Kumbhaka studies: Breath

holding and heightened

arousal - Flute and
shakuhachi and Bansuri inc.
Japanese concept of ma,
the space between the
notes
Inhaling while playing and passages of breath holding
during a piece cause a racing heart, an increase in blood
pressure and a physical sense of emergency. Usually,
such sensations are indicative of an increase in adrenalin
and/or performance anxiety. These physical symptoms for
a flutist performing Heinz Holliger’s (t)air(e) should not be
avoided, however. Learning a piece where silence and
extreme self-control are written for dramatic effect allows
a performer to experience heightened physical arousal
during performance in the context of achieving an artistic
goal. The symptoms therefore lose their more common
negative associations. This can then be used as a
pedagogical tool in building a comfort level with increases
in heart rate, and breathlessness while performing.
Breath holding and heightened arousal: Composing
anxiety or intensity? Jennifer A. Borkowski
*

Three part post : First, Breath holding techniques for flute

including video performance of (t)air(e) by Holliger.
Second, Shakuhachi and 間 (ma), the space between the
notes. Third, Bansuri and the breath. But first Ganesha
and Krishna.

This post more about the breath in general, skilful

breathing, than kumbhaka in particular. What was
interesting for me in this article below was how causes of
stress and anxiety for a flute player in a performance
became exaggerated in a score and thus addressed,
overcome.
Ganesha playing flute
 Krishna playing flute

Breath holding and heightened arousal: Composing

anxiety or intensity? Jennifer A. Borkowski
Read and/or Download the full article at the excellent
acadamia.edu

(You'll also find yoga articles by Mallinson and Birch)

https://www.academia.edu/2318641/_Breath_holding_and
_heightened_arousal_Composing_anxiety_
or_intensity_
 http://www.notafina.de/noten/taire/1785

ma

See post Chanting or playing flute in

asana http://grimmly2007.blogspot.jp/2013/04/chanting-or-
playing-flute-in-asana.html

Shakuhachi and ma (間)

After the Sengoku period (1467-1568), samurai who had

lost their masters became wandering Buddhist monks
called komuso “monks of emptiness”. These komuso
formed the Fuke sect of Zen Buddhism and composed the
honkyoku (original pieces) to play on the shakuhachi as a
form of meditation. The shakuhachi was not considered to
be a musical instrument at that time but rather a hoki, an
instrument of spiritual practice. The honkyoku of the
komuso expressed their true feelings, from the heart, as
they wandered over the countryside begging for alms and
wishing to be delivered from earthly desires. They were in
search of the elusive ichion jobutsu – “one sound become
Buddha”. The honkyoku contains elements of the
komuso’s samurai training in Bujutsu (military arts) and
Zen Buddhism. In Bujutsu, the distance between the two
blades decides which one will survive. In Zen Buddhism,
reality lies in the distance between man and nature. In
honkyoku, good expression is achieved by finding the
right distance or ma (space) between two notes and two
phrases. How deeply the shakuhachi player considers the
meaning of ma, decides the quality of his or her
performance.

The difficulty in realising good ma is that honkyoku have

free rhythm and no beat. This poses a difficulty for many
Western trained musicians (myself included), who rely on
a clearly defined rhythm and beat to give a basic flow to
the piece. When learning honkyoku, the student must first
copy the teacher to get a feeling for suitable ma. The
student must then find his or her own expression for the
piece, which in Yokoyama Sensei’s words is a desperate
matter taking on life or death dimensions, where the soul
of the player is laid bare for all to see! I was encouraged to
play as if these were the last notes that I would ever play.
Or to play for someone as if these were the last notes that
they would ever hear. Straight from the heart and directly
in the moment.

The notation for honkyoku functions in a similar way to

tablature. Each Japanese character denotes a different
fingering, while the vertical lines indicate approximately
how long to hold the note and frequently, how to shape
the sound. Read down the columns, from right to left, the
notation is used primarily as a memory aid, with
embellishments and nuances learnt orally from a teacher.
The honkyoku phrasing is directly related to the breathing
of the performer i.e. the length of the phrase is
determined by the inhalation just as much as the
inhalation is determined by the length of the phrase.
Austere melodic lines and subtle changes in timbre
characterise the honkyoku, which are played in the
pentatonic scale named In (D, Eb, G, A/Ab, C or D, Eb, G,
A, B), the equivalent of the minor scale in Western music.
The honkyoku is practised as religious music. It does not
aim at melodic variation or development, as Western
music does. It exists as an exercise in mindfulness,inviting
the performer to be fully present in each unfolding
moment, each tone, each breath. The honkyoku have
been transmitted from teacher to student without gap,
through various schools, from the time of the master-less
samurai to the present day.

