Breathe
Breathing is one of the few functions we do for our entire life, more or less, without interruption. It so happens that for many of us those interruptions come while playing our instrument. We hold our breath, we hyperventilate, we breath “with the music” in ways that actually hinder our expression. Yet we do not play a wind instrument, so how does breathing actually relate to string playing?
In this 4-class workshop, you will explore this question from multiple angles from breathing’s mechanical connection to the string, musical connection to singing and emotional connection to anxiety. Ultimately, you’ll find there are so many ways to breathe and the more adaptable your breathing becomes, the more it will serve you and your playing, and not the other way around.
Begin Your journey
Topics will include
- Quieting your breath
- Building your oxygen-hunger stamina
- Calming hyperventilation by finding your neutral zone
- Nose vs mouth breathing
- Breathing’s connection to music and phrasing
- Breathing’s effect on emotion and performance anxiety
Class 1
Nose or Mouth?
Whether we breathe through our nose or mouth (or both) greatly impacts our oral and standing posture from the placement of our tongue and jaw to the length of our spine. It even determines the quality of the air we take in, our focus and our mood. So which way(s) are right? And how do they influence our sound? Come find out in this nose-mouth exploration.
Class 2
Un-Interrupting your Breath
One of our biggest challenges in breathing is to simply not hold it! Any slight discomfort or fear almost inevitably stops our breath, yet it can be tricky to notice these disturbances. One strategy is to use the freedom of our throat as a reference. This not only cleans our breathing but opens a delicate part of our self with special influence on our playing.
Class 3
Do We Sing?
We cellists love to sing through our instrument. How we phrase, vibrate and shift often aspires to mimic the human voice. Yet many of us mistakenly believe there is a literal, physical connection between singing and playing. We time our breathing and move our mouth as if we are singers in ways that can be not only unnecessary, but counter-productive. By learning to differentiate our human voice from our cello voice, we actually enhance our ability to sing in the place that counts: through our strings.
Class 4
Finding Neutral
We only need so much air in and out to comfortably survive, far less than our total lung capacity. And, unless we’re literally passing out on stage, we’re getting it. But the zone in which we get this air can vary greatly, influencing our physical, mental and emotional state. Some of us shift more to the inhale zone, others more to the exhale. By shifting your breathing to extreme zones, exotic positions and non-habitual timings, you will clarify how your breathing actually wants to be in any given moment. Simple, functional and free.
Topics will include
- Quieting your breath
- Building your oxygen-hunger stamina
- Calming hyperventilation by finding your neutral zone
- Nose vs mouth breathing
- Breathing’s connection to music and phrasing
- Breathing’s effect on emotion and performance anxiety
Begin Your journey
