When it comes to circulating ventilation, everyone will definitely think of suona. Of course, this technique was originally unique to suona, and is also a style of playing. But today, this technique has been applied to other instruments. In addition to the flute, it has also been used on the western flute and even on the saxophone.

The principle of cyclic ventilation is very simple: it is to store the breath in the mouth in advance, and then at the moment of inhalation, the breath in the mouth is expelled through the tongue, etc., and then the normal exhalation is continued, and this is done. A cycle of cyclic breathing. Circulating ventilation on the suona first appeared because the technique is simpler on the suona than on other wind instruments. Because the suona is assisted by a gas card, it can be played by inflating the cheeks to store air (currently there are also those that do not inflate the cheeks to maintain the image), and the actual air output of the whistle is very small. Due to the above reasons, the technique of circulating ventilation has been widely used in suona. The performance of the suona by folk artists is often almost uninterrupted from beginning to end, and the performance is performed in one go through the use of circulatory ventilation. Based on my current teaching experience, among my suona students, middle school students with better qualifications can practice.

Personally, I practice suona relatively late. It can be said that I only really practiced some when I was about to graduate from university. At that time, only long notes could be played, such as the highest note a in the Huacai section in the middle of Bainiaochaofeng. But at that time, I felt that it was very rewarding to practice this way. Later, when I served in the National Opera Team, I played the "Chui Da" (Qu Pai) for more than ten minutes in one performance, which was repeated endlessly with cyclic ventilation, which forced myself to break through an important key. What is this key? It is to be able to circulate the air at the same time, and the melody in the hand must continue to continue and not be affected. This is the real practical circulation ventilation. In addition to showing off, the cyclic ventilation of single-playing long notes is not very helpful to the music itself, because most of the music has structures such as sentences with ups and downs of breathing. A simple very long note is like Just like singing without stopping to breathe, listening to too much will make people uncomfortable. But if it can be freely interspersed and used in the melody, it will be different. Some suona players often use this technique in longer phrases when performing, but because the pitch, rhythm, volume, and fluency of the melody are not affected at all, they are invisible and enhance the ability of phrase expression. For example, in Shanxi’s “Great Victory”, which I’m practicing recently, the suona melody is not without places to breathe, but there are very few places and it is very compact. In some places, if you have to wait until there is a gap to breathe, you will have to faint. At this time, it is necessary to use circulating ventilation. In addition to the places that need to spit or rest, staccato, as long as the other places are in the middle of playing, whether it is a long note or some legato notes, you can use cyclic ventilation.

Some solo scores and etudes will specifically indicate where the circulatory ventilation is performed, and most of them are also marked in the position of the long note. But I personally did not take such a method, but completely based on the use of breath to breathe. Therefore, if I feel that my breath is short and unsmooth, I may change the breath twice in one measure to give myself some breathing space. If the breath is abundant, I can also blow for a long period of time without changing until the breath is almost used up. just replaced.

The feeling of suffocation, I believe everyone has experienced it. The most important thing when playing a large piece of music with circulating air is to minimize the feeling of holding your breath, that is, try to have enough fresh air to replenish the lungs, so that the performance will be more relaxed and better for the body. People with smaller lung capacity need to have more intensive ventilation in order to meet this requirement. Therefore, if you practice circulatory ventilation, if you can solve the long tone, you should start to make the melody on your hand and the ventilation action completely independent, without affecting each other. This can actually be used in a variety of music. The circulatory ventilation of other instruments is more difficult. In addition to tone control and hard training, I think there are also some innate conditions. For example, I use the flute to practice, because I can't puff my cheeks, and the air capacity is small, so I must speed up the process of ventilation. But when I speed up my inhalation, my nose, which is always allergic to nasal congestion, will respond to my rapid inhalation with a snoring sound, which also blocks the smooth entry of the breath, which is really a headache.

At present, almost most of the professional flute players have mastered the skills of cyclic ventilation and even cyclic double vomit on the flute, which is really admirable. In terms of suona, there should be no one who can't. If the suona players in various schools still can't break through after exploring on their own, it is recommended to find a time to watch the suona of folk red and white affairs and see how they blow. Although the playing style is quite different, there is still a lot of inspiration from folk artists as far as the technique of air circulation is concerned.