Hi, I was just wondering if it's possible to do Circular Breathing? ie. breathing in through your nose and blowing out through your mouth at the same time, a girl at my band said that it is possible, and I wanted to know if this is true, and if so, how, as this would be helpful to wind instrument players for particulaly long slurred passages.

Please post if you know anything about this.

Thanx
Meg_lili

Hello,

My brass teacher said it was possible when i asked him years ago, i've never been able to do it.
Does anyone know how? It would be so useful for playin the trumpet!

It would be interesting to know if anyone can actually do it.

Fae

Sheilz

Him

Im a woodwind teacher, and I will mention that, firstly, circular breathing is incredibly difficult.
Secondly, it can serious damage your throat, and it does look awful when performing.

I am neither a woodwind teacher nor have I ever played a woodwind instrument in my life (I'm pretty convinced that a few years of recorder playing in primary school doesn't count ).

However I have observed that there are many many web pages written about how to do it so my advice would be type it into google; you'll get plenty of results (although remember to consider the reliability of each source...).

A couple of results from a quick search:

Woodwind.org - the Clarinet Pages
Pat Missin

Also do bear in mind that as David said many people consider that it can be damaging if not done absolutely correctly.

I did it ONCE!
I bet my friend I could do half of Radetsky March in one breath (dont ask why! lol) And I managed it without fainting at the end cos i did it accidentally!

Kate

Personally i prefer putting in breath spots, after all, i would rather spend the time practising the piece i am playng rather than practise on how to breathe...

not stopping you if you want to learn, it is, after all, a very handy technique, just be careful if you do take it up!