As the title suggests, I'm looking for some exercises to help increase my lung capacity for my clarinet playing! Grateful for any suggestions!

Are you thinking as in to sustain you through long phrases, long notes, or something else? I have lots of ideas...

Hi Barry - wow that was a quick response! In short, all of the above... I had a lesson this morning and my teacher thinks my breathing is too shallow. It's particularly noticeable on long notes and (you guessed it!) with high ones - my altissimo notes are still a problem and just not consistent. We messed around with my collection of mouthpieces and reeds but I think the fundamental problem is my breathing and I do get out of breath very quickly. I am a bit pint sized anyway, so would expect my lungs to be too but I hope that I can at least improve a bit on what I've got! All advice very much appreciated.

Cool, that gives me a base to work from.

The secret is the way you breathe, and to that extent, you'll be able to improve whatever size your lungs are.

One of the best, best things you can do are long notes. Really aim for a beautiful sound, and keep it supported. A nice analogy is to imagine your trousers are a little loose, and you're having to use support to keep them up! A nice open throat will help a lot, too.

Another very common way to run out of breath is taking lots of little breaths, before you've used up all the breath in your lungs. Find a study with long, slurred phrases in it (one good example I've found is no. 41 from Clarinet Studies by Graham Lyons, but there are plenty of others). Think about how much breath, to the nth degree, you need for each phrase, and use all the breath up on that phrase, then breathe again, just enough to empty your lungs on the next phrase, etc. etc.

And if you can then do that, find something with tongued phrases. Do exactly the same thing. Put breath marks in where necessary, and, whatever you do, don't articulate with the breath - use your tongue.

I hope this helps a little, do give me a shout if you need more help.

Thanks Barry - am going to practise this now, so will let you know how I get on. My teacher said he could see muscles in my neck moving, so I think that I may be articulating with the breath, without realising. Going to play in front of a mirror again and try to see what I'm doing! Thanks again!

I would think that, too, if I saw your neck muscles moving

Hope your practice goes well clarijo.

OK - had to stop after about 45 mins - I've played a lot today and my bottom lip can tell! My neck muscles appear to be moving for the high notes but not for the lower ones... I've experimented a bit with the angle which I hold the clarinet at - I tend to hold it out in front of me, rather than straight down, as my chin tends to point down with it! However, my teacher suggested that I tried to hold it vertically - not sure whether this is making any difference yet.

I've played lots of long, low notes - I can't find any studies amongst the books I already have. I have tried to get hold of the Demnitz book we discussed on another thread (and Frensham Pond!) from the Britannia Music sale but I may be too late. If so, I will try the Graham Lyons book - I used his Take Up the Clarinet books at school. In the absence of studies to work from, I played Moon River and Bring Him Home (some octave playing in the latter). Don't think this was quite what you had in mind but was the best I could come up with from my collection of music! No doubt if I've been breathing properly, my stomach muscles will tell me at some point tomorrow!

I've just reread this and it sounds like I'm saying I don't own any books of studies! That isn't what I meant - rather that I couldn't see anything which looked suitable!

Moon River, actually, is a very good choice : very legato, and you can imagine where the phrasing is very nicely.

There's some good stuff in Pamela Weston's 50 Classical Studies book too, if you have that.

Hi Barry - yes I do have that but I couldn't see anything obvious which I thought would help. I play through the first half of the book fairly regularly (though not all in the same session!!). I like 17 and 22 (both of them Demnitz!), am working slowly on 24 and loathe 23!! Anything you would particularly recommend? And yes, I know that 23 must be bravely faced at some point - just not yet!!

22 is a nice one, yes. I would really think of biting the bullet though, and trying 23!

But it looks HORRIBLE!! Hmm - perhaps if I tackle it one line at a time... Leave it with me...

Good move, it's not as bad as it looks...

Clarijo, are you finding that holding that clarinet more 'vertically' is helpful? My teacher tells me off regularly, i.e. about four times per lesson, for letting the clarinet drop below about 45 degrees from the vertical - every time I let it drop, my head goes forward/down with it and my breath control goes pear-shaped. If I hold the clarinet up, with my elbows away from my sides, the breathing is much easier.

Barry, what's your take on this? Please tell me if I'm talking rubbish - I've not been learning long

Hi Jazzycat!

