The Importance of Breath in Music

Here we're going to talk about breath. Breath is incredibly important. It's probably the first thing that you do in life, and it's the last thing you do in life.

Types of Breath

You have different types of breath:

• Short, sharp breaths when you're getting anxious.
• Slow, deep breaths when you're feeling the music in a more emotive way.

For me, breath is the common ground between a chamber group.

The Piano Trio

As a piano trio, this concept can work with any instrumentation. It's particularly interesting because the piano is a percussive instrument. Here, I'm talking about the anticipation of sound.

• When the pianist plays a note, it sounds almost immediately.
• With a string player, there's a slight delay.
• With wind players, it will take even longer, they have to produce the breath into the reed or down the tube of the instrument.
• The triangle in an orchestra, however, will sound straight on the beat.

Thus, we need to find common ground, and that's the breath.

Unconventional Piano Trio

I've created an unconventional piano trio. We've completely lost our peripheral vision and eye contact, but hopefully, we will achieve compatibility of breath.

I'm going to ask these fabulous musicians to play the beginning, and they will follow. Emily is going to take the lead slightly and will make them play the beginning just with her breath.

Experimenting with Breath

Beautiful.

You can even take it a step further and experiment with different types of breath.

• Emily, you can take a short, sharp breath to convey anxiety or a more tense sound.
• Alternatively, you might want a big, fat breath for a kind of mysterioso feel.

Anything you want!

Excellent! That was the short, sharp one.

You can, of course, experiment in numerous ways. If you are a wind group, then you want to be breathing in relatively the same places related to the phrase.

Conclusion

The essence of this step or idea is learning to be aware, opening the ears and being conscious of breath.

This awareness relates back to posture and the communication and awareness within the group.