Breathing… one of the fundamentals of my brass playing and also an amazing tool for regulating our sympathetic nervous system (the “fight and flight system”) for managing nerves and anxiety.

So whilst it might be a fundamental and good breathing is great for any brass, wind, singing musician or sportsperson and regulating how we feel, we can actually be quite poor at it and forget that nature’s free tool is there to help how we play and how we feel!

It’s an amazing asset, often under-utilised.

I’ve long since been a fan of researching and implementing breathing methods for both playing and my professional work as a coach and trainer in the fields of performance, wellness and mental health so I possibly have more knowledge than an average human on methods and efficacy, but I’m also a human who, when put in difficult situations, glosses over the magic I have within and forgets to breathe!

Currently, I am preparing to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and this brings with it all sorts of physical and mental considerations and lung capacity and breathing at altitude is definitely a huge factor in preparation for the trip. At the top of Kilimanjaro it’s said your lung capacity works at around 50% of your sea level capacity… that’s a big jump, so navigating how to breathe effectively with less lung capacity is a high priority for me.

I am a fan of nasal breathing exercises for breathing efficacy and lung
expansion (check out Buteyko breathing) but I also want to expand my lung capacity via mouth breathing too. I’m throwing everything thing at this challenge to make sure I complete it!

In fact, lung capacity and breathing was part of the reason I decided to take on this challenge. When Simon was being treated for a Germ Cell Tumour he had a chemotherapy treatment called Bleomycin which meant he would never be allowed oxygen therapy in his lifetime as the oxygen would literally solidify his lungs, after this treatment. Now, for those that know Simon you’ll realise he made light of this, asking the consultant “if I’m on a plane and it is crashing, does that mean I can’t use the oxygen mask?”. The consultant replied with “if a plane is crashing is that your only concern?!”. It was a moment of respite in a very dark moment of time, created by Simon’s amazing ability to bring a
lightness to any situation – a skill I try to maintain!

Knowing how difficult it was for Simon with a reduced lung capacity and unable to get enough Oxygen into his lungs – the reason why he was then taken in ICU and put into an induced coma, from which he never recovered – part of me feels like I want to know how that felt for him, maybe so I can understand or maybe to heighten my empathy and compassion skills.

There is always a part of me that is fuelled to undertake emotional and physical challenges with the knowledge of what pain I have to go through is nothing compared to what he experienced, but I am a curious type and this challenge, when I reach the top of that mountain will allow me to get close to feeling what he did… and it will be emotional. It’s emotional now as I think about it.

So I’m throwing what I can at it to improve my lung capacity… nasal breathing, hill climbs, meditation and lung expansion exercises.
I’ve even been trying this handy little expand-a-lung gadget for a few minutes every few days either just at home or on a walk, and whilst I won’t know its efficacy for climbing Kilimanjaro until I’m there, I have noticed two key things.

Firstly, by nature of its requirement to deep breathe it provides an instant calming effect and secondly, I’ve already noticed a different in my cornet playing and breathing. It’s only been 2 weeks of using it but it’s changed how it feels physically and mentally with regards to my musical playing.

Designed to help with shortness of breath and endurance and apparently used by Navy Seals, it’s a handy little pocket-sized gadget on which you can change the resistance of air flow and you can use it pretty much anywhere.

If you’re interested, this is the one I got here

So, I’ll track how it goes and report back, but thought I’d share the story so far….

Much love
Tabby xx