The way you breath affects the way you play piano. This video explains why.
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Video dialogue as text for online translation as requested:
Have you ever been rushing around, got flustered and a friend turns to you and says “Just take a deep breath”?
Singers and wind instrumentalists know all about taking deep breaths - they can’t make good music without being good at breathing.
Some get so good at it they can do something called “Circular Breathing” which enables them to create a continuous tone on their instrument by breathing in through their nose and pushing the air out stored in the cheeks.
Singers and wind instrumentalists have to strengthen their breath and lung capacity. They learn a technique called diaphragmatic breathing, also known as belly breathing, abdominal breathing even yoga breathing. In essence belly breathing is when you take in breath and expand your belly like blowing up a ballon. When you exhale, the ballon deflates.
Anxiety can be brought on by poor breathing and also the other way round, anxiety creates poor breathing habits, which in turn can make you feel nervous.
In concert situations good breathing technique is extremely important because poor breathing can lead to a rapid heartbeat and anxiety attacks also known to musicians as stage fright.
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Many pianists involuntarily hold their breath when playing very tricky passages, they get through difficult pieces by shallow breathing without realizing it. They concentrate so much on what they’re playing they’re not even aware they aren’t breathing properly. Healthy breathing is calming to the mind which helps you memorize better and help the arms and fingers feel relaxed when playing piano, especially for extended periods. But why is this?
In simple terms, when playing piano the muscle cells respire more than they do at rest, which means oxygen and glucose must be delivered to them more quickly and this can be achieved by deep breathing. If we shallow breath due to the anxiety related to technical difficulty we are doing the exact opposite of what we need to do in order to meet the demands of our bodies mechanism.
For example, Chopin’s 1st Nocturne is for the best part, slow and comfortable to play:
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but there are a few difficult runs …
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… if you don’t breath properly, you can create or increase anxiety which leads to tension in your fingers and wrists which in turn make these runs prone to finger blocks or hesitations. As a tip, if these type of runs cause you problems, divert your concentration away from the notes themselves and over to your breathing and you’ll find you play the runs more instinctually, which is often the fix.
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Here’s a breathing exercise I recommend:
Get out your Mozart Sonatas and play through the slow movements. Set the tempo of the movement to suit your breathing, not the other way round.
Set your metronome to 40 beats a minute. Sit on the stool with your back straight and your hands resting on your legs. 4 beats of 40 BPM in 4/4 time will give you about 5 seconds to breath in each bar and 5 seconds to breath out. As an example here’s a few bars from the slow movement of Sonata in B KV 570. I will pronounce the sound of my breathing to illustrate the exercise.
Try Sonata in C KV 457. You can breath both in for 5 seconds and out for 5 seconds each bar.
This is a breathing excise only to help become aware of breathing while playing and not meant to be illustrative of how you should breath in every piece as breathing can be associated closely with phrasing and expression, and is the subject of a separate tutorial.
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You don’t have to limit this exercise to the piano. You can listen to recorded music or recall music in your imagination and breath along with the phrases.
Once you get the hang of breathing properly when you play, it should lower your blood pressure and help your fingers, wrists and arms feel loose and relaxed. If you’ve set your sights on playing the more difficult piano works in the repertoire, as you practice the notes, don’t neglect to practice your breathing too.
25 июл 2024