Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

Requiem Of The Forsaken wrote:

This may be the best place to ask this..

I'm an asthmatic and I can keep it under control, but I'm having issues holding air long enough to play for extended periods of time, being VERY new to the Shakuhachi, my sensei has told me that this ability will come in time, a fact I respect, however I'd like to help the process, if that's even possible? Anyone else have asthma? Or know of better ways to strengthen myself?

I've taken on board what shinkage ryu has said regarding the breathing technique.

I can't really say anything about the asthma because I don't know, but issues with holding air long enough is common among all flute players of any kind of flute at any level. To go to an extreme, both for example and for anyone who doesn't believe the "any level" part of it, try doing a bunch of pushups, jumping jacks, climbing stairs or whatever kind of exercise you want and immediately pick up the flute and start playing. You'll find that while you can obviously inhale enough air in your lungs for a nice long phrase, it's very difficult to control the exhale for that nice long phrase because you'll be starved for fresh air. This is something to think about. If bringing your metabolism up makes it difficult to control the exhale, it stands to reason that bringing your metabolism down will make the exhale easier to control. So, you want to be relaxed before playing. Now, you may ask, what's the best way of inducing a relaxed state in preparation for playing? Of course, there are many tried and true techniques out there, but one very simple, fast way that will also oxygenate your bloodstream (can you see how important this is?) is a few deep natural breaths. So, my suggestion would be to break up your practice with regular half-minute or so breaks of deep breathing. Efficiency in producing a tone is something that will come with time as your teacher suggested and will help also, However, while taking breathing breaks during a practice session, or making sure you breath during breaks in a lesson or performance, can be learned over time with self discovery, it is something you can do immediately after being told about it.   Remember it, it's very helpful.

Thanks heaps for the replies eveyone, I'll keep my asthma well managed (caffeind,) keep blowing prolonged "Ro" as a training exercise (Tairaku,) and remember to take some time out to breathe and stay relaxed (radi0gnome)

Hahaha, rocked up to my lesson today after being stressed out all day and having everyone in the world try to make me late and I took some of my asthma medication (which has adrenaline in it) and took 10mins to calm down so I could focus properly. NIGHTMARE!!

Tairaku wrote:

I bought one and it may be good for ordinary humans but for a shakuhachi player it's like Arnold Schwarzenegger lifting a feather. Playing shakuhachi gives your lungs a MUCH better workout than this does at full resistance.

I had bronchitis recently and the doctor wanted to test my lungs with a Pulmonary Functions Test meter. I told him, "Just write down the maximum." but he insisted I actually do it. When he saw that thing almost explode his eyes bugged out of his head!

OK, I'm kind of with you on this, but shakuhachi or most any flute has very little resistance. I think it would be two different kinds of workout. If you want a musician strength resistance workout maybe saxophone would be better. (BTW, I realize it doesn't meet the silent requirement and also that you already play it) I almost think the low resistance shakuhachi workout could be achieved with the exercises on Riley Lee's "Breath!" DVD. One that I really liked is the one where you blow a gentle stream of air onto a candle to make it so only the blue part shows.

As far as the doctor's test equipment, I remember one that I think was supposed to be for lung capacity and they asked if I was a runner. Yea, right, after they already labled me as moderately obese for being 185 at 5'11''! And then the thing where you sit on the floor and see how close you can get to touch your toes (or past your toes in my case), they had to rate me on the womens scale because the guys scale didn't go that far. Yoga, Pilates, and flute playing can mess up those kinds of physical exams a lot.