Buzzing Reed- Classical Music & Clarinet Culture

Suspension Support

Image Credit:
Pedro Moura Pinheiro

As some readers may already know, I introduced the Flow Breathing technique a few weeks ago on Marion Harrington’s blog (which I highly recommend).

Flow Breathing is a new way to learn and control breath support.

Note: If you use Twitter, you can follow Flow Breathing discussions using #Legato

The refined basic Flow Breathing technique is published with a short introductory video here on Buzzing Reed at: Flow Breathing Technique.

Using the natural motions in Flow Breathing you can achieve high level breath support leading to subtle control of tone, intonation and articulation.

Suspension Support is one of the primary techniques I developed using Flow Breathing.

Suspension Support refers to controlling the top of the inhale by slowing it down and eventually “suspending” the flow from inhale to exhale.

The following simple series of steps introduces Suspension Support in its simplest form.

• Slow down the top turn of the breath – Breathe very open through your mouth and nose. While keeping in mind the flowing motions from inhale to exhale, slow down the breath at that “turn” of the breath from inhale to exhale. Keep the air moving. Just slow down the top turn.
• “Fogging the Mirror” – If you can do that without tensing neck, shoulders or back, slow the motion even more at the top of the inhale, so the exhale becomes a slow, whispered sigh, like fogging a mirror. Notice the open and lifted feeling in the rib cavity floating up and out on inhale and gently floating down and in on exhale.

Note: In order to “practice” (meaning repeat to improve) this exercise, you may need to allow an occasional pause at the end of the exhale to regain the natural flowing motions. If you become too focused on controlling the flow you may lose the flow. Allow the pause at the end of the breath occasionally to prevent any unnecessary tension.

• Lean to Return to the Suspended Inhale – Next, at the top turn of the breath, allow only a little “fogging of the mirror” before returning to the top of the inhale. Despite controlling the breath more, remember to keep the turns smooth. Allow the inhale to return a bit faster than the exhaled “fogging”. Do this a few times.

The suspended point of uplifted and full air will become your “home base”, the point to which you return after playing a note. This position at the top of the breath encourages a light support “from above” the note, called Suspension Support.

• “Ha-ing” a note – Now I’ll ask you take your instrument. Using only air attacks, not tongue, play a note, perhaps an open g on clarinet. (For any other wind instrument, play any easy note.) Using an air attack, such as a single laugh, “Ha”, play an open g. As soon as you “ha” the note, return to the full uplifted (suspended) position.
• Ha-Ha some more! – Next, play a simple scale on octave, using air, “ha”-ing each note 4 times. Use only a puff of air for each note, returning immediately to the “suspended” full up position.

These exercises may feel a bit odd at first, but I assure you that you have just begun to explore the wonderful possibilities of Flow Breathing and Suspension Support.

Next Monday I’ll present a video of the exercise I describe above plus a few more.

Would you like to share practice ideas with other musicians? Please consider joining the Musician Practice Café.

Excellent post on developing internal musical skills, useful for teachers, performers and amateurs. Check it out. Meg outlines several key exercises to bring out your inner musician.

1. Open Your Ears
2. Natural Drumming
3. Singing With Machines
4. Create A Playlist
5. Write A Musical Story

You can read about them in detail over at:

Drawing Out Your Innate Musical Genius – Grace Notes Music Studio.

This video is only partially helpful as a model for good breathing. As you can see, the ribs move up and out on inhale, and down and in on exhale. That’s helpful.

But this animation does not show the gathering of the spine on inhale, nor the lengthening of the spine on exhale. The spine must move with the breath. It is part of the breathing motions.

Skeleton Breathing Test from Daniel Tell on Vimeo.

Whether performer, teacher, composer, conductor or lover of classical music, three basic principals come into play-

1. #Fermata focuses patience. #Fermata sustains us under duress. #Fermata is the strength of determination. It is the optimistic energy passed from teacher to student, student to professional, evolving professional, to the professional learning to sustain or recover from injury, and all variations.
2. #Legato sustains. #Legato is control of the breath, which affords control of the self and control of playing. #Legato Flow Breathing can control stress. #Legato feeds #Fermata patience as well.
3. #Rubato sparks our creative fire; from composers to performers to teachers, #rubato expresses our higher selves, the part of us which makes our unique mark in our world and in the lives of others. #Rubato learns from the past to create the future.

Musical Intelligence

Image Credit

A player must employ all available skills to learn music deeply. The following list isolates 7 types of intelligence (ways of learning) which enable comprehensive understanding of music.

1 – Body/Breath Intelligence -

How do you use and control your air? All musicians benefit from awareness of the breath. Wind players must know and control the flow of breath and the types of breath support. By extension breath includes body use and awareness. (However, finger and hand awareness are isolated below.)

Practice: Flow Breathing technique carried into your musical practice.

2 – Rhythmic Intelligence –

What is the rhythmical feel of the music? What are its dance-like qualities? Body memory of rhythm is vital to musical intelligence.

Practice – Conducting gestures or voiced syllable

3 – Finger/Hand Intelligence –

Feel and learn the motions of the fingers. How many fingers move? Where do they move? Remember the shape of the finger patterns through a passage.

Practice – Finger passages without sound.

4 – Pitch Intelligence –

Learn to hear and sing pitches, intervals, relationships of tones. Singing engages deep rooted musical instincts.

Practice – Sing phrases as best you can, perhaps while you conduct.

5 – Visual Intelligence –

Visual learning of the actual notes on the page. See the page in your mind. Visual memory can come in handy in a panic, or save you if your music falls off your stand.

Practice – Memorize line by line to map the visual page in your mind.

