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Thread: Circular Breathing

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    West Palm Beach, FL
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    3,853
    Oh man, I remember reading about William Bennett dying on stage during a solo. Only 56 and had a brain hemorrhage. I only knew him from a wonderful DVD I have with the MTT (Michael Tilson Thomas) program called, "Making a Performance" when they're preparing for Tchaikovsky No. 4 Symphony. Mr Bennett is featured quite a bit in rehearsing the second movement where the oboe and bassoon are both featured. I remember him stating that he was usually the first on stage to acclimate his oboe to the temperature as there's not much room to tune the oboe.

    If interested this link will take you to the start of Bill Bennett's feature:
    Making a Performance - Tchaikovsky No. 4 (YouTube):

    I think the audio/video is better at this link with the whole program:
    https://michaeltilsonthomas.com/keeping-score/tchaikovsky/

    Sergei Nakariakov is about the best brass player I've seen using circular breathing. He uses it quite a bit playing Haydn Cello Concerto in C major on flugel horn.
    ...
    Rick Floyd
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  2. #12
    Thanks for sharing these Rick, I had not listened to Sergei Nakariakov before and that was really great playing, I'll have to find more from him.

    I was watching a video of Wynton Marsalis tonight and noticed him circle breathing so thought I would come share this example.

    https://youtu.be/3blL4v-cY18

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    SF Bay Area, CA, USA
    Posts
    102
    Quote Originally Posted by RickF View Post
    Oh man, I remember reading about William Bennett dying on stage during a solo. Only 56 and had a brain hemorrhage. I only knew him from a wonderful DVD I have with the MTT (Michael Tilson Thomas) program called, "Making a Performance" when they're preparing for Tchaikovsky No. 4 Symphony. Mr Bennett is featured quite a bit in rehearsing the second movement where the oboe and bassoon are both featured. I remember him stating that he was usually the first on stage to acclimate his oboe to the temperature as there's not much room to tune the oboe.
    Wow, memory lane. Our meagre student budgets afforded only a few SFSO tickets, but I met him in person when he came across the Bay 1983ish to present and perform at a small UC Berkeley lecture for "Physics of Music" (yeah, dumb class, but I needed the easy A and it fulfilled an engineering general-ed req). He was personable, charming, and provided a fascinating history of the oboe's development. It's striking in retrospect how much time, effort, and experience his presentation represented in those pre-Internet/Wikipedia days. I remember thinking that - with his oxford shirt, sport coat, and leather shoes - he looked more like a professor than any of my 'real' professors did.

    One day in jr. high school, some of the high schoolers swung by to assist and our band director conducted a "longest held note" contest that the high school trumpeters won via circular breathing.
    A bunch of us spent a blink trying to cb, but I don't recall anyone picking it up.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Valley City, North Dakota, USA
    Posts
    1,314
    I'm simply not going to bother trying to learn. (I'm in MY 50s...don't need to drop dead suddenly...LOL Plus, many pros seem to get along just fine without this skill, so this amateur certain can!)

    It IS a cool technique though.
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  5. #15
    I recall hearing in one of Steven Mead's pandemic videos answering a question from a reviewer about this topic. Steve said he could do it, but didn't advise it for most players and he seemed to imply that there was a tonal penalty for using this as well - he seemed to say he didn't think the time to invest to acquire the skill was worth it and he also said he almost never uses it himself - and if a player at his level almost never uses it, that speaks volumes to me.
    - Scott

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  6. I’ve been using it daily for 31+ years- it probably took at least 5 or 6 to make it seamless.

    Is it necessary? No.

    Does it help with phrasing and keeping air between 90% and 65% all the time? Absolutely.

    Does it take practice? Yes, and then no.

    Those who don’t use it regularly (or haven’t tried, or tried and gave up) seem to be the most vocal about how it affects sound and is a superfluous technique.

    The same could be said for double tonguing, or lip trills. Or flutter tonguing. Or pitch bending. Or whisper tones. Or trombone.

    Happy to do a YouTube tutorial at some point to address any questions.

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