If you hold out a note long enough in your solo, people will start clapping….
Kristen Strom told me that.
Unless it’s horribly out of tune, then you could get things thrown at you.
Vann Burchfield held a single note for 47 minutes, 6 seconds, in 2003, overcoming Kenny G’s previous record of 45 minutes, 47 seconds.
The basic idea is to hold a reservoir of air in your cheeks/mouth which you continue to push through the horn as you breath in through your nose.
I have started on the preliminary exercises myself, but I still don’t think it’s a fundamental skill to playing saxophone, just something cool you can try later on for effect.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of how it works from Bob:
http://stormhorn.com/wp/2009/09/10/how-to-master-circular-breathing-on-the-saxophone/
Neal, I definitely agree that circular breathing is not a fundamental skill for saxophonists. Still, it’s a nice acquisition, and for more than just a showy effect. It’s great to be able to stretch out your ideas without having to stop to take a breath.
Some of the online tutorials makes out circular breathing to be something that’s hard to learn, but that wasn’t my experience. It takes time to bring to a point of musicality, but the essentials come fairly quickly. I’m finding double-tonguing to be a heckuva lot harder to get my arms around.
.-= Bob Hartig´s last blog ..Surface Dewpoints Map Now Operating =-.
Thanks for your input Bob