Has anyone (specifically wind players) ever hyperventilated during an audition, or just experienced the situation where you have too much air, and can't seem to exhale enough to make room for fresh air? For some reason I go through this in piccolo auditions more than for flute auditions, although it has happened in flute auditions as well.

How did/do you handle it, either in the moment, or after the fact to train for the next audition?

Does anyone have any medical knowledge (or theories) as to why this should happen?

I've had this problem many times before on piccolo, particularly with slow movements of Vivaldi. I think oboe players have this issue, too.

I don't really know about specific medical reasons for this occurance, but here's how I think of it - when you play picc, you're using less air than when you play the flute. Your embouchure is smaller, and less air is getting out, yet most of us take flute-sized breaths when we play picc. At the end of the phrase, you haven't used all your air like you would on the flute, but your body feels like it's time for more oxygen. So, you end up feeling like you're going to pass out.

In an audition, I try to exhale some and then get a little air. Sometimes I'll shave just a hair off the end of a note to get more time to exhale. It's a rough situation!

For my audition prep, I work on taking appropriately sized breaths for the piccolo. It feels really weird and I still sometimes forget to do it in auditions, but it helps. Anything you can do to avoid that backlog of air will help.

Basically, I think you need to figure out how long your body can go without inhaling, compare it to your audition rep, and carefully plan where you're going to breathe. Also, look for spots where you can exhale in the event of a musical emergency.

I'd love to hear from oboists about this issue. Also, it would be interesting to hear the specifics on medical reasons for this. Surely, there's a doctor lurking on this message board somewhere.

Well, as an oboist, I am faced with this issue quite a lot! We don't exactly hyperventilate, but if I'm not careful, I tend to tighten my upper abdominal muscles, which holds air in my diaphragm.

What helped a great deal in preparing for auditions (specifically, preparing the slow English horn solo in the Ravel G Minor Piano Concerto!) was practicing exhaling and inhaling silently. If you're breathing without making noise, chances are, your abs (and throat!) are relaxed. I know flutists are big on opening the throat, so I'd start by checking that, and then check the abs.

Playing long phrases for us is akin to holding our breath; so another part of dealing with auditions is mentally telling yourself that you're not "drowning" from lack of oxygen. Just take an etude that's not technically hard and practice alternately exhaling and inhaling (way more often than you ever would in real life) to get the hang of it. Soon you'll be able to use it in music. I exhale, play another measure or so, then inhale. That way, the inhale is MUCH more satisfying, and I'm forced to really get rid of ALL my old air.

Hope some of these suggestions help!!

I have had this problem in auditions before, and in recent years it has gotten worse for some reason. The problem, as I experienced it, was that my heart would speed up and use up my air too quickly; so the air in my lungs had gone "bad" well before they were actually empty. For me anyway, it's a symptom of nerves & stress.

The solution, for me, has been Inderal. There have been threads on MyA. before discussing the pros & cons of beta-blockers, so I won't go into that here; but I highly recommend trying it (with a doctor's approval & prescription of course).

This is a common problem on piccolo, which often comes as a complete surprise to flutists whose challenge usually is getting enough air. The most obvious example of the problem is in performing the slow movement of the most popular C major Vivaldi concerto - which is so often required at piccolo auditions. (There are other excellent examples certainly - like Shostakovich 10 and others.) For me the solution is reminding myself to USE the air - to use the embouchure size to create the soft dynamic, but to push against the lips with the air - to be expressive with the air. The soft dynamic and long phrases conspire to create a backlog of air, and in the process can make me much more nervous, and also can inhibit my music making. Reminding myself to breathe fully and to then use all the air I take in goes a long way in making me more comfortable in general. I also choose ahead of time a couple of places where I will intentionally exhale - and I mark those places in my music, and practice remembering to do that. I remind myself that I am doing the opposite of what the body instinct tells me to do when feeling short of breath, and that it will take a lot of practice to get used to doing it. Nervousness and breathing are so closely linked. We aren't surprised when nerves affect our breathing, but can often forget the extent to which full and expansive breathing can positively affect our nerves.

I'm not a wind player, but a close friend, a Navy Seal, taught me how to breathe as they
are taught. For them, breathing well can save their lives. "When you get to what you THINK is the bottom of your exhale it is not,
push the rest out and let your body breathe in. Use lung diaphram to breathe out, allow you lungs to breathe in." That, he said, lets more oxygenated air in, gives the muscles and brain more oxygen to use and calms everything down a bit.
Don't know if this applies to wind and brass instruments, but my two cents worth.

One technique that really helps me when playing piccolo at auditions (and even for certain flute passages) when I feel I have too much air is to simply breathe some of the air out the nose while playing. With a bit of practice to get used to it and become comfortable, it doesn't at all interrupt the flow of air through the embouchure. but I can't tell you how many times it has saved me in stressful performing/audition situations.
Hope this helps.

Tchaikovsky 4: The Ab triad lick:

Do you picc-ers have nightmares about it ??

I saw a major orch awhile back and the player
cak'd it, true story.

How do you deal with that etc. ??

quote:

Originally posted by MrAtoz:
Tchaikovsky 4: The Ab triad lick:

Do you picc-ers have nightmares about it ??

How do you deal with that etc. ??

Denial always works well for me...
Tchaik 4? What's that?