Re: Die Meistersinger Prelude


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Posted by Rick Denney on August 21, 2002 at 17:34:52:

In Reply to: Die Meistersinger Prelude posted by Jason Smith on August 21, 2002 at 12:16:11:

Whatever you do, don't try to learn circular breathing in preparation for an audition.

If breathing is a necessity, then everyone will have to do it, no matter where the slurs are marked. So, the strategy is to do it in as musical a way as possible. If another auditioner breathes unmusically, and still another makes a thin, poor sound because he's stretching too little air over too much music (my usual mistake), then you lose no ground to them by breathing musically even if you do it in the middle of a phrase.

If you breathe before the three eighth notes, make sure those eighth notes start authoritatively at the right time, or perhaps even on the front edge of the right time. That will maintain the forward movement so critical here.

A milestone in learning the tuba that all must cross is thinking and playing through a phrase even though you have to breathe in the middle of it. I've always had a hard time breathing without breaking the phrase, and it's because I think of the breath as a break, rather than thinking of it as part of the music.

Rick "with no shortage of self-awareness" Denney


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