# Are your stomach muscles supposed to be tight when you play?



## Manxfeeder

Are your stomach muscles supposed to be tight when you play? I've heard that you can punch a trumpet player in the stomach when they're playing and it won't hurt them. Is that true?


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## mbhaub

I was always taught to keep your stomach muscles drawn in (tight I suppose) to support the diaphram which helps with tone and pitch. And I do it automatically, never thinking about it. I wouldn't want to get hit while playing, it still could hurt. The real experts on this are singers.


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## Heck148

Manxfeeder said:


> Are your stomach muscles supposed to be tight when you play? I've heard that you can punch a trumpet player in the stomach when they're playing and it won't hurt them. Is that true?


Support is crucial, so yes, your abdominal and thoracic muscles will contract to expel air...but tension is to be avoided....your body is relaxed, shoulders down, arms relaxed....expulsion of air is controlled....


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## RussianFlute

To add to this, I was very confused about proper breathing for a long time until I listened to Emmanuel Pahud talk about it. He showed how your belly should go out when you breathe, pushing the organs kind of down and outwards and allowing your lungs to expand more. That's not possible if you are constricting your stomach muscles. 
But yes, support is also necessary. Ive often heard it said that support is more in your sides than the stomach as well, but I don't know how accurate that is.


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## Manxfeeder

RussianFlute said:


> To add to this, I was very confused about proper breathing for a long time until I listened to Emmanuel Pahud talk about it. He showed how your belly should go out when you breathe, pushing the organs kind of down and outwards and allowing your lungs to expand more. That's not possible if you are constricting your stomach muscles.
> But yes, support is also necessary. Ive often heard it said that support is more in your sides than the stomach as well, but I don't know how accurate that is.


"Your belly should go out when you breathe"? I was taught that originally, but a year later my instructor changed it, saying that that may even result in a distended stomach. The way I was shown is, when you breathe in, your shoulders should stay level and your ribs should expand on the sides, and that keeps the stomach from moving. But that was a while ago. Has that thinking changed?


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## Manxfeeder

Heck148 said:


> Support is crucial, so yes, your abdominal and thoracic muscles will contract to expel air...but tension is to be avoided....your body is relaxed, shoulders down, arms relaxed....expulsion of air is controlled....


That's where I was confused. I understanding supporting breathing, but it seems like consistently having tightened abdominal muscles would create unnecessary tension.


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## mbhaub

When you sit, you naturally make deep breathing more difficult - it's just the position of the body. I know several wind players who bring a wedge made of stiff foam or something to place on chairs that changes the body position enough to make breathing easier; it opens up the abdominal area. It's not unlike special chairs made for cellos where the front legs are slightly lower than those in the back.


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## RussianFlute

Manxfeeder said:


> "Your belly should go out when you breathe"? I was taught that originally, but a year later my instructor changed it, saying that that may even result in a distended stomach. The way I was shown is, when you breathe in, your shoulders should stay level and your ribs should expand on the sides, and that keeps the stomach from moving. But that was a while ago. Has that thinking changed?


I'm going to guess that the attitude has changed. You do need to open up your ribs in a way, but you should be bringing air all the way in to fill your lungs up in all directions. That requires some movement of the lower body to push the diaphragm down. Pahud is a more modern/recent flutist, and quite well respected too. I would imagine his advice is effective as well as safe. That is interesting what your instructor said, though, I will try to look into it.


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## pianozach

Physiologically, if you understand the whole setup between the lungs and diaphragm, then you'd understand why it's STILL an accepted teaching technique to lower your diaphragm to breathe in, and to raise it to breathe out.

This may slightly shift the organs that reside below the diaphragm as you engage the diaphragm muscles, something that is entirely normal. Your abdominal innards are all somewhat flexible by design - that's why you can sit, stretch, jump, etc.

Here's a very typical explanation of proper breathing for singers:


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## Manxfeeder

Thanks for all your input! Anything that can get more air into my lungs, I'm interested.


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## Heck148

Manxfeeder said:


> That's where I was confused. I understanding supporting breathing, but it seems like consistently having tightened abdominal muscles would create unnecessary tension.


when exhaling, it is your abdominal and thoracic muscle which are contracting...the diaphragm contracts on inhalation. so yes, you want to flex those abdominal/thoracics to exhale, but "tension" is a concept to be avoided....strenuous muscular effort needed, shouldn't involve tension - it involves focus and control...
think of an Olympic weightlifter, using maximum exertion to lift world-record weight...there is of course, tremendous muscular effort - but it is focused, energy is not wasted on tension in other parts of the body....

one of my teachers, Bill Polisi [NBC, NYPO] used to always teach breathing using the hot air/cool air example - he'd have his students blow out, like blowing out a candle - this is cool air, upper chest....then blow out, like you're fogging up a window - this is *warm/hot air, *deep thoracic...this is the air you want, the support you need to produce a strong, controlled and focused sound


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## mbhaub

If you want to really dig deep into the subject, find a copy of Arthur Weisberg's The Art of Wind Playing. You can find it cheap all over.


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