How to Breathe Correctly While Playing a Saxophonе

Tips on Correct Breathing For Saxophonists 

Correct breathing is essential for life, and what’s more, it’s very important for performance. If you don’t use proper breathing as a saxophonist, you may face issues with playing long phrases and the overall quality of producing sound. Fortunately, breathing technique is what you can learn and train. In this article, you will find breathing exercises and tips for beginners and experienced saxophonists that will help you do that well.

Correct Breathing for Saxophonists: What’s That and Why You Need It 

• The correct breathing on the saxophone allows to accomplish a few significant goals: 
  
• maximizing the among of air going into the lungs
  
• maximizing the amount of air going from the lungs
  staying relaxed while achieving the previous goal

Any tension in your breathing leads to tension in your neck and facial muscles as well as in hands and fingers, which significantly impacts how you can play your saxophone. 

The correct saxophone breathing is important as it affects:

• The sound quality. When breathing correctly, you get steady, strong airflow, which makes your sax tone fuller, richer, and more stable. 
• Playing long phrases. Proper breathing allows saxophonists to play without running out of air, which results in consistent volume and better dynamic control. 
  
• Note transitions. Correct breathing leads to better articulation, intonation, and note transitions, especially in fast passages. When you breathe correctly, you have better control over vibrato and pitch bends.
  
• Endurance. As a woodwind instrument, a saxophone requires much physical strength. Efficient breathing allows you to feel better during extended performances and not get tired quickly.

What is the Correct Breathing

Everythings should start with relaxation. So first of all, ask yourself how exactly you breathe. This question is not as stupid as you may think. However, correct breathing has nothing to do with sucking and vacuuming air into your lungs. 
The air pressure is dependent on the volume of the space containing this air. Since the diaphragm sits just below the lungs, it impacts the volume of air you can take in. You breathe in air from the outside rather than suck air inside. As you breathe in, the system activates,  expanding your lungs and allowing them to get bigger. When you breathe out to play a sax, the muscles are squeezing, making your lungs smaller. 
The truth is that most people breathe using the top of the lungs and expanding only their chest. And while this type of breathing is quite fine for normal living purposes, it may not be enough for playing a saxophone, as it requires more breath. 

Your first goal should be to train diaphragmatic breathing by expanding your abdomen.

What is a Diaphragm and How it Works

The diaphragm is a muscle under your lungs that helps draw in air deeply. When you inhale the air correctly, the diaphragm contracts and moves downward, expanding your lungs. Ideally you should breathe in with your diaphragm but then relax it to breathe out. The process of playing a saxophone requires all your abdominal muscles to squeeze forcefully to drive the air out of your lungs. 
Many saxophonists make the mistake of inverse breathing, which leads to less air intake and increases fatigue. When they take a deep breath, their belly pulls in, while their chest and shoulders rise. Under this condition, the neck disappears as their shoulders go up, which creates unnecessary tension in the neck area and down the arms. 

Exercises To Improve Your Breathing When Playing a Saxophone 

Now let’s explore a few exercises to build your correct abdominal breathing in a few simple steps. 

1. Diaphragmatic breathing
Learn to take a breath by using your ribs and the abdominal cavity. To control diaphragmatic breathing, you can put a hand on your belly. Inhale the air, allowing your belly muscles to expand and then breathe out. Repeat the action. Ensure your shoulders don’t go up and stay relaxed. 

2. Full breathing
This is the breathing, which allows your lungs to expand 360 degrees around your body. Put your left hand on your chest and your right hand on your belly. Breath in, allowing air to fill your chest and abdominal areas. Breathe out with sss or shhh sound. 

3. Sibilant sounds 
Set your metronome tempo at 60 bpm, take a full breath as described in previous exercise and then make short explosive sh-sh-sh or s-s-s sound at each beat. This exercise trains your ability to release a strong, fast stream of air from your lungs. 

4. The big exhale 
This exercise is close to actually playing the saxophone. You set your metronome tempo at 20 bpm, take a nice full breath, filling your abdominal cavity with air and ensuring your shoulders stay in a relaxed position, and then do a continuous long sh or sss sound. You can gradually increase the tempo to 30, 40, 60 and more. 

5. "1-4-2" 
Take a straight standing position with your hands on your hips. Inhale for 1 count and then hold your breath for 4 counts. After that, exhale slowly for 2 counts. Repeat the exercise 10 times. 

6. "2-1-8"
Pick a note on your sax, inhale for 2 counts. Then hold your breath for 1 count. Exhale air for 8 counts.

7. Steady air support 
Tape a sheet of paper to a wall at mouth level. Stand about 2 inches away. Start blowing air steadily to keep the paper flat against the wall for as long as you can

Final Word

We hope these exercises will help you improve your breathing, which directly affects your sound quality, endurance, note transitions, expressiveness, and your feeling as a musician. You can do breathing exercises as part of your warm up before practicing or rehearsals. Regular activities will help you develop correct breathing habits. 

On our website, we offer many useful saxophone accessories allowing you to expand the lifespan of your instrument and transport it safely. 

We also invite you to check out our article featuring Tips On Choosing Saxophone Neck Straps. 

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