Breathing being physically uncomfortable and musically intrusive

At the start of the research, the participants all indicated that a key aim was to be able to breathe more comfortably whilst playing. They characterised breathing as a problematic aspect of playing, and described their experiences in terms of physical discomfort, getting in the way of musical impetus. Belinda felt that her breathing was often affected by a sense of panic in performance, and that when the panic started, her breathing would be ‘the first thing to go out of the window’. Her abdominal muscles would stop working and she would forget to breathe out. She felt that, as a result, she was not able to communicate musically in performance. Terry reported that his goal was to play:

In articulating how he might achieve his aims, however, Terry also highlighted one of the key challenges in teaching and learning breathing: the tension between a natural way of playing, between breathing without thinking, and the process of establishing a highly efficient habit or craft, tailored to the specific instrumental and musical task. He identified his tendency to think about breathing reactively, in response to uncomfortable physical sensations, and his wish to develop a more proactive approach:

Terry wanted to work on his breathing so that he could trust it to work well automatically, so allowing him to turn his conscious attention to other aspects of music making.

Limited physiological understanding

Initially, most of the participants had little knowledge about the anatomy and physiology of breathing. They could identify few muscles involved in breathing, and struggled to describe differences between clavicular, thoracic and abdominal breathing. Many of the participants also held confused ideas about key breathing issues, for example the direction of the breath in playing, and the function of the diaphragm. A typical image of the diaphragm was of a short band of muscle lying horizontally underneath the bottom of the ribcage or slightly above, and extending across the front of the body but not necessarily reaching either side, or being connected to the back. An example is shown in Fig. 1, and contrasts with the medical illustration shown in Fig. 2. However, whilst a few of the participants were keen to learn more about the anatomy and physiology of breathing, most did not see this as relevant to their practical work.

Fig. 1

A participant's representation of breathing muscles in playing the oboe

Fig. 2

Medical illustration of the diaphragm

A strong relationship between breathing and tense posture/movement

A common tendency at the beginning of the research was to take noisy and gasping breaths, with the head tilted forwards and down in order to play or breathe out (so compressing the front of the neck and chest), and then to tilt the head up and back to breathe in (compressing the back of the neck). This pattern was often accentuated whilst breathing out between phrases, when the process needed to be quick, or whilst trying to play quietly. For example, Hannah commented on her first video recording:

As Hannah indicated, the demands of playing quietly seemed to generate a particular fear and resultant tension, with an associated approach of trying to control a note, rather than allowing it to happen. She was experiencing difficulty in trusting herself to manage the physical demands and consequently was putting in too much effort.

A second area of importance was how participants used the lower part of the body. Terry immediately drew attention to where he placed his feet when playing in the first video, linking this to a more general feeling of being unbalanced and uncomfortable. Hannah developed the connection between feet and overall balance through the idea of being grounded. At first she suggested: ‘I don't, when I'm playing solo, think about my waist downwards whatsoever.’ When, however, we discussed her feet being close together in the first video, this triggered her memory of a masterclass which she had found most helpful. Here she had worked with the teacher on balance, being firmly planted on both feet but also lifting up through the body. It transpired that in addressing issues to do with tension and a repetitive strain injury, she was doing regular Pilates and weight-bearing exercises, but these were all focused on the upper part of the body, especially shoulders, chest and arms. As a result of reviewing her first video recording, however, Hannah decided that she wanted to develop greater awareness of the lower part of her body and a sense of being grounded in playing to help her breathing.

Few connections between breathing and musical line

Although integrating breathing with musical issues was a key principle which emerged from the literature review, the participants talked less about the connections between breathing and musical expression than they did about technical aspects of breathing and its relationship to performance anxiety. The most common perceptions they articulated related to the gaps between phrases, where they realised that they tended to breathe in wherever there was a slight pause in the music. For example, Hannah reported:

She also observed that the need to breathe out and in quickly between phrases would affect the flow of the music: ‘And I don't look after the ends of phrases because I'm too worried about breathing.’

The participants also made connections between breathing and a feeling of being prepared to play, both in terms of how well they knew the music they were performing and their mental and physical state as they approached the performance. For example Clare, before looking at her first video recording, immediately said: ‘I wasn't prepared. So my support went and notes didn't speak. And once one thing doesn't work, then it's a downward spiral.’ She did not refer directly to her breathing, but the notions of support or of notes not speaking both relate to the rate and consistency of the air flow in playing. She then went on to talk about her lack of preparation in terms of not having a feel for the ‘phrasing’ of the music, and so not knowing the lengths of the breaths needed. She did not mention, however, rhythmic aspects of breathing in relation to the pulse of music, or any specific connections between breathing and the expressive qualities in the music. This lack of connection between breathing and either the pulse of the music, or expressive qualities in playing, was typical of the students’ perceptions at the beginning of the research, and they all focused on breathing as a technical issue.

