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Home Alt › Forums › General Questions › How long is a "normal" fiato for a trained player

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  • October 7, 2015 at 9:37 am #26290
    john
    Keymaster

      Breath control will vary with every player but you can simply increase your tempo by one number each time. 80 bpm is quite slow if you’re playing 8th notes. so start there and then go 81, 82 etc. soon you will be playing the entire 32 notes.

      October 7, 2015 at 2:06 pm #26301
      Marc
      Participant

        Hey, Johnny… perhaps I couldn’t explain it clearly.
        What I really want is to make the whole chromatic scale longer without breathing, i.e. slowing down from 80 bps to shorter figures. Theoretically I’ll be able to keep a 32 seconds fiato when I reach 60 bps. Right now I barely play it at 80 from low to high, and can’t make it in the opposite way.
        I need to practise more, indeed.

        I remember, when I started playing I keep a mid-scale C or B for about 16-18 seconds. Now I reach 27 to 30 seconds of that long-note. Just curious how long a trained player could hold.

        October 7, 2015 at 3:08 pm #26308
        Kevin
        Participant

          Marc, one variable that may even make it more challenging is that you will progress through more open mouth pieces with harder reeds which will require more air flow and diaphragm support. So a guy(or gal) doing the same exercise with tenor MP with say a 0.070″ tip opening and a #2 reed could perhaps do a considerably longer sustain than with a 0.120″ tip opening and a #3-1/2 reed. And also different baffle profiles will be more free blowing than others, so to do apples to apples lung capacity comparisons would require similar hardware…

          October 7, 2015 at 4:00 pm #26310
          Marc
          Participant

            Yep… you’re quite right, Kevin… I hadn’t considered that in my equation.
            Incidentally today I grab another MP I have, to go-up slightly in terms of tip opening. I normally use a Selmer Goldentone 3 (which is a 75) and this afternoon I have been playing with a 95-open, Brand X chinese made mouthpiece. Kept the same 2.5 Rico reed tho.
            Well, that was kinda exhausting LOL… Doing the 24 seconds 80 bps chromatic scale I was used to do almost turned me cyanotic.
            I think I’ll give that 95 MP a 2-week try, and see what happens when I come back to the more forgiving and warm-toned Selmer.

            Thanks for your comments.
            Marc.

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