from http://bronwynkirkpatrick.com/?page_id=7

Shakuhachi notation for Jinbo Sanya

 Shakuhachi musical
notation http://myoanshakuhachi.blogspot.jp/2009/11/jinbo-
sanya-aka-oshu-reibo.html

More on Shakuhachi and ma (間)

"In one moment of silence, become the Buddha!’’ By

Philip Horan

The role of silence is an essential part of Japanese sound

aesthetics. This is conceptualised in the concept of time
and space called ma (間). This concept can represent
moments of silence in music or empty space in ritual and
performance contexts.

The old pond, ah!

A frog jumps in:

The water’s sound!

This famous haiku of Bashô (1643-94) epitomises the

Japanese conception of sound and silence. In these few
words we have the visual image of an old pond, the
random action of a frog and the sound of water which
shatters the silence. The Japanese sensibility appreciates
the visual, kinesthetic and sound phenomena as one
aesthetic whole. In Zen, there is non-duality and the ever-
evolving nature of seemingly opposite concepts like
sound and silence. In the words of Hisamatsu: “A master
lives in emptiness while working in form.” (Hisamatsu
1823)

The space and silence between one-breath tones

represents the ma in honkyoku. It has even been
suggested that the moments of silence are more
important than the moments of sound. This can be seen in
other arts; e.g. in the monochrome ink-drawn paintings of
sumi-e where the positioning of the blank white spaces
are crucial. I will refer to the moments of ma as ‘breath
silences’. It is not measurable but a felt experience.
The following are some suggestions about how to
cultivate your sense of ma. This is based on my own
individual journey. Getting to the essence of a honkyoku
often depends on how well you have mastered the breath
silences.

First, try out these different types of breath silences:

Just leave enough space to snatch a breath.

Take all the time in the world.

Try a mixture of both of the above in a honkyoku.

Listen to the sound your breathing makes in the breath

silences. Is it noisy or quiet? Variety is the spice of life!
The different types of in-breath can add colour to your
breath silences. What are you thinking of during each
breath silence? This is a trick question as your mind
should be empty!

The next step is to move beyond just having enough air to

finish the breath tone. This means plenty of different
types of ro-buki to extend your breathing and control.
Some of the most effective breath silences are when no
breath is inhaled. You have taken in enough air for two
short one-breath tones and pause only for effect and the
expectation of an inhalation. Try holding your breath for a
moment after inhaling and start at an unpredictable
moment. At the end of a one-breath tone enjoy blowing
out the remaining air before a sudden inhalation and start
to the next part. The possibilities are endless.

How you finish a one-breath tone and start the next are
crucial to how you shape your breath silence. Do you end
with a meri, suri-agi or ori? Does the next breath tone
come from nothingness or does it burst into existence? A
tone can fade away so the boundaries of where the breath
tone ends and where the breath silence begins is
ambiguous.

This is only the beginning of a long journey. Aim to start

and finish every breath tone differently and make every
breath silence unique. The length and volume of the one-
breath tones will vary as will the breath silences. You will
discover revelations in the honkyoku that you will reject on
a future playing. Enjoy the whistles or air sounds that
happen on purpose or by accident. Play with the confused
fingering, break in octave or confused tuning so they are
part of the performance! Once you think you have found
enlightenment, you will soon realise that there are more
challenges to be overcome. Be like Basho’s frog: jump into
the unknown and make a big splash!

from http://www.shakuhachizen.com/ma.html

Bansuri and the Breath

"Students frequently ask whether yoga breathing

exercises are useful, to improve a players breath
control, the answer being, not in any evident way. The
fundamental difference between yogic breathing and
that of a wind player is that in yoga, breathing
involves bath the nose and mouth and the underlying
principle is of regular breathing in and out. The flute
player can only breathe through the mouth, and the
rhythm is entirely dictated by musical necessities.
However, one great advantage that Indian music has
over western classical music is that it is not fixed, and
the musician can adopt musical phrases and
sequences to suit his/her own capacity".