A strong relationship between breathing and anxiety or self-criticism

The participants suffered from considerable anxieties about their playing, and it was evident that these could contribute to a vicious circle of negative experiences in performance. For example, in the following extract Hannah recalled her own mounting anxiety in performance, and its impact on her breathing, posture and concentration:

In contrast, participants hardly ever talked about aspects of their playing which they considered successful. Whilst this may have been connected to a perception of the research wanting to establish a model of best practice and therefore criticising anything which fell short of an ideal, it was notable that the participants’ responses to the most open questions about what they noticed about their breathing tended to focus on what they felt were shortcomings. This was perhaps indicative of the way in which they engaged with themselves generally as players and performers. A longing to fix problems, and frustration with not being able to achieve goals seemed to encourage a negative view of their own abilities. Terry, for example, said that he never felt he was improving. Whilst it is undoubtedly difficult at an advanced level to perceive changes from week to week, and it is often only in looking back over a considerable period of time that a musician will identify the changes they have been able to make, Terry's perception was markedly self-critical. Furthermore, his approach related not only to situations when he was giving a public performance, but to playing in general, including his practising. Terry was not an exception, and his approach highlighted a theme which became increasingly evident through the process of the research and in analysing the data. This related to a prevalence of anxiety in learning which impacted on students’ confidence as players, and in their ability to take responsibility for and direct their own learning.

Hannah, similarly, talked about difficulties she experienced, some of which were linked to the learning environment:

She understood that having to be more aware of details and nuances of technique and musicianship also brought with it the dangers of never-ending critical thinking and self-evaluation. In expressing this, she identified a key pressure experienced perhaps by many students in a conservatoire education, where highly refined standards in playing are a normal expectation. The culture of the institution was shown here to have the potential to be inhibiting to student learning as well as stimulating.

Difficulties in articulating and analysing experiences of breathing

All the participants suggested that the internal sensations of breathing impacted significantly on their playing. However, whilst they usually expressed the desire to improve breathing clearly, when they attempted to articulate their experiences more specifically, their descriptions often became confused or vague. For example:

However, the participants’ responses also suggested a tendency to rely on the teacher to come up with solutions to particular difficulties. Participants were perhaps not used to articulating and analysing their experiences with breathing, and this was compounded by the fact that the processes of breathing are physically internal and for the most part cannot be seen. This seemed to be a particular characteristic of his relationship with me as a teacher, which was reminiscent of a doctor–patient relationship, with Terry waiting for a diagnosis from me as the teacher and a prescription for a remedy for his difficulties. This placed me as the teacher in a role of great responsibility but where the foundation of my knowledge was largely based on my own experience as a player, and was not necessarily sufficient to make a useful diagnosis or to prescribe a useful remedy for another player. Furthermore, when Terry adopted a more dependent role, reluctant to trust his own perceptions and experiment with his own ideas, this limited his learning potential, especially in the context of long hours of practice where he had to be his own teacher. The impact of the teacher–pupil relationship and the individual player's approach to learning on the process of developing breathing practice was not discussed in the literature review relating to breathing and oboe playing, but emerged here as significant and has been identified elsewhere (Sogin & Vallentine, Reference Sogin and Vallentine1992; Gholson, Reference Gholson1998; Reid, Reference Reid2001; Gaunt, Reference Gaunt2006).

Participants also lacked knowledge of the anatomical and physiological changes involved in breathing whilst playing the oboe and their implications. Reluctance to adopt a problem-solving approach may in Hannah's case have been congruent with the characteristics of relentless self-criticism she identified. With Clare, on the other hand, it seemed that her lack of awareness of the details of her breathing related to physical and mental distraction she experienced in playing. She found it hard to say anything at all about her breathing. It was only with considerable prompting that she noticed the big physical movements she made at many breath points between phrases. Whilst I found this surprising, the perspective of the Alexander Technique specialist was illuminating. He showed that the ways in which Clare moved when playing were emphatically driven by aspects of the music such as the higher and lower pitches and the dynamics. He drew attention to the fact that she was choreographing the high and low pitch changes by moving the oboe up and down, and similarly moving the oboe up for loud passages and down for quiet ones. These movements increased as she became more tired and her breathing was more strained. He suggested that these movements were involuntary, she was not consciously choosing to do them, and indeed might well have trouble choosing not to do them (Sanders, Reference Sanders2002a, Reference Sanders2002b).