I'm still experimenting a bit but at the moment I have to say that I do prefer to hold the clarinet at about a 45 degree angle (certainly no higher than this though!) I have the same problem as you with my chin dropping and subsequent breath control difficulties if I hold it lower than this. I'm not quite sure why my teacher wants me to hold it lower but I am trying to experiment a bit with my head position as well! I have a plastic Yamaha clarinet and it's very light, so it's easy for me to hold it in a higher position than it would be with a wooden one. If yours is a wooden one it might be that you are letting it drop because it's actually quite heavy! I would love a wooden clarinet (although for a plastic, I am liking my Yamaha more and more as I get better!) but weight would definitely be an issue for me, I think.

My teacher has commented that I tend to move a lot when I'm playing. I love playing jazz and I always play standing but I regularly whack my music stand with the bell when I get carried away!! Perhaps my teacher is just trying to get me to hold the instrument still!!

Hi clarijo!

I have the same instrument as you, I think - Yamaha 250? and I really like it although I would like to own a 650 one day! So I can't blame the weight, it's just that it sometimes seems easier not to hold it so high, but I am persevering.

I too like to move around when I'm playing - and my teacher is very dismissive of those she calls 'porridge-stirrers' so I do have to curb my enthusiasm sometimes

You ideally need to aim at about a 45 degree-ish angle, yes.

I would be wary of holding your elbows too far away from your sides, if your elbows are too high, you risk straining.

Can you explain what you mean by 'vertically'? If you mean 'holding your clarinet closer to your body', that isn't a good move.

Haha - porridge stirrers!! Yes, I have a 250 - I seem to remember you saying that you had the same clari when you replied to what I think must have been my first post on here. I would like to try the 650 too and an E13 and ultimately an R13 but I'm no where near good enough to do it justice yet, I'm afraid!

A little movement when playing won't do any harm : I'd much rather that than be absolutely rigid : that doesn't really convey enjoyment to any audience you might play to.

Sorry Barry - just seen your post above. I've just finished practising and will be sticking with my 45 degree angle. I was told to hold the clarinet closer to my body, yes but am beginning to think that perhaps this my teacher's way of telling me to hold it still - see my earlier post!!

I've been using 50 Classical Studies this evening and successfully managed the first line of number 23 but didn't get much further before I encountered squeak territory... too many high notes for me to play it well, I'm afraid! However, I have been watching myself in the mirror and my neck muscles weren't moving anything like as much tonight. I find I seem to do best with my clari at about 45 degrees and my head perfectly level ie not looking up or down. Do I have a particularly unattractive neck or does everyone's neck look hideous whilst playing? Next time I'm playing out anywhere I will be wearing a polo neck jumper!!

Totally agree, Barry! Absolute stillness just looks robotic, but too much movement can be very off-putting to the watcher. And closing the eyes and shaking the head in ecstasy, as I saw one clarinettist do, was just too much. And how on earth do you maintain your embouchure while madly waggling your head from side to side?

Sounds good clarijo!



Answer to your last question is : with very great difficulty! Too much movement isn't great for tone quality and general posture either...

*writes out 100 times*
'I must not walk up and down the living room while practising scales'

Strangely, I wouldn't be too concerned about this, as long as you're relaxed. Think about this : what would you do in a marching band?...

and I need to stop dancing!! Seriously though, I am now wondering whether my tone is not what I thought it was and that's why I have to keep still








A good point.

Good point b-c

I'm the same about moving when I'm playing jazz or swing, although I've never actually hit the stand!

A slightly off-the-wall suggestion about your breathing problem, in the days when I did a lot of swimming, I found that swimming really improved my lung capacity and aided my breathing

Not being a woodwind person I was loath to join in and say that, but since you did first I'll second the suggestion! I used to do a lot of swimming too, and could cover a long distance underwater, and in the days when I played the recorder I was able to get in a heck of a lot of notes without a breath. (This was before I got the idea about phrasing, and when I thought the challenge was not to have to breathe at all... )

Any endurance sport: Running, Swimming, Cycling, etc. increase both lung capacity and the power with which you can expel - but the training has to be intense and serious to make much difference.

Underwater swimming improves how long you can last on one breath - but that is by more efficient metabolism, more efficient movements, and increased resistance to the breathing reflex. It does not do much for your lung capacity - because you aren't using your lungs, and in any case you can cover the greatest distance underwater on a normal sized breath because you don't have to fight against increased buoyancy from fully-inflated lungs. Also it can be dangerous going for your maximum distance. It is especially dangerous if you hyperventilate first, because you can lose consciousness and drown.

Also yoga or Tai-Chi are good.

