Breathing issue
Hi there,
Im just starting out so still a lot to learn. My main problems right now (among many) are:
1. I breathe too much through the nose
2. I inhale more air than I exhale, so I full up my lungs.
The first problem has been mentioned in the lessons a little bit but I still have a problem with it. When I close my nose with my free hand I can hear the tone improving a lot. The tips I took away from the lessons are pretending to yawn and pretending to blow out a candle. Maybe there are certain breathing excercises I can do as well?
The other problem is a pretty big one for me, my lungs fill up with air so much I eventually can't do a draw note anymore. I'm also getting dizzy after too much practicing. Didn't really notice this problem that much with the 'walk with me' song but now that I'm practicing chords in solo harmonica lesson 1, especially example 1.10 and 1.12 I have issues with. It seems the lower notes (1 and 2) I take a deeper breath in to get what I feel like a proper sound out of the harmonica. Is this a common issue?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)
Hi CtQu,
I hope you don’t mind me chiming in. I struggled with being able to close off my nose as well and I still have problems with it when learning a new lick. As a new player, part of learning a new lick is teaching my mind when I need to close my nose. Closing my nose on demand so far has been the single hardest part of learning to play harmonica. The yawn exercised did not work for me because every time I think of a yawn, I yawn. Hard to play while yawning. The other problem with the yawn exercise is too many other muscles move and make it difficult to isolate which muscle is closing the soft palate.
I researched “closing the soft palette” and found that some swimmers have this problem and is one problem that speech therapists deal with when teaching children how to speak correctly. From one of those groups, I learned the following exercise.
Say the word, “kick.” Say if a few times. Now just as you are starting to pronounce the first “k” in the work kick stop and notice which muscle is in tension. Repeat this until you can identify the muscle in tension. I feel tension on each side of my nose and just above my upper lip when I start to say, “kick.” Once you identify the muscles needed to close the soft palette it become easier. The second part of the exercise is to exercise. Unless you are a swimmer or an experienced harmonica player this muscle is only accustomed to closing the soft palette for short periods, so you need to exercise these muscles to get them in shape to hold the soft palette closed for extended periods of time. Once you learn to close the soft palette on demand, keep closing the soft palette and holding it closed, then rest and repeat. The nice part is you can do this while watching TV. The final part is to teach the mind when to close the soft palette and this comes from continuing to play. For me, part of learning a new lick is to think about where I need to close the soft palette. Once I learn a lick, I no longer have to think about closing the soft palette for that lick. I’m hoping one day my mind will just figure it out and I no longer have to think about it when learning a new lick.
There are other exercises swimmers and speech therapists use, but this one worked for me, so I did not try any of the other exercises.
For the problem with lungs filling up with air there are several things David mentions on this website to help such as playing softer, I also found that standing up while playing allows me a little more room for air. I could not play exercises 1.10 and 1.12 during LOA1, and it really wasn’t until I reach the end of LOA3 that I could play them without difficulty. You will see these two exercises again in Solo Harmonica Studies 2, but as part of a 12 Bar chorus, so learn them, but keep moving forward on your studies even if you can’t play 1.10 and 1.12 all the way through now. As you progress in your studies keep these 2 exercises as part of your regular routine, you will soon be able to play these exercises without a problem.
I hope this helps and enjoy the journey.
Brian in Tennessee
Thank you both for your responses. I'm glad that these issues are common and it's not just me. I hadn't found the FAQ page yet so that's a huge help. There are some other items on there that I can use as well.
brshoemaker, thank you for your very elaborate response. I could allready deliberately engage the soft palette but I couldn't really hold it while playing. 'Kick' seems to work better than yawning, I think only downside is the back of your tongue tends to raise a bit more. But I will definitely practice with this. Also great tip about just continuing the program rather than being stuck at one exercise for too long. Sometimes you just need to take a step back and relax a bit rather than keep on pushing and get frustrated. :)
Hello CtQu. You've definitely diagnosed the issue, so that's good. Go to https://www.bluesharmonica.com/faq and watch the video titled "I run out of breath so easily!" The idea is pretty straight forward, it will just require consistent experimenting on your part to close the nose. Best wishes on this.