Circular breathing is a blowing
technique used in playing some wind instruments to produce a continuous tone
without interruption. The technique is by breathing in through the nose while
simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth using air stored in the
cheeks. It is used extensively in playing the didgeridoos.
Circular breathing is a blowing
technique that would scare didgeridoo beginners. Didgeridoo is a wonderful wind
instrument where circular breathing is employed while playing with it. Keep on practicing
and of course this will be a boring session but not to give up. You may refer
to some established didgeridoo websites where they professionally explaining
and demonstrating the blowing techniques. With a little continuous effort, circular
breathing technique will soon be mastered and you will feel very happy as you
have done a very essential part in didgeridoo playing. When I was at my early
stage of learning to circular breathing, I got really frustrated and I almost
gave up playing didgeridoo. My son could circular breathing really good in just
a short time, what a challenge. I soon restarted again and found out that
circular breathing was not as difficult as we might think.
Circular breathing is a technique
whereby the didgeridoo is blown with the air from your lungs, slightly before
all the air are being used up, quickly inhale through the nose and reserved the
air in your cheek. Used the reserved air at appropriate time and this will appear
as a continuous stream of blowing.
The picture below illustrates the
technique of circular breathing. First, blow the air from your lungs and then
inhale air through the nose and reserved it in the cheek and blow it out.
Again, use the air from the lungs and the process restarts again in a
continuous manner. Simple, isn’t it? Remember the old saying “practice makes
perfect”.
To practice circular breathing, I
would suggest you to record the sounds produced in you cell phone (the most
available recording device), study the sound and repeat the cycle until you’re
really satisfied of what you’re doing. Played the recordings to your friends
and let them comment. Do not hesitate when the comments will not please you.
This is the challenge to a beginner didgeridoo player. Further explanation on
circular breathing is shown in the graphic below.
A – Blow the air from your
lungs
B – While blowing, inhale
in air through the nostrils, reserved the air in the cheek
C – Blow the air from the
lungs, repeat the cycles
Due to unexpected technical problem, the graphics failed to be uploaded on this page.