It appeared, therefore, that Clare's internal sense of physical self was considerably weaker than her sense of external factors such as the music on the page. Consequently her attention was being pulled away from her physical sensations and self-awareness, and she was being driven by the attempt to fulfil the requirements of the music in a way which actually compromised her physically, creating unnecessary tension and impeding the flow of air sustaining the musical line. The balance of attention to self and to external factors, such as the printed music, seemed therefore to be an important consideration. With oboe playing it appeared that the physical effort required and the uncomfortable physical sensations which this generated could in fact distract a player from using self-awareness productively, and away from more analytic and reflective approaches to learning.

Stronger awareness of breathing

In his second interview Terry emphasised again that a key characteristic of effective breathing was that it should not interfere with other aspects of performance. When asked what facilitated this aim he suggested: ‘. . . being fully aware of exactly what it is that you're doing . . . being so much aware of it that in a way you don't have to be aware of it.’ In a similar vein, Clare described such awareness metaphorically:

All four of the students who participated in all aspects of the research developed new awareness both of their own existing breathing patterns, and of concepts/practices which could help or hinder further development. Furthermore in Hannah's case, although she was extraordinarily self-critical of her performance and breathing in the first video recording, by the end of the research her comments were more measured, and she was able to articulate specifically how she was now achieving greater control in her breathing, reporting that increasing awareness of breathing was helping her to develop her whole physical use during playing:

Her developing awareness of breathing seemed to coincide with growing self-awareness overall, which enabled Hannah to listen to herself and her physical needs as a part of the process of playing, to match this with the musical demands, and so become more active in directing her progress as a whole.

Tension between physiological understanding and practical know-how

Whilst anatomical and physiological understanding of breathing had some significance for the participants, the translation of concepts into practice was more important, and this was not always easy. The seminar work on understanding the anatomy and physiology of breathing generated mixed responses. Terry found it very useful, Belinda and Hannah described it as useful in parts but also at times confusing, Clare considered it a waste of precious practice time. Changing understanding, however, had some impact on the participants’ approaches to playing. Belinda and Terry, for example, realised that their image of the diaphragm was not simply incorrect, but detrimental to their playing, as it tended to increase physical tension in a small area of the abdominal muscles, rather than spread the physical effort through a greater range of muscles. Terry began to change his thinking particularly in relation to two ideas: that the diaphragm has a dome shape when relaxed, and that it is attached along a portion of the lower spine:

However, Terry also reported having difficulties in putting his new knowledge into practice. Indeed, as he suggested, even remembering the shape and position of the diaphragm was a challenge, given how embedded his old concepts were in his actual practice:

Echoing this, the other participants felt that whilst they were beginning to be able to put some new physiological ideas into practice, it would nevertheless take time to establish these as habitual parts of playing. Although a number of specific breathing exercises were used through the research, the process of incorporating these into regular individual practice was not straightforward. Hannah, for example, remembered an exercise of breathing right out until breathing in came as a natural reflex. She felt that this helped with her tendency to forget to breathe out, but it was difficult to make this an automatic part of playing.

Hannah also identified potentially confusing differences between breathing exercises for playing the oboe, and breathing exercises taken from Pilates. The Pilates exercises all required a stable lower torso and mostly thoracic breathing. This was discouraged with the oboe exercises, which tried to develop flexibility and elasticity in the abdominal muscles, in order to reduce excess tension in this area, also to take some of the strain of generating air pressure to play away from the thoracic area.

Of the concepts and techniques relating to breathing used through the action research, the ones which the participants identified as most valuable were relatively simple: marking in breath points between phrases in the music; directing the breath to the crown of the head when playing; breathing out as completely as possible before starting to play and at breath points between phrases; and simply paying attention to the breath. The single most important concept which seemed to change for the participants was a clear understanding of the basic directions of the breath in playing. Its practical application in the Alexander Technique workshops was successful for all the participants, and was considered more uniformly accessible than information about anatomy and physiology presented in a seminar format. The Alexander Technique specialist emphasised the simplicity of the concept being a part of its value. For example he reported on some work done with Jenny:

Terry identified the idea of breathing out upwards (whilst blowing and at the end of a phrase) as key to changing his posture, and to the experience of releasing physically to breathe in, rather than the in-breath being effortful. Hannah said that she had previously thought of these directions (up for the out-breath and down for the in-breath) the other way around. She now found it helpful to reverse her old idea and establish the direction of up for the out-breath and down for the in-breath. This helped her to focus more on the out-breath, and to lessen her tendency to tighten up through the middle of her body, so breaking the cycle of constantly breathing in and forgetting to breathe out at pauses in the music:

