The Importance of Breathing While NOT Playing
Every band director preaches over and over again about taking a good breath to play your instrument. It always seems that the answer to any sound production problem is "Use more air!" and sure enough, it is great to remind your students of how to breath properly. A large breath can indeed help groups when they play, but how often do you talk to them about breathing when they don't have to play? How often to you assign breathing routines in a fundamentals block? Most likely the answer is not often, if even at all.
Large breaths are great for your body. Swimming, lifting weights, running, and even yoga and Pilates routines all recognize the importance of controlled and rehearsed breathing techniques. Running around on a football field with a tuba is not any less physically taxing than those activities. Even more, you then have to take a "big" breath, play four whole notes, and not surface again for 16 counts! So, how, as band directors, can we make this scenario easier for our slightly less-than-in shape tuba section? Here's how: implement a structured breathing sequence well before they even bring the horn up.
In a basics block, have your musicians practice breathing while marching, possibly with simple arm motions. For example, when taking 8 steps, breathe in for 4, and then breathe out for 4. Extend the phrases, quicken the count structures, or add in conflicting counts (3 vs. 4) to keep your marchers active both physically and mentally. Anything to get them taking full, calm, relaxed, deep, and constant inhales and exhales. The next step is to add these breathing techniques into the drill. As soon as the sets are learned, introduce a breath count structure the set or two before that instrument enters. Teach your section leaders to plan and clarify these and clarify them, as drill is learned, similar to a section horn up or down.
Breathing correctly and consistently throughout the show will slow heart rates, calm nerves, relax bodies, focus minds, and add group breathing; all things that will improve every section's entrance in terms of articulations, timing, and balance of side-to-side energy. Even if you choose not to commit to this idea fully, clarifying an 8 count set as in 2 out 2 in 4 before an important entrance or difficult part of the show can be an amazingly successful tool. Taking a few extra minutes early in the season to create and explain this process to your musicians will prove invaluable a couple months down the road.
 | Evan Cooper frequently writes articles and teaches clinics on marching, movement, and brass instruction. For a more complete bio please visit our consultants and clnicians page here. |