Reprinted with permission from Tempo, the official magazine of the New Jersey Music Educators Association.
Citation information:
Berz, William, "Keep the Wind Blowing," Tempo, 53 no. 4 (May 1999): 14.
Keep the Wind Blowing
by
William Berz
Wind is clearly one of the most important technical requirements when playing a wind instrument. Without wind, there is not any kind of musical product at all; it directly contributes to every facet of playing: intonation, tone production, articulation, vibrato, interpretation, and even manual technique. Just as any machine requires a pure source of energy, so too does a wind instrument. If an automobile uses impure gasoline, its engine will falter. Likewise, the wind instrument will not perform properly if its energy source--wind--is faulty.
There are many different issues involved when facing this complex problem. Technical methods vary considerably, and discussion of these many approaches to breath support is beyond the scope of this article. (One might consult A Complete Guide to Brass: Instruments and Technique by Rutgers faculty member Scott Whitener for an excellent discussion on good approaches to the fundamentals of breathing on wind instruments.) However, there is one specific topic related to proper breathing fundamentals on which I would like to focus: continuous flow of wind. Proper attention to this topic can greatly improve many areas of performance, both technical and artistic.
The wind must always move forward at a continuous rate, not influenced by other technical factors, and when the air flow is interrupted, many problems are introduced. One of the most obvious examples is the slowing or stopping the air when tonguing. Many students will go so far as to not use the tongue at all, but rather will stop the sound using either the diaphragm or throat. This can create three major problems. First, the attack itself usually will become imprecise, lacking a good start. Second, students will not be able to separate notes very quickly, because stopping the breath cannot be done very rapidly. The third concern is that an extra variable, which must be coordinated by the player, is added. Normally in tongued passages, the performer must coordinate fingers and tongue. When the breath is interrupted, three factors then must be coordinated: tongue, fingers, and breath. Obviously, this is far more difficult. This problem affects students at all levels of training, from elementary to advanced. For teachers at the elementary level, getting students to keep the air moving while articulating (and actually tonguing), is certainly an important challenge. High school teachers might be more concerned with precision of attacks and the quality of articulation.
Musical flaws can be often heard in performances by advanced wind instrumentalists when the momentum of the wind is slowed, rather than actually stopped (see diagram). Although they may not stop the wind, air flow might be slowed at crucial times, and the musical momentum is lost. A player creates phrases by blowing through the notes, connecting each note to the next in order to create musical lines. It is impossible to develop a good lyrical style without this constant, horizontal air flow. Otherwise, phrasing is constantly interrupted by breaks in the wind. A comparison is often made with singing where there is no arbitrary separation of pitches. This is a good model for instrumentalists to follow.
Part of this problem is psychological. Many wind players tend to think in terms of notes rather than in connected phrases, this due in part to the way that they learn to play their instruments. Necessarily, students learn notes one at a time: fingering, note name, and notation. While there is no other way to do this, it does create a note-by-note orientation from the very beginning. As students progress, they must be taught to think beyond this model and to play in longer units. Just as we speak in sentences rather than in syllables or words, we must play in phrases rather than in notes. By doing this, we will help students to play more musically, and to get away from a note-to-note mentality. Musical and technical elements can then work together; students can understand the necessity of keeping the wind moving forward at all times.
Without question, the wind player must work to develop good breathing using diaphragm support without tension and/or compression; it is clearly the one of the central elements of wind playing. Constancy of breath (wind moving forward in an uninterrupted fashion) is one important principle of good wind playing, necessary for both technical and musical reasons. It represents a pedagogical challenge for teachers at all levels of instruction.