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Date Posted: 20:36:40 03/02/06 Thu
Author: Derek
Subject: Warm Air???

Over the past several years, I've noticed that one of the recurring problems for younger bands is playing with a proper tone quality. Most rehearsals we spend a lot of time just trying to get them to play with better tone quality.

That got me thinking: One of the ways I was always told to play with a better tone color is to use warmer air...

It makes sense, and it actually works to a certain extent - open the throat and keep it warm.

As an educator, though, I never actually thought about the process itself... and it'd be good to understand why I need to tell kids to use warmer air -- as well as understanding how we get warmer air. Does anybody know how the body actually creates warmer air??? Why is it that we get warmer air when we open our throat??? Is that, in fact, the way we get "warmer" air? Or is there something else happening when we think we "open" our throats? What are the physics behind it???

Please enlighten me on this matter if you know how this works. It's strange that I never thought about the actual process before...

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Replies:

[> Re: Warm Air??? -- Ben Lupo, 09:00:51 03/03/06 Fri [1]

I'm not familiar with the idea of warming your air. From a physiological standpoint, opening your throat would physically warm the air. You would be increasing the total surface area your exhalation would make contact with on the way out. Heat would be transferred from the capillaries in your throat to the air. By default, that would keep your exhalation's temperature around that of your body. In most playing circumstances, that would be warmer than the outside air. However, there is no breath-heating mechanism.

How that interacts with your instrument is completely beyond me, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no other voluntary physical response that would increase the temperature of your breath.


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[> [> Re: Warm Air??? -- Chad B, 08:25:14 01/20/07 Sat [1]

In my experience and intruction I'd agree that the warm air concept does enrich tone quality. One recommendation I have would be to ask the child about how they warm their hands in the winter time. They open their throat and also think "warm air." They know just cupping their hands over their mouth and blowing does no good without thinking about open, warm air. It's like you're breathing, "haw." That's one way to explain it to them; by having them relate it to something they already know. I'm sure there are other scenarios.


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[> [> [> Re: Warm Air??? -- Jessica Rigsby, 20:02:49 01/23/07 Tue [1]

Being a clarinet player I disagree with the concept of opening the throat and warming the air. In my own private lessons I have been instructed not to open the throat and warm the air but to close the throat down more and use a "hee" feeling in the back rather than a "haa". This creates a cooler more concentrated air flow which produces a sweeter, more fluent tone. This could however, vary from instrument to instrument. For example, I play the clarinet which is a cool air instrument while I have often heard band directors tell the brasses to open their throat to produce a richer tone.
If we were talking about vocalist's however I would agree completely. The throat must remain relaxed and open to produce a nice rich open sound.


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[> [> [> [> Re: Warm Air??? -- Amanda M., 12:29:32 02/02/07 Fri [1]

I agree with Jessica because I too play clarinet. In my lessons, I played flat in the clarion register, so Dr. Specht told me that my throat was too open and that instead of making a "hah" syllable I needed to think more along the lines of "hee."
I know that for other instruments, this is probably contradicting what is normally taught.


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