It's been playing woodwind which has given me my good pair of lungs.....and I play the recorder, hardly a high pressure instrument . I breathe far more slowly at rest than most non-wind players do, and have a pretty good peak flow measurement (asthmatics check this one from time to time, and I only do it out of nosiness and because I have the means to at work).
One of the commonest reasons wind players feel as if they're out of breath is, as Barry says, not having breathed out enough - and the topping up with small breaths is well known for causing this feeling. What happens is that stale air builds up at the bottom of your lungs, and gradually accumulates more carbon dioxide: it is carbon dioxide which generally drives our feeling of needing to breathe, more so than lack of oxygen, so if you have not breathed out fully, you're quickly going to feel as if you need more air....when actually what you need to do is empty your lungs out first. As medical students we were taught how you can simulate an asthma attack - asthmatics have the same problem, it's not nearly so much about getting enough air in, as getting enough waste air out, which causes the horrible sensation of needing to breathe.
That also means that it is best to practise taking diaphragmatic breaths, and also breathing out using mainly the diaphragm. Yipee, because that also gives wind players the best tone . If you take a "big breath" but have done so by dragging your shoulders up high, you just stick fresh air in the top of your lungs, tend to breathe out the same way in reverse, leaving all the stale stuff at the bottoms of your lungs, which then screams at you that you haven't breathed enough. So, use the diaphragm to drag new air to the bottoms of your lungs, and then use the diaphragm to shove that back out again. Learn how much air you need for a phrase, and don't breathe in more than you need - or you'll also be left with stale stuff. And try an oboe out. Oboists often have to breathe out before they can take another breath in, cos they're shoving the air down a drinking straw, and find it difficult to shift all the old air before tney need to take another breath in .

I'd agree with the 45ºangle too - think about the way the air curves over your palate and down the instrument. You want a smooth flow-line for your air for the best tone, and 45º will match the outflow from the front of your palate very nicely - minimal turbulence. Hold the instrument too low, or too high,. and you put a kink in that air flow column. You may have seen musicians sometimes holding their instruments very high for dramatic effect (I'm thinking jazz here), but if you look carefully, they also bend their heads back, and still have that same angle between head and instrument.

Oh - and on dancing - same applies, your airflow column must come first, move around that by all means but don't use so much energy that you are stealing oxygen from the music .

Having played oboe for less than two years I reckon it has improved my breathing and reduced my respiration rate as anacrusus suggests. I'm pretty sure the effect is greater than with any physical activity I've done, walking, cycling, even fell running. The reason is that I've been taught how to breath properly (i.e into the bottom of my lungs) and it seems to be something I do all the time now. I recently tried to demonstrate the difference to someone recently between "taking a big breath" (shoulders going up, etc.) and "taking a deep breath" (into the belly). I'd forgotten how to do the former.

Just a line to thank you all for your responses, particular Anacrusis for your extremely thorough and clear explanation - it makes perfect sense and I now see that what I need to do is use my lungs more efficiently, rather than just increase their capacity!

Just to clarify, I was initially looking specifically for exercises to do on my clarinet, though I can see that I didn't make that very clear with my initial post. However, I shall practise breathing exercises separately now as well and see how much improvement I can make!

Thanks again, everyone!

Oh and by the way Skylark, my music stand whacking isn't quite as bad as it sounds - tends to be as I turn a page or move from the bottom of the left to the top of the right! Well, that's my excuse anyway and I'm sticking to it!!

I've just thought of another one : try the Baermann Tarantella that's on the current list A grade 5 syllabus, without breathing in the middle of any of the slurs...

OOh - I have that in 50 Classical Studies and think that should be manageable. Will try it later and let you know!

See if you can not only do it at a quick tempo, but also a little slower : in many ways that's more of a challenge

Played the Tarantella this evening successfully - or at least I felt that it was! Actually, my pile of new books arrived today from the Britannia Music shop sale and amongst them was the ABRSM Grade 5 book. For some reason, the Tarantella looks much more straightforward printed here than in 50 Classical Studies! And I finally have Frensham Pond to try out too. Also included in my little haul is the Demnitz Elementary School for Clarinet, which I intend to just work slowly and methodically through. Plenty to keep me busy for a while!

I'm posting yet again because I've been practising long notes in front of a mirror tonight, so that I could watch my neck muscles. I was quite alarmed to see how much one of the veins in my neck seems to bulge as I play! I'm really trying to concentrate on my breathing and articulate the notes properly with my tongue but despite my best efforts, it really looks as though I am doing something seriously wrong!

My first thought was that perhaps I am blowing too hard and should try a softer reed. Grateful for any thoughts - particularly from anyone who has experienced a similar thing! I very nearly posted this in the throat discomfort thread but to be honest, I felt fine until I saw my hideously unattractive neck!!

My first thought would be the same : especially if the bulging is accompanied by a fluffy sound, particularly in the lowest register. See if a reed a half strength down helps