6 – Theoretical Intelligence –

What are the theoretical structures of the music, such as scales, chords, progressions, analysis of form. Theory intelligence is one of the best tools to grasp music deeply.

Practice – What are the themes? How are they developed? Even rudimentary theoretical understanding boosts the whole musical experience.

7 – Musical intelligence –

Beyond pitches, notes, rhythm and theory lies the emotional content of the music- how it moves the listener; how a phrase is parsed. Musical intelligence unifies the experience of music; it glues the big picture into a whole. Musical intelligence maps music emotionally.

Practice: A musical story. Write a descriptive page using characters to represent each theme’s emotional picture, how themes interact and develop, how the mood changes from section to section.

By becoming aware of these various skills, any player can improve his overall musical ability. Each of the above listed intelligences will be detailed in future posts.

Would you like to share practice ideas with other musicians? Please consider joining the Musician Practice Café.

From Music Lovers Quotations, edited by Helen Exley.

I am Music- By Anonymous-

I tell the story of love, the story of sorrow, the story that saves and the story that destroys….

I am the smoke which palls over the field of battle where men die with me on their lips.

I am close to the marriage alter, and when the grave opens I stand nearby. I call the wanderer home, I rescue the soul from the depths; I open the lips of lovers and through me the dead whisper to the living.

I serve one as I serve all, and I make leaders my slaves as easily as I subject their slaves.

I speak through the birds of the air, the insects of the field, the crash of waters on rock ribbed shores, the sighing of the winds in the trees and I am even heard by the soul that knows me in the clatter of the wheels on city streets.

Patience in the Details

Image Credit- In Search of Lost Time

Using Flow Breathing to find patience in the details of playing a phrase-

This article picks up where my series of 3 guest posts on a friend’s blog site ends. If you have not read the article on Flow Breathing and Constructive Rest, please go and check it out now.

When you are comfortable with constructive rest and Flow Breathing you are ready to go to the next step. The feeling of balanced wholeness attained lying on the floor can be translated to a standing position.

Slowing down to the speed of music-

You are ready to make music. But wait, did I say pick up your instrument? Nope. Be patient.

You are laying the deepest of all foundations possible, a wide base of control which will allow sustainable and efficient advancement.

While standing or sitting, become aware of the Flow Breathing motions which you achieved lying down. Staying present “in the room”, feel your breath wave move in and out a few times, with nice smooth turns.

Pick a phrase you are comfortable with, perhaps one which has been memorized.

Music making occurs in your mind before much else can happen. You cannot play a phrase well without hearing it first in your head.

Imagine the phrase in your head. (not in your body.) As you imagine the music keep your body and Flow Breathing very simple and aware just as you did while in constructive rest.

Pretend you are holding your instrument. Check in with your Use- be alert in the room, be in your body and allow your Flow Breathing to move unimpeded.

You may have to remind yourself of these qualities by lying down again. That’s okay. Do it.

This is an add-on project, not a one after the other exercise-

Each step is added on to the awareness of the previous ones. This may require time and repetition of steps. Be patient.

Try picking up your instrument. Did your breathing change?

Are you still able to be in the room, poised and alert with free and un-impeded natural breathing? If not, go back a step to where you can assemble all the steps before continuing.

There are no real shortcuts.

If you can pick up your instrument and hold it (not playing) and imagine the phrase while remaining aware of your flowing breath, then you are ready to “think” and “act on” playing. But do not play yet! Finger the notes as you blow out your lips (not through the mouthpiece yet!) and mime the phrase as you hear it, all the while keeping some awareness tuned to all the previous steps.

When you “blow” the mimed phrase (assuming you are a wind player) be careful to keep the effort “small”, not pushing into any real “support” or air pressure.

You can build the pressure gradually as you are able if you can maintain the smooth wave of Flow Breathing you noticed in constructive rest. Keep it curvy!! Go as slow as necessary to keep those curves.

You want to find the most gently graded path through this process. Keeping the two curves of your Flow Breath wave smooth, blow a little harder. The amount of air expelled is not a goal, just the speed. (When I play I may comfortably exhale only a bit before I begin to tense my neck!)

Remember the three parts of Flow Breathing and keep the whole package of your Self as one gorgeous Unit of Breathing lusciousness.

You must become responsible for attuning your attention to your whole Self in the room exhaling with a bit of extra speed. Be in the room.

Involving your instrument, but not yet playing-

When all the previous steps can be achieved with relative consistency try bringing the instrument to your lips and taking a comfortable breath and NOT PLAYING. Did your breathing tense? Did any part of the whole get lost in the “goal” of intended playing? If so, go back a step or two.

As you can see there is a lot of “2 steps forward, 1 step back.” Or 2 steps back, or 3 or even 4, however many steps back to get back to Flow Breathing.

The ground on which you can build anything-

The primacy of relaxed wholeness in your awareness of yourself, in the room breathing unimpeded, becomes your “ground” for basing the quality of all future “intentions” to play the instrument.

Any actual playing must come from your alert self in the room breathing with Flow. I can assure you, patience now will pay off in spades later!

Small steps. Play one or two notes-

Blow the first note or two of the (by now much desired!) phrase of music you have been “imagining”. Just one or two notes may be possible with this soft effort.

Do you remember letting the exhale extend while lying down?

Using that soft effort, continue to add a note or two to the phrase.

Explore this pattern until you can play the whole phrase. The tone may be weak but that is easily fixable. The primary goal is to maintain the flow of your breathing while playing.

You now have the deepest possible “foundation” for building one phrase, or many.

Happy Music Making!

Would you like to share practice ideas with other musicians? Please consider joining the Musician Practice Café.