Posted by Brent on March 07, 2002 at 23:43:10:
In Reply to: Well... posted by ? on March 07, 2002 at 18:47:00:
I had a trombone student(eighth grade) about 8-10 years who used circular breathing. He could play for 20-30 minutes without taking the trombone off his lips. The only problem, or problems circular breathing caused were: 1. tone quality suffered 2. high register was under developed, and as a result he also did not play very well in tune. I had him buzz his etudes on the mouthpiece alot and after about two years he became quite a good player. He found that in order to correct the above deficiencies he had to give up circular breathing for awhile in order to pass auditions.(Governor's Honors, AllState and entrance into a music education degree program). I agree that it does distort the embouchure, however if you can pull it off it's a neat trick. Buddy Baker , in one of clinics years ago used circular breathing on the euphonium. He said one day that he wanted to record either some or all of the Bach Cello Sonatas using circular breathing. It seems to me that circular breathing works best for smaller bored instruments.Unless, of course, you have really big storage capacity in your cheeks!ha,ha.
Well, give it a try. You never know when you might need it for performances or to show/teach a curious student.
Brent Vokes, CC&St.U.