Playing a wind instrument requires you to increase your lung capacity. Wind instruments require a continuous flow of air, while other instruments require you to hold the note for at least one minute. If you have held a note for that long, you know the difficulty.
Additionally, wind instruments need varying amounts of air. For instance, you need a lot of air to play the flute. When you blow the flute, you lose a lot of air because you’re blowing across the instrument’s mouthpiece instead of into it.
On the other hand, you have the tuba. The tuba utilizes air three times faster than the French horn or the trumpet and needs extra air even in the lower ranges. If you aspire to play a wind instrument or already play one, you need to increase your lung capacity.
How Can You Increase Your Lung Capacity?
By increasing your lung capacity, playing a wind instrument will become easier and less difficult. For that, you need to study the physiology of breathing, followed by practicing a few breathing techniques each day.
The Primary Muscles You Use for Breathing
You use your abdominal, diaphragm, and intercostal muscles for breathing. Together, these are called breathing muscles. Although normal breathing is good for performing routine activities, it won’t help you out much in playing a wind instrument.
You need to control your diaphragm’s movement and how your chest expands to get adequate air into your lungs. Poor breathing can cause issues with projection, sound quality, intonation, articulation, and endurance.
Practicing diaphragmatic breathing or abdominal or belly breathing can help you increase your lung capacity.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Follow these steps to learn how to perform diaphragmatic breathing to give your lung capacity a boost:
- Find a comfortable and quiet place to sit, such as a corner of your house or an empty room, or even outdoors on the patio.
- Place one hand on your chest and the other hand on your stomach.
- Draw in a breath. Try to begin at the top of your chest, expanding your breath down until your stomach lifts.
- When you exhale, try to empty from your stomach to your upper lungs.
- If your breathing isn’t slow and full, this breathing technique will be ineffective.
When you have this breathing technique nailed down, you can increase the effectiveness of this exercise. You can stimulate the back pressure or resistance of your chosen wind instrument. To perform this, you need to limit the amount of air you exhale either by exhaling through a straw or pursing your lips.
When you are practicing this breathing exercise, you need to fill your lungs with more air than usual and then exhale the air slowly by pushing all the air out and then repeat. Although performing breathing exercises aren’t fun, there’s a benefit of performing them.
The benefit is that you can perform them from your bed, watching TV, while cooking, and more. You just need to take out time to perform the breathing exercises. Just dedicate ten minutes each day to performing them. With time, you’ll discover having more control over your breathing.
If you’re a wind instrument player, you’ll be surprised at the effectiveness of this breathing technique in increasing your lung capacity when it’s performed regularly. However, you may not be looking for slow and steady results but quick results. If you don’t want to wait several months to increase your lung capacity, there’s an affordable, effective, and efficient solution that you can use instead.
The Solution: A Respiratory Training Device
Do you know what a respiratory training device is? A respiratory training device is the latest way for musicians such as singers and wind instrument players to increase their lung capacity within a short span of time.
A respiratory training device does the following:
- Trains your inspiratory and expiratory muscles at the same time
- Allows you to adjust the levels
- Increases respiratory muscles resistance
- Improves exhalation and inhalation muscle strength
- Boosts the lung capacity of wind instrument players
- Improves altitude performance ability
However, not all respiratory training devices are built the same. They may promise the same benefits but may fail to deliver on them.
Do you want a respiratory training device that stays true to its word?
If you want a respiratory training device that shows you a drastic improvement in your lung capacity within a week, there is only one that comes to mind— the Orygen Dual Valve. It’s effective and easy to use.
Regardless of where you are sitting in the world, you can order it and witness the difference in your breathing yourself. Whether you are a wind instrument player or an athlete, you can order it. This respiratory training device is great for people with impacted breathing due to a respiratory illness.