Breathing whilst playing......

charleshaupt

Hi all,just a silly question,I noticed in certain sportstyles,that proper breathing technique is an important discipline.Would the same above breathing technique,necessarily apply and benefit us as musicians in any way? Just wondering,thanks......I mean no amount of proper breathing technique is going to give me a smooth passage through intricate solo,s if i didn,t prepare well enough?

arjunmenon

I would imagine that proper breathing does apply to guitar playing. I did competitive rifle shooting for most of my adolescent years, and the first thing our coach stressed on was being relaxed. How he taught us was, count to 4 while you inhale, hold it for a count of 2, then exhale while you count to 2, take your shot between count 2 & 3, continue exhaling. Obviously, this doesn't work so well for guitar playing.
How i've adapted this for guitar is by taking deep breaths in the intricate/quick bits and exhaling towards the end of the phrase - not unlike horn players who breathe between phrases.
IMO, proper breathing should help you get relaxed and focussed (in the zone?).
Warming up properly, knowing your $h!t and having something to say, form the other 80% of the equation.

deefstes

Yes, it is imperative that you breathe while playing guitar. In fact, no activity should be attempted without breathing ?

No but more seriously, I have heard an interesting and convincing argument being made for breathing as if you're singing. The point was that you should try to imitate a voice with your guitar playing and if you breath as if you're singing, you will develop a more natural feel for where the phrases end etc.

It's very academic and I doubt you'd find a video that illustrates how breathing correctly makes the music sound better than breathing incorrectly but there is a certain amount of logic in the argument for me.

I very much like the notion of trying to imitate a voice with the guitar (and I'm horrible at it). But if I look at the guitar players that really inspire me (Gary Moore, Peter Green, Mark Knopfler) their playing seems to be much less about maniacally racing over as many notes as possible in as little time as possible and more about imparting a "feeling" in their solos. The best description I've heard is that they use the guitar like a voice.

Here's an interesting write-up that mentions this approach to breathing correctly while playing.
http://www.classicalguitar.org/2009/03/breathing-while-playing-guitar/

DonovanB

deefstes wrote: Yes, it is imperative that you breathe while playing guitar. In fact, no activity should be attempted without breathing ?

Except maybe snorkeling.

Wizard

When I was learning drumming, I was taught to make my breathing completely independent of my playing.
This is critical as natural instinct is to hold your breath while you are doing something you find hard.
Which means you can only do hard things for as long as your breath lasts
?

In fact, we were encouraged to be able to have idle conversations while busy playing to develop this independence.
e.g. be able to talk to students about a piece while playing the piece.

deefstes

Donovan Banks wrote:
deefstes wrote: Yes, it is imperative that you breathe while playing guitar. In fact, no activity should be attempted without breathing ?
Except maybe snorkeling.

What did you think is the purpose of that snorkel? It's for the very purpose of breathing. But yes, as with many other sports there is a certain breathing technique that one must adhere to. In the case of snorkeling you must time your inhalations to coincide with the periods of time that the snorkel is not submerged.

Alex-B-Broadway

deefstes wrote:Yes, it is imperative that you breathe while playing guitar. In fact, no activity should be attempted without breathing ?

Wizard wrote:In fact, we were encouraged to be able to have idle conversations while busy playing to develop this independence.
e.g. be able to talk to students about a piece while playing the piece.

This seems to help me, for some reason. I always have a guitar nearby, even if I'm on the phone (or especially when, depends who's calling ?) and if I can play it well enough it seems to be easier to play later. Maybe because I don't have to think about it and can just play it.

As for breathing, since I usually have to sing and play guitar at the same time, it took me a while to get used to it. I normally just think of what's coming and then adjust my breathing accordingly. Otherwise I end up running out of breath right before I need it the most.

Gareth

Not a silly question at all IMO,
breathing also relates to your phrasing of the piece, singing is great as is playing a wind instrument (except a harp ? ) for building an awareness of phrasing and breathing.
For a time I used to run through repetitive scales etc. focusing on my posture, breathing, relaxing etc. maybe time to re-visit this, thanks for the heads-up ?

Arno-West

When I track an acoustic track and have 3 highly sensitive studio mics set-up, it picks up my breathing whilst I'm doing takes. I've learnt not to wear noisy clothing or have coins or car keys in my pockets and to time my breathing when recording acoustic guitars...

Averatu

Play your scales while watching South Park or Venture Brothers. I've noticed people forgetting to breathe while playing before.

Averatu

Play your scales while watching South Park or Venture Brothers. I've noticed people forgetting to breathe while playing before.

Airguitar

Playing guitar AND breathing??
?

Just how much multitasking is one supposed to do?? :-[