Help with breathing while playing a wind instrument?

Question:i play the flute and often get very lighted headed and dizzy when i play i also satrt to shake. i think that this has to do with hypervintillation. i was wondering if anyone knew some good breathing exercises

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: i play the flute and often get very lighted headed and dizzy when i play i also satrt to shake. i think that this has to do with hypervintillation. i was wondering if anyone knew some good breathing exercises

I know this sounds weird but trust me it works:

Lay on your bed, and play. This opens up your diaphram, and it allows you to take deeper breaths. (Plus it's more comfortable =] ) This will help you to control your breathing, and it won't be as bad when you get dizzy and light headed.

the flute is an instrument that takes the most amount of air. keep practicing at home and try to pace yourself. play some of your songs slowly at first than play a little faster when you can. eventually your lungs will get stronger.

listen to bandgeek that is the best answer

You need to strengthen your diaphragm (near your tummy). Train yourself to breathe from there instead of high in your chest. Also take a piece of paper (like notebook paper) and hold it up a foot in front of your face. Take a deep breath (from your diaphragm) and blow at it as long as you possibly can. Repeat again and again. Good luck.

Suggest you have your blood pressure checked. Low bp is one of the most common causes of this kind of lightheadedness.

I had the same problem. before you start playing put your right hand on your bottom 2 ribs and inhale. You should feel them expand. If you take really big breaths the wider your ribs will expand. Try it for 4, 8, 12, and 16 counts. If that helps then great! If not put your hand up to your mouth sideways (thumb facing in) inhale and exhale using deep breaths. you should hear a sound both ways.
let me know if those don't help I have more techniques.

Breath deep through your nose. Take the air into your lungs and breath out. Do this slowly a couple of times before playing. To warm up your instrument hit any note and hold it as long as you can. This will help tone and breathing

If you think this is hyperventilation then you aren't using your diaphram or are taking one too many breaths. You shouldn't be "hyperventilating" when you are playing flute. It can be two things: you aren't using your diaphram at all and your just pushing your stomach out so you think you are or you are taking too many unneccessary breaths during a song. Sooo...To make sure you are using your diaphram take a piece of paper and go about a foot away from a wall. place the paper on the wall and hold it with one or two fingers. Set your mouth like you would with your flute and blow let go of the paper. If you can hold the paper with the air it means you are using your diaphram. If not then take a piece of music and try to play through a few measures until you run out of air. The repeat the same measures but try to get further and further. Also to build up your diaphram, lie down and put your hand on your stomach. Take a deep breath and you will notice your stomach will fill with air. We naturally breathe with our diaphram when we lie down. So take a deep breath filling your diaphram and your chest. then take smaller breaths to fill it further, it is uncomfortable because you're expanding your diaphram more than usual. Hold your breath with the extra air and then exhale. You can do this a few times before you go to sleep.
To find out if you truely are taking too many breaths to the point of hyperventilation then take a piece of music, an easy one preferably with a breath mark some where.. Just play it and find out where you take a breath. If you are taking an unneccessary breath then it would be less than maybe 4 measures, depending on the song and where the breath mark is. I do the same thing and I too get dizzy and it is because I take one too many breaths even though I use my diaphram. I take a breath in between every other group of notes.

All of these answers are great on what to work on with breathing. I'm going to address it from a saxophone doubler stand point. When I first started doubling on Flute, I had the exact same problem.

Next time you practice flute practice in front of a mirror pay attend to your embouchure. Without being to see you play, I would guess that like me, you embouchure is too big which is a) using up WAY too much air too fast and b) is cause you to have to breath too often ... hence lightheaded.

What you need to do is really focus on building up your flute embouchure and making that opening as small as possible.

You may also be overblowing the flute as another problem because you are used to putting SOOOO much air through your horn, you are actually giving the flute more air than it need. So relax that way a little.

Remember to use the muscles above your to lip to bring your embouchure in and make it smaller. If you can't get these muscles working on your own... hold a B with your left hand and with your right hand reach up and force the mucles down ... listen to the change and focus in the tone.

Also, make sure you are aiming your air stream across the tone hold but in a way that a lot of the air is going into the tone hole.

Anyways, keep practicing in front of a mirror until you stop feeling light headed while playing.

I hope this helps!!!