Music and Circular Breathing...

[REDJOHNNYMIKE]

As usual, I'm starting one of those strange multi-topical threads that no one cares about...

 

Ahem! Out of random morbid curiosity I was just looking for information about one of the most interesting instruments out there...

The Didgeridoo

And as it turns out, much of the uniqueness of it's sound doesn't come so much from the instrument per se, so much as it does the way in which it's played...

Circular Breathing

Where you breath air in through the nose, while expelling it from the mouth, creating a continues flow of air through the lips which vibrate and create sound waves which react with the walls of the instrument to produce the Didgeridoo's one-off sound.

 

Thread#1. Woohoo! Who likey the Dijidooo!!!

 

Thread#2. The circular breathing method is supposedly used by many wind music artists in a variety of instruments to sustain their sound over a longer period of time. So has anyone here ever tried to learn this breathing method for use in their own play, or some other reason?

 

Thread#3. Surgically, would it be possible to add to or modify the respiratory system such that you would have two or more breathing passages instead of one. One, an "intake passage" which bypasses the larynx and goes straight to the lungs through a one-way valve, and another "exhale passage" which takes air from the lungs and exits through the larynx and mouth just like the standard human throat. So you would never have to stop breathing out through the larynx to breath in.

Of course there would still be pauses due to the pulsing of the lungs, that still needs worked on.

 

Thread#3b. In the event of such a procedure, all possibility of infection and doctor-side screwups aside, what medical problems would result from breathing this way, and could they be worked around?

 

 

Where your responses should be<------ -----------> [] the box!

[Jae Onasi]

I supposed some engineer doctor type could design something that might work, but as soon as you exhaled, the one way valve would close off, and you wouldn't get air in.

 

Even if you could figure out a way, you probably wouldn't want to. The mouth, nasal passages, throat, and upper larynx heat the air to body temp (or cool it if you live in Death Valley in the summer time) and moisturize the air for the lungs. Also, there are tiny hairs in the larynx that catch tiny foreign objects so they don't end up in the lungs. The little hairs move the stuff up to a point where we can cough it out or clear our throats to remove it. Without that mechanism, we're more susceptible to infections. So, I don't know if any doc would ever do that.

[Boba Rhett]

Hey, circular breathing is how Kenny G was able to break the world record for Longest Sustained Note!

 

 

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As long as nobody asks me how I know this, we're cool.

[tk102]

I've tried playing a didgeridoo with some old hippies that used to live on my street. A couple of them were pretty good at circular breathing. It's a steep learning curve. Just getting the didgeridoo to sound right took awhile. I never could get my circular breathing technique good enough to sustain the waaaaaa.... It's like patting your head and rubbing your tummy x10.