Don’t move!

Many of the problems we have are caused by parts of our bodies moving when they should be still, or being tense when they should be more relaxed.

A big culprit is the back of the tongue and the muscles around the throat. In most cases this is caused by controlling the air at Place #5 or higher.

There is a fancy name for this problem and it’s at the heart of most breathing treatises. It’s called the Valsalva's maneuver and you can find a lot of information about it on the web but here it is in it’s simplest form:

If you control the air above Place #6 you will have to use the muscles in your throat and mouth to push the air out. The muscles will tense.

If you control the air above Place #6 you will have all sorts of problems

• Your throat will close and you will have trouble tonguing cleanly
• Your mouth muscles and your tongue will tense up and you can’t use them to get the air focused and they won’t be relaxed enough to let your mouth find the right shape
• Your volume of air will be small
• Your sound will be thin
• You will have trouble with your high and low ranges
• You will have little volume control
• Flexibility will be a problem
• Intonation will be difficult to control

Since many of us do not have the lower ab muscles developed we have to practice controlling the air down them. Do it for a couple of minutes every day and your playing will improve dramatically!