[Harp-L] (no subject)

["samblancato" <samblancato@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe wrote:

 

"I think this depends on WHAT you play Sam. I think a diatonic
> improves your breathing (especially if you practice Mike Stevens type
> stuff). I don't believe chromatic does anything for you as it is a
> subtle instrument and unless you play a lot in draw keys, you wouldn't
> increase your lung capacity.
>
> (smokey) Joe Leone, North Port Fla/formerly Sharpsburg"

 

Actually, Joe, nothing can really increase one's lung "capacity" really.
Lung capacity is a pretty fixed thing according to stuff I've read and also
the Doctor I met with at the Falk Comprehensive Lung Center.  While you
can't increase your lung capacity you can do many other things to make
breathing more effective.  You can strengthen your diaphragm, you can be in
good cardio vascular condition so that the oxygen exchange works better and
therefore your breaths are worth more in terms of the gas exchange they
accomplish.  In Playing, you can become super economical in how you use your
lung capacity.  

 

And you can learn to make full use of the capacity that you have.  Many
people are very shallow breathers and don't do the exterior muscle work
needed to fully open up their chest and also collapse their chests.  One of
the things I've had to learn, for instance, is to really empty my lungs, and
to do it at the right times during a solo (or anywhere in a stretch of
playing, really) so that you can play evenly and with strength at the right
times.  I've learned to quickly clench my stomach to really dump the air out
of my chest so as to get through 24 bars where there might be only a couple
of opportunities.  Lots of 2nd and 3rd position playing can involve long
stretches of draw only playing.

 

Jday wrote:

 

"So, if poverty, alcoholism and 2nd hand smoke don't get you, you will at
least have great exhalation volumes! :-)"

 

Who said I was either an alcoholic or poverty stricken?

 

Sam Blancato, Pittsburgh