Hello guys! I play on harmonica for 1 year. Now I start to perform at concerts and found one seriously problem what ruins my long vibrato and so on. While I standing I have not enought air. I kinda feel weight in belly and what my abdominal muscles are'nt relaxed what makes less space for diaphragm to move. For example, while I sitting my muscles relaxed and I can use all 100% power of air :)
Maybe you know solution for my problem or some exercises to relax the abdominal muscles.
Sounds like you are getting nervous and moving too much air when playing, focus on just moving enough air...as you get more comfortable with performing, you will be more relaxed and use less air.
Don't worry too much about circular breathing, remember where & when you can expel excess air & draw in additional air...alternating between 2 draw & 3 blow for example can help. ---------- www.myspace.com/markburness
5F6H: no it's not about nervous and moving too much air. When I play at home without nervous it's same. When I sitting I can draw one note for ~45sec, when I standing I can draw ~25sec and circular breathing isn't solution for my problem, but it's maybe helpful for some situations
@ Alexey "5F6H: no it's not about nervous and moving too much air. When I play at home without nervous it's same. When I sitting I can draw one note for ~45sec, when I standing I can draw ~25sec and circular breathing isn't solution for my problem, but it's maybe helpful for some situations"
Why would you want, or need to draw a note for 45 seconds? Sitting down, with a D harp, I'm struggling to hit more than 30 seconds on the 2 draw...
Dos anyone have a solution to my problem, or have any excercises to relax my abdominal muscles? :-o
You could try some progressive muscle relaxation (info online). It could help you determine if you are tightening/constricting muscles while doing your standing playing. I have really bad GERD that can actually cause tightness on the right side of my chest and limit my breath at times. I ended up playing softer and getting tightly gapped harps to solve the issue.
Often times many harp players make the HUGE mistake of sucking their gut in while playing playing, especially on the draw notes, which to some guy's minds, may may them look more "faux-ripped," but what it does is work against you because you're doing nothing but constricting your air passages and all you do is shoot yourself in the foot doing this.
If you're having a hard time holding a note out longer than 30 seconds, the problem is usually from using too much breath force from the very beginning, but you have to be fully physically relaxed at the same time .
One thing I learned from a vocal coach was doing an extremely slow, very controlled yawn, inhaling very slowly and then letting the air out very slowly, but one thing to remember is NEVER force anything, and many harp players, especially who've taught themselves how to play are often guilty of doing this. ---------- Sincerely, Barbeque Bob Maglinte Boston, MA http://www.barbequebob.com CD available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/bbmaglinte
