The Basics of Playing
1. THE PRANA (BREATH) Remember to breathe from the Solar Plexus. Push stomach muscles (lower abdomen) down and out to inhale, drawing air to solar plexus area. Pull stomach muscles in and up (contract) towards heart to exhale. Using this type of breathing, the body has access to 30% more air while expending less energy. This method builds and tones the breath and body functions which centers us. This is the same breath taught in various yogas, martial arts, and singing. This method also creates physical distance between the breath and vigorous activities of the throat, tongue and cheeks when beginning to play rhythms.
2. BEGINNING FUNDAMENTAL TONE First, RELAX! Then, hold instrument firmly to mouth with no air leakage. Approximately 2/3 of opening is filled with bottom lip. Inhale from deep down in navel area. As you exhale, blow gently and vibrate lips as loosely as possible, for lips to become a reed. If you find it difficult to start producing tones, you are blowing or trying to hard. Just remember to inhale through the nose, not the mouth. Use as little breath as possible while exhaling and hold tone as long as possible. RELAX - BREATHE - RELAX - BREATHE!
3. RAISING AND LOWERING THE TONE Visualize: a long tube, a loose floppy reed (lips), and a round chamber that changes in size behind the reed (mouth). This changing of mouth chamber size is what raises and lowers the tones. Large chamber, cheeks fully expanded, blowing from deep in the body produces the lowest tones. Start to pull cheeks in to raise the tone higher. Practice going from large chamber to small and back again. The tongue is used like a wall - tip of tongue is against floor of mouth, back of tongue is against roof of mouth, pushing vibration from back to front of mouth. Move slowly at first! Minute changes in the mouth create dramatic changes of tone in the instrument. The highest tones are called harmonics. The highest harmonics are produced by pushing firmly with the tip of the tongue against the gum line at the back of front bottom teeth. Make tongue stand straight up even with bottom front teeth. The vibration will stop coming off the upper and lower lip, then will transfer to tongue and upper lip approximately 1/8" - 1/4" above bottom front teeth. The exhaled breath should also move up from lower body to throat area. Constantly strive for higher and higher tones.
4. ADDING VOCALS The addition of vocal vibration to lip vibration will make lip vibration easier. The combinations of vocal and lip vibration produce and almost limitless array of sounds. MALE VOCALS: Most men bounce vocal vibration off the front of the throat to speak. This vibration is deep down by the collar bone in a man with a low voice; up in the middle of the throat for a man with a higher voice. Start with a very gentle growling deep in the front part of throat combined with low lip tone. Try to match tone of growl to lip tone. The male vocal works best when used in a gentle "yin" way. Feather vocal in gently - increasing vocal while decreasing lip tone and vise versa -exploring different combinations. Almost effortlessly, the lip and vocal vibration will lock together creating a throbbing or pattering effect in the tones. FEMALE VOCALS: Most women bounce vocal vibration off the back of the throat from the middle of the throat up to the nasal passages. This vibration is used in a more "yang" way, that is it can be cast forcibly down the pipe. These are like screaming sounds and high dog barking or more gently like humming and singing. The addition of female vocals create some of the most beautiful and mystical of sounds produced with the pipe. When front and back vocals are mastered, start to raise lip tone from low to high while matching vocal tone. Raise and lower tones using this method.
5. RHYTHMS First, using the tip of the tongue coming off the roof of the mouth, like creating the sound the letter "T" makes. Repeat this movement rapidly. This will create a sound resembling a drum beat. After this is mastered, practice this while changing mouth chamber size. Another rhythm method is to use the vocals and the diaphragm in a jerking manner like the sound of "Woody Woodpecker".
6. CIRCULAR BREATH The circular breath is a gentle by-product
