practice fail

[emeraldloves]

I play the clarinet.  For some reason,  whenever I try practicing on a morning in during the weekend, especially if I start with long tones, I always get a headache and start seeing stars.   It's really bothering me because I normally only have weekday evenings and weekend mornings to practice and I need to use the time efficiently.

Any

Comments

[krystalily]

This may be a weird question, but are you practicing before or after breakfast? And is your breakfast filling? :)

Does this not happen when you practice long tones during the afternoon/night?

[krystalily]

I only ask this because I find if I don't get a filling enough breakfast, it'd definitely affect my practicing.

[emeraldloves]

Oh hmm... It varies actually. I never thought about breakfast as a factor, but I'm pretty inconsistent as to how filling my breakfasts are. xD
Yeah, oddly enough, it doesn't happen when I practice long tones in the evening.

[viridian]

This was happening to me when I picked up the clarinet late in the evening after a few years of not playing it. I think in my case I had to relearn how to breathe. You're probably hyperventillating a little in trying to get enough air.

[krystalily]

On the flip side, this also used to happen to me if I got too much air in and didn't expel enough when I'd need to take a breath. (hoping that made sense...)

[viridian]

That's exactly what I meant, actually! If you *try* to take in more air than you need, you're going to end up with too much unless you can time letting it out correctly.

[krystalily]

yup, as an oboe player it's totally necessary to learn how to handle this. :) Took me a while but I got it. Now it's second nature!

[tei_0]

I play bassoon and this definitely happens to me sometimes. Often it's because I didn't sleep or eat enough. Also, are you using a neck strap to help hold your clarinet? I'm not sure if this would happen for clarinet since it's comparatively light, but when I use my neck strap to play standing up sometimes the weight of the instrument makes me dizzy if I do things like long tones.

[emeraldloves]

Well, it's more reasonable for double reed players to have this problem because of the high pressure. I don't think it's supposed to happen to clarinetists like me. I use neck strap sometimes when my arms are too tired but I normally don't. Actually.. maybe I'll try playing long tones standing up for a change.

[averagesnarker]

Ooh, um, I'm not a clarinetist, I'm a flautist turned soprano, but your problem is almost certainly something to do with breath support. When doing long tones people often try to push to the end and that lack of oxygen can lead to a headache or, worse, fainting. I played bassoon for a bit, never got headaches even thoguh it was a double reed. I'm prone to migraines but none of my triggers involve double reed instruments, thank goodness.