by John M St George (L.Musicology (Hons) ASMC)

Wind skills are a concept particularly relevant to wind instruments and a subject worthy of critical thinking. These skills involve body muscles and specifically, the diaphragm sheath and embouchure.

The Wind

Wind instruments are dependent on the flow of wind generated from the body muscles. The most effective muscles for this task are those located just below the chest, the diaphragm sheath. This wind is then moved forward into the aperture of the instrument. The aperture is a narrowed entrance into the body of the instrument. It is the clean breaking of the aperture resistance that creates the sound of music, and this therefore involves the notion of ‘skill in the use of wind’.

The beginnings of your sounds should be free of extraneous sounds associated with the breaking of the resistance in the aperture. Given the need of a clean breaking of the aperture resistance, an addition to the energised airstream is a necessity.

Wind and Weight

Your servicing of the instrument brings into focus the air stream which is the origin of your sound. The air stream is a gaseous substance being moved by specific muscles of your body. That is, the diaphragmatic sheath below the rib cage. These muscles supply body weight to the air stream for a clean breaking of the aperture resistance and through the body of the instrument.

Every note has a vibration frequency which is relevant to the body weight in the wind for aperture penetration These body weights that service the air stream can be approximated away from the instrument for simulated practice of varying sound production low and high.

A contraction of the diaphragm muscles will supply the body weighted air stream for penetration of the aperture; these body weights vary from low to high. The task of approximating the appropriate weight of the wind for each note when servicing the instrument is a high-quality wind skill.

The Tongue

The tongue is a muscle and plays a significant part in the clarity and flow of our music making. However, caution is required when the tongue is added to the air stream. Perhaps the common use of the term, ‘tongue the note’ needs verification as to the effectiveness of such a direction. It may be that the term articulation is more in keeping with the technique of detaching notes, long and staccato. In the term ‘tongue the note’, there seems to be an inference that the tongue muscle has a role in the moving of the air stream into the aperture.

The tongue as such does have an important role to play as a means of stopping and releasing the air stream into the aperture for the techniques of tenuto and staccato. Ideally, the tip of the tongue can be raised from the floor of the mouth to release the long (tenuto) and short (staccato) emissions of wind. That is, the tip of the tongue, not all of the tongue, which commences in the throat.

Pre-noise occurs when the tongue muscle is used to move the airstream into the aperture for the initial sound production of a note. The tongue muscle drives forward and then releases the wind. However, the drive starts at the base of the tongue and has no body weight.

Fingers

The fingers are responsible for accurate note selection for technique. They are reliant on being serviced by high quality information from the mind. If false information has been sent to the fingers, they will dutifully play that information; they (the fingers) do not differentiate or correct. This is when we can readily perceive that the mental is not leading the physical in transmission of information to the fingers. The technical system has become, for the time being, chaotic.

The Instrument

The instrument of your choice is an inanimate object designed and assembled with the potential to emit the sounds of music. Commonly referred to as a musical instrument, which it is not, the description can infer a musical content inherent in the instrument. It may be the case that the instrument is more appropriately described as a demonstrator. It demonstrates the messages it receives via the fingers from the mind.

In the process of music making, the instrument has the task of demonstrating the information sent to the fingers for placement in the appropriate place on the instrument. In which case, there is no such thing as a ‘wrong note’; it is in fact an incorrect finger placement, human error. Composers rarely write ‘wrong notes’.

Perhaps if we changed the term “playing the instrument” to “servicing the instrument”, we would have a more realistic concept of the process that we are engaged in mentally. The information sent to your fingers services the instrument, a somewhat different idea from the much-used concept of “playing” the instrument. It may be that if the term ‘servicing’ the instrument were in more common use, practice would be more understood and mentally driven for successful outcomes. You are as competent as the quality of the message relayed from your mind to the fingers.

A Priori

Cause and effect (a priori) puts the mental ahead of the physical, which ensures high quality messages coming from the mind. That is, “say” the music and rhythm before you “play”. A priori will guarantee confidence in the successful outcome of your practice sessions and save hours of rote and repetition caused by faulty messages being sent to the fingers. The problem with faulty messages being sent to the fingers is that they have to be corrected. This means ‘unlearning’ and accounts for most time wasting and troubled practice sessions. You are as good as the quality of your messages to the fingers. Embedding the mind with high quality messages is best achieved by slow practice in the first instance.