Whenever I teach students, one of the most important things that I teach is breathing. Now, many teachers do teach about correct breathing techniques, however many of them do not incorporate one of the most important things about playing the oboe and breathing. Because our instrument has such a small opening to put air through, we end up with way too much air than we need. All of that air is quite backed up and is used by our body and is converted into carbon dioxide. It is not useful after conversion for LIFE! That is the way we are as people and there is nothing you can do to change that, however we need to successfully manage that carbon dioxide.
When I was taught about breathing at Indiana University by Jerry Sirucek in the early to mid-1970s, I learned something new about breathing that he taught me that I have incorporated in the lessons of all of my students since. The first thing is that we must always MARK our breathing with breath marks or a line or whatever you want. We prepare for the end of the work that we are playing from the very beginning and that way, we will have correct management of air, which also translates into embouchure management. So the first thing we do when we come to a mark for breathing, especially if there is not much time to breathe, is that we breathe OUT through our nose and then IN again through our nose. This is a very quick breath if we don’t have much time. By doing this, we expel carbon dioxide and then inhale fresh oxygen. If we have more time, like several beats in the piece of music we are playing, then yes we breathe out the same way through our nose to expel the carbon dioxide, then we briefly open the jaw with the reed sitting on her bottom lip to allow blood to flow to the muscle which is our lips. Remember, our lips are muscles that use blood. This is why your lips give out very quickly when you are playing. So it’s a two-part action: We breathe OUT through our nose and then breathe IN through our mouth, but opening our mouths and allowing our lips to rest very briefly. Perhaps it’s only a beat or two, but it is enough time to allow our lips to absorb some blood and thereby giving them a little bit longer ability to play.
I will be happy to show anyone that has a question about this on a free Skype or Zoom lesson. It is my pleasure to help people play comfortably.
Thank you for reading this and please let me know if you have any thoughts how about this facet of oboe playing. And by the way, I have even shown a French horn player this same technique and it has helped them immeasurably.