2. BREATHING AND BLOWING

This constitutes the very heart and soul of bansuri

playing. Through good blowing and breath control all the
essential qualities of the instrument manifest; tonal
quality, intonation, dynamics, rasa and bhava (the
sentiment and emotional atmosphere of the raag) .
Powerful blowing and stamina are must be developed.
From a position of strength and power all the essential
elements of bansuri playing can be expressed. The
bansuri is, after all, only a simple length of bamboo with
seven or eight holes, but through the power of breath it
can be bought to life, coerced by the intention and will of
the player to express all essential qualities. Poor and weak
blowing will, only produce a thin, dry one-dimensional
sound, unable to project the essentials of the music.
Blowing and embouchure need priority attention, as flutes
by their nature do not have the tonal contrasts and range
of expression of other wind instruments.

Points to consider...

1) Exploiting full lung capacity. It is easy to fall into the

habit of breathing only from the top of the lungs.
Diaphragm breathing is essential in order to exploit the
maximum capacity of the lungs, and also to control the
dynamics of playing. Loud, soft, crescendo, diminuendo,
the shaping and moulding of musical phrases are
expressed and controlled by the movement of the
diaphragm.

2) Posture. The basic position for the Indian musician is to

sit cross legged, and yet this not an ideal position for wind
instrument players. In most other traditions, wind
instrument players either sit in a chair or stand, which
greatly facilitates the breathing process. But for cultural
and practical reasons the bansuri player always sits in
cross-legged position during performance, but at other
times it does not have to be this way. It is advisable to
develop a flexible practice routine, sometimes practlse in
the traditional position, other times sitting or standing.
When sitting cross-legged, posture can be aided
considerably by sitting on a cushion of about 6 cm in
height, placed under the buttocks so that the knees reach
down to the floor and the back then straightens, allowing
the diaphragm to function more efficiently. Another way of
sitting on the fleer is to kneel, sitting back on the heel (the
position used by Japanese shakuhachi players), then
during very long playing sessions to alternate between the
two positions.

3) The development of stamina is essential. In all other

traditions of flute playing, such as western classical music
or jazz, there always times when the flute player can rest
while other instruments play; even in carnatic music the
flute player is usually accompanied by a violinist, so that
he has moments to rest and recover his breath. In the
hindustani tradition, the bansuri player is expected play
seamlessly for long periods, of an hour or more. This is
only possible when a perfect balance of intake and
expenditure of energy and breath is established, Much
practice of stamina building must be done. One test is to
repeat a sequence, which could be , for instance, the first
line of a composition followed by a tana and then
returning to the line, and repeating the same without a
break for up to 20 times, taking breath at the same places,
and then observing any deterioration in the quality if one’s
playing, increasing breathlessness, etc. If so, this will
indicate that the breathing rhythm is not in balance, and
more attention will need to be given to where one
breathes, and how much is needed to keep the lungs full.
In general, one should never continue playing until the
lungs are nearly empty. oxygen deprivation will affect both
physical and mental processes.

4) A general rule for all wind players of any instrument or

tradition is to play long notes. Absolute steadiness,
without vibrato is essential. Both low and high notes
should be played, both straight and also with crescendo
and diminuendo. The latter is particularly important, as in
Indian music, notes rarely step suddenly, but tend to fade
out and disappear into the background drone or tanpura.

5) Students frequently ask whether yoga breathing

exercises are useful, to improve a players breath control,
the answer being, not in any evident way. The
fundamental difference between yogic breathing and that
of a wind player is that in yoga, breathing involves bath
the nose and mouth and the underlying principle is of
regular breathing in and out. The flute player can only
breathe through the mouth, and the rhythm is entirely
dictated by musical necessities. However, one great
advantage that Indian music has over western classical
music is that it is not fixed, and the musician can adopt
musical phrases and sequences to suit his/her own
capacity. For a teacher writing tanas for students, it is
always possible to tailor musical materials with breathing
gaps, according to whether the student is a child. or adult.

6) The natural characteristic of the bansuri and all flutes is

for the higher notes to have more volume and power and
the lower notes to be softer and quieter, and yet the
characteristic of the bansuri is to exhibit the greatest
beauty and expressiveness when the player can achieve
the opposite; to play strong powerful notes in the base,
and soft ,delicate notes in the highest register.

from http://bansuriuk.blogspot.jp/2008/03/2-breathing-
and-blowing.html

Appendix

see also

Long List of Graded Repertoire with Extended

Techniques for unaccompanied Flute, Piccolo, Alto and
Bass Flute
Kumbhaka in Asana practice

inspired by kumbhaka instruction in Krishnamacharya's

1938 Yoga Makaranda