FW: [Dixielandjazz] Player's Eyes

[Jim Kashishian]

Don wrote:
You are not taking in enough air and not using your diaphram muscles to 
support your air stream. That forces you to tighened up the neck muscles 
and in effect choke off your air stream which makes you force it even 
more. No wonder you see dancing dots on your screen.


Thanks for your concern, Don.  But, that is not the case.  Playing, at any
strength, creates the effect for me, but only on some screens. Besides, I
don't usually look at a screen when I am playing, but have only noticed the
phenonema as a curiousity.  It's not dots, but a swimming effect, and could
be down to the crazy astigmatism I have in my eyes.

Breathing, good breathing, has always been one of my fortes since my first
teacher had me stand behind him...put my arms around his belly, and feel his
stomach muscles as he took in air & used it.  That was my first lesson!

Can you just imagine today what would happen if a 9 yr old boy went home
from his first music lesson and told his folks "Guess what I did today?"!!!
Well, he was an amazing teacher, and that was all he was interested in, at
least in my case.

I have, by the way, seen dancing dots when I've attempted to squeeze just
that bit more out of a phrase, and there was no air left in me.  I hate
piano players, as they can just plan a phrase of music as they please.  If a
brass player wants to do something unusually long, he has to consider the
amount of air available, otherwise the phrase will be interrupted by a take
in of air (something akin to a coma in a sentence).  If you don't want a
coma in your "musical sentence", then the air intake must be planned.

Jim