconds and let them really feel the muscle moving, and ask them if the felt the difference between where the air went the fist time and when they were panting like a dog. Explain to them that they always need to try and fill up the balloon like they did the first time, that they shouldn’t let the air sit in the chest. Now I believe it just a matter of making the student think about the above mentioned. Remind them to fill up the lungs, to push out warm air with lots of velocity. Your student’s will surprise you its never too early to start. Don’t wait till you have to break bad habits don’t let them start. Well I hope this page wasn’t too confusing and that it will help some of you out there.
