Superlong Long Tones (Circular Breathing) for the Flute

Practicing my long tones. Playing G as long as I can:-)...about 2 1/2 minutes. Notice my fingering for G--the left pinky is down. I am playing a 1936 Haynes open g-sharp regular flute with a seamed tube silver headjoint handcrafted by my dear friend, Kiko Candelaria (www.candelariaheadjoints.com.) I employed circular breathing for this long tone exercise, using a combination of tongue thrust and cheek inflation/push techniques. Superlong long tones strengthen the embochure more than any exercise can. It also develops concentration and stamina. I suggest you try it. It is possible to do on the flute.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• circular
• breathing
• flute
• william
• haynes
• open
• g#
• sharp
• gis
• flutist
• tone
• exercise
• seamed
• headjoint
• heasd
• joint
• silver
• filipino

[musicfreak556]

nice circular breathing but its flat and waivering a fair bit :) good work though i certainly cant circular breath for 2 and a half minutes :)

[ivorinedust]

@musicfreak556 .Thanks for the comment. The flute was flat and cold to begin with. And although my fingering shows a G#, I was actually playing G. The flute's mechanism is Boehm's open G-sharp :)

[FightingPolygonTeam]

good stuff, but your extremely flat. This note is a quarter tone off. So it's ~between a G flat and a G natural.

[ivorinedust]

@FightingPolygonTeam Thanks for the comment. The flute might have been cold at that time. And it is an old A=435 hz Haynes. LOL!!! I do agree that thee pitch drops when I inhale, but then again, this is a long tone excercise:-) If CB were applied to running passages or trills, it will be less noticeable. Thanks again!!!

[ivorinedust]

Thanks for your kind comment. Your solo in "Sparkling in the Sand" was one of my influences to pick up the flute as a young boy.

[joshbarnes92]

well im glad you can do it, but it would be 10xs more helpful to make a video explaining exactly what youre doing to make it work.

[zeron82411]

@javhimura How do I do that?

[javhimura]

@zeron82411 lol thats not a single breath its a technique called circular breathing that you expel air reserve from your checks and inhale all in one second

[zdenek1113]

I do not know, whetrer the audiences would be interested to hearing a couple of minutes of a singel note. However, I would be interested to know, whether you are using expanded cheeks during inhallation or expanded throat. The latter technioque enables you to play pieces like Moto Perpetuo etc.

zdenek1113

[Tohruxtan]

Interesting, I've never heard of circular breathing. Can you explain it/make a video explaining how to do it?

[Marjealo]

oh hey uncle! :) nice one!