Breath Visualizations -- Musical Instruments and Face Masks
https://www.ontologistmusic.com/music
There’s been a lot of talk, especially lately, about water vapor in our breath and how far it travels from us as we breathe. In particular it has been a hot topic in music education, where teaching choir or wind band is either flat out denied by government policy or radically altered, as the act of singing or playing a wind instrument is ALL ABOUT projecting air, and consequently water vapor, across a room. However, when I searched around YouTube for a visual to show my students as to why they can’t play music together this school year, I didn’t find anything that really demonstrated the air moving.
I got to thinking -- how does one create visible breath in order to make this demonstration possible? I don’t smoke, and I wasn’t about to start just for a demonstration. But I did some research and I came across a relatively new form of vaporizing called ‘sub-ohm’ vaping’. There’s a whole subculture to it and it gets really nerdy really quick -- you shouldn’t be surprised there are vape nerds -- but the gist is that you need a ‘mod’, or device which controls the wattage that heats the vape coil, and a tank, which attaches to the top which stores the liquid that you want to vaporize.
Also I found out that most of the ‘juice’ that is vaporized in commercial vape pens is actually vegetable glycerin. Apparently nicotine or thc doesn’t produce much of a ‘cloud’, so this harmless additive is used to give it more visible display.. Which is exactly what I wanted. So I went down to Whole Foods and bought some vegetable glycerin and added that to the tank, 100% nicotine free!
The next step was learning how to make huge clouds. It was a lot of practice. I’m not going to win any cloud contests any time soon but I thought it should be good enough for my demo.
The VG made the air too thick to produce a good sound on the instruments. After one or two failed attempts I gave up making actual sound, and just pushed the air through the instrument in the same manner as if they were being played. That’s why I’m not including the sound with these samples. I can play all of these instruments at an intermediate level so I would say with confidence that these breath patterns are similar to actual musical performance.
Homemade Mask
You’ll notice that the cloth handmade mask does a lot to stop the forward momentum of my breath, but a substantial amount of vapor does escape upward. In all these indoor videos, the direction that the vapor travels is pretty random, there was central air conditioning occasionally turning off and on in the room I recorded these. Yes, I know, not very scientific.
N95 Mask
I recognize that I am wearing it wrong, I don’t typically wear these and I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. But I doubt that my error changed the amount of vapor that escapes here. It’s still far less than the homemade mask.
Singing
Interestingly, when I sing, the air projects out of my mouth slower than my in my example exhale. I am using my diaphragm to breath, attempting to open my throat and sing with my chest and not my head. I think this is why the air leaves more slowly. This is interesting to point out as performing arts return to the public sphere after our 2020 epidemic.
Flute
Most of the air creating the flute sound doesn’t even enter the instrument, but because it requires a fast, tight stream of air, the air is quickly expelled a great distance. The breath that is caught basically just leaks out of the keys and the end of the flute.
Clarinet
Most of the breath does come out of the end of the clarinet. I have heard clarinetists describe the escaping of air from the keyholes to resemble an aerosol spray. To be fair I am playing a low scale here, but even as I move up the register, the air does not seem to really look much like a spray can. Potentially it’s possible I am not playing the clarinet loud enough? I know I shouldn’t lift my fingers so far from the keys but I did it on purpose here for visual clarity.
Alto Saxophone
Alto Sax, however, doesn’t pipe out of the end but seeps out of the top. A lot of more of vapor comes out of the keys.
Trumpet
As trumpet only has one exit hole, the breath is going to escape with more force than woodwind instruments. Surprising to me, the air doesn’t really seem to expel with more force than a normal breath.
Trombone
Trombone works pretty much the same way. You’ll notice that the spit valve has a little leak and it is projecting a small spray pretty far forward.
I hope this video has been useful to demonstrate problems with playing music and the importance of wearing a mask during a pandemic. I’m sure there are some lifelong smokers or sub-ohm champions out there that could take these demonstrations to another level… I hope to see that someday! Thanks for watching!