In contrast, she had not taken in new information about the shape and position of the diaphragm, but preferred to continue with her existing images:

Fewer gasping breaths, and a more relaxed relationship between breathing, posture and movement

At the beginning of the research, one of the strongest connections which all the participants made was between breathing, posture, and the movements they made in playing. The changes which they made through the research were clearly evident in the comparison between first and second video recordings, particularly in the kinds of movements they made when stopping to breathe between phrases. Terry reported that he looked more open physically in his second video recording, and had felt more comfortable:

Hannah identified that the Alexander Technique workshops had helped her practically to work on her tendency to take lots of gasping breaths, which then had considerable knock-on effects on her posture and movement:

Hannah also noticed the improvement in her own performance:

Clare reported that she remembered being told by a previous teacher to breathe in a lot of air. She felt that her response to this had been to gasp, raising her top teeth to open her mouth, as opposed to dropping her jaw, and allowing her ribcage and abdominal muscles to expand. Here she made an important connection between the gasping breath and a perceived need to take in lots of air in order to play the oboe. The amount of air inhaled for oboe playing was an important point of debate in the literature (Sprenkle & Ledet, Reference Sprenkle and Ledet1961; Rothwell, Reference Rothwell1962, Reference Rothwell1974; Goossens & Roxburgh, Reference Goossens and Roxburgh1997), with some more recent writers generally suggesting that players often tend to take in too much air, more than the ensuing musical phrase requires, and that this can create physical discomfort (Robinson, Reference Robinson1988; Koch, Reference Koch1990). In Clare's case it was also clear that her habit of gasping in air was associated with a tendency to move the whole body whilst playing in such a way as to seem to be conducting herself, with the arms and oboe going up with higher pitches, and sinking down with lower pitches. As the Alexander Technique specialist suggested, these movements were usually involuntary, and if anything detracted from the musical result. By drawing attention to these habits, Clare was able to release physically and make other choices about how she moved in playing. She herself felt that, in general, her performance improved and that she had greater poise in playing.

Stronger connections between breathing and music

By the end of the action research, the participants were beginning to make more connections between breathing and musical issues. Hannah confirmed her initial feeling that planning her breathing was one of the most useful things she could do: ‘When I plan the breathing and think about posture and breathing together as well, that all helps the tone and phrasing.’ She went on to talk about these connections giving access to greater expression and musical commitment in playing: ‘if you do get into the music . . . well the study didn't sound like a study.’ Others discovered how much easier playing felt when matching the amount of air to the needs of the phrase. Clare realised, when she reviewed the first video recording in the second interview, that she had not been prepared in terms of understanding the phrasing of the music, and therefore could not know what kind of in-breaths she needed to take. This was something which she now felt more aware of and able to change, although she did not feel she was particularly successful in making such connections in the second video recording.

Whilst there was a general inclination to focus on technical aspects of breathing and playing, musical aspects of breathing began to become more significant through the research, and indeed in some cases the distinction between the two became less pronounced. However, whilst all the participants articulated some changes in this area and growing awareness of the relationship between breathing and musical pulse and expression, this aspect was given less focus than the relationships between breathing and posture and movement, or breathing and anxiety. This may have been exactly because the focus on the physical and personal aspects tended to sap the musical issues of energy and attention. This demonstrated the need to address technical aspects of breathing, its direction and relationship to the body and movement, but also underlined the potential dangers in such work, of losing sight of musical impetus and the development of breathing practice in relation to musical expression.

Development of strategies for reducing anxiety and self-criticism

The participants identified a large number of different stresses which they experienced as oboe players, and indicated that these often had a direct relationship with their breathing. As well as performance anxiety, they discussed uncomfortable reeds, getting tired through a piece, technical mistakes or musical things not going to plan. Whilst playing any instrument has its stresses, it seemed that with oboe playing the added dimensions of unpredictable reeds and high physical exertion compounded the problems.

For Belinda one of the most important features of this research was the discovery that although breathing could be adversely affected by anxiety, she could use breathing to help prepare herself to play (practising or performing) in a way which was calming and would stop her worrying so much about things:

Similarly Hannah talked about the ways in which she was now becoming aware of the crippling effect of worry, and how she was trying to tackle it:

Through the research some of the participants began to discover more positive approaches to breathing, and to sustain more effective practices for longer when they were playing, even though the old stresses had not gone away.

In reviewing their video recordings, the participants were also, at times, surprised by how little their sense of stress (physical and psychological) was evident to an audience:

Reviewing the recordings offered the participants a different perspective on their own experiences, and they were able to approach the stress differently, giving a new sense of proportion to the difficulties.