Posted by Brian Frederiksen on September 06, 2003 at 09:23:55:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: inhaler/exhaler posted by Andi on September 06, 2003 at 06:06:52:
Doesn't seem to be a joke, this theory seems to have a following in Germany. Abbie Conant says this at http://www.trombone.org/articles/library/viewarticles.asp?ArtID=185
A very helpful principle is the discovery that we are born either as natural "in-breathers" or as natural "out-breathers." The in-breather type of person has less "standing air" in the lungs. They tend to inflate and expand more to become full. The area most capable of expanding is the upper chest. They tend to sleep on their backs or at least fall sleep on their backs so that the upper chest remains free to expand. Out-breathers types, by contrast, have more standing air in the lungs and expand more in the flanks, the middle of the back. They tend to fall asleep on their side and sleep on their stomachs to free up the expansion of the back of the ribs. They tend to be a bit barrel chested and don't seem to need to breathe. You don't see a lot of movement when they breathe, while an in-breather will really expand and tank up.
I mention this because if you are an in-breather teacher and teach all your students to breathe like you, the out-breathers will suffer. Tanking up makes out-breathers feel tense and uncomfortable. What they need to focus on is using lots of air, blowing. Then at the end of the air they need to learn how to instantly relax all the breathing muscles and just let the air go into the vacuum that is left. An in-breather, on the other hand, needs to focus on relaxed tanking-up and letting the volume of air in the lungs do the work and take great care never to push the air. I have noticed that in-breathers tend to have rounder, purer sounds (if they don't push the air,) while out-breathers have warmer sounds but have to work on clearing up the sound. In short, for in-breathers efficiency and free and deep inhalation are the keys, while for out-breathers it's using lots of air blown freely as possible, then just letting the air go into the lungs and not creating isometrics trying to pack more air in.
Put another way, in-breathers should think of active inhalation and passive blowing. They should start their breathing exercises with inhalation and relaxed capacity expansion. Out-breathers should think of active blowing and passive inhalation. They should start their breathing exercises with blowing all their air out and then just letting go. Obviously we use all areas of our lungs for playing, but the simple principle of understanding that there are two types of breathers can save a lot of time and frustration.