Lax Bro Wisdom: “Let your flow rage!”

Um, Angela, don’t you mean, “Let your rage flow? And what the heck is a Lax Bro?”

I too have asked those same questions, but have since been enlightened.  And, in case you’re wondering, although letting one’s rage flow does seem to be the way of the world right now, I am not jumping on that bandwagon today.

One of the greatest things about living with teenagers (currently teenager singular since one of them just started college) is occasionally getting an education about the trends of the young and hip that I had no earthly idea existed.

Lesson number one came over the summer when the subject of lacrosse had come up.  I had seen a bumper sticker with LAX on it, wondering why anyone would be touting the glories of the Los Angeles Airport when I was made aware that it was an abbreviation for lacrosse.  I soon had my eyes opened to a whole culture!  A lax bro, I learned, is a guy who plays, or perhaps more accurately, lives and breathes lacrosse.  In addition to having a whole sub-culture of their own, they also have their own colloquialisms that can vary from region to region.  A lax bro in Maryland may use different phraseology than a lax bro in Pennsylvania or New York.  And the terms are constantly changing.

Lesson number two came while we were at the dinner table last week when my husband was giving his son grief about his hair.  “I think it’s about time for a haircut, dude.  You’re looking a little shaggy.”

“A lax bro would say he was ‘letting his flow rage’,” was Abe’s hilarious reply.

I laughed out loud (I mean, I LOL’ed).  They often do this – making me laugh with their “punny” banter,  both of them being lovers of all varieties of word play.  For this one though, being a newbie to lax slang, I had to ask for further explanation.

He explained that they call letting your hair grow out letting your flow rage!  For further highly interesting definitions of “flow” check out Urban Dictionary. Also, check out videos of The Ultimate Lax Bro on You Tube.  You just might get a laugh!

After a bit more banter, Dave and Abe determined that a haircut should be called a “flow chop,” and I think they came to some sort of loose agreement that his time for a flow chop had come.  I was glad for the education and entertainment along the way.  (By the way, I must protect Abe’s reputation and make it perfectly clear that he is not a lax bro – not that there is anything wrong with that).

This phrase “letting your flow rage” tickled my fancy because I think it is a perfectly adaptable mantra to the life of any wind instrument player.  Since I see the world through the eyes of the horn player, the first thing I think of when I hear the word “flow” is the breath.

I remember during my student days hearing Bill Purvis talk about how it was really something very special that we use our breath as wind players to make music.  I agree whole-heartedly.  It is a beautiful concept philosophically, and I think we can take advantage of that.

There are two main ways that I think we can use the breath and the flow of air as our ally.  The first is re-discovering what Donna Farhi calls “the original breath.”  This is something that absolutely everyone can do, musician or not.  One of the most fascinating and rewarding processes (and it is an ongoing process) is following the way we breathe, day in and day out, from circumstance to circumstance.  Have you ever noticed how babies breathe?  Their bodies are soft and pliable and the breath gently moves through the whole body.  As we grow older, more self-aware, and more able to think critically, we begin to hold our breath, or to hold it in certain parts of our bodies.  We can become confused, thinking we have to suck in our stomachs and puff our chests to breath in and let everything sag in order to breath out.  Or we girls think that in order to be beautiful, our bellies must be completely flat, so we hold it in, not allowing our breath to move us.

So the first process for us wind players is to find this original breath.  Why?  Because it has power to give us health and peace of mind and to become more aware of, not only our bodies, but our state of mind.  It helps our larger, more big-picture flow through life. Also, it is the basis for the way we use our air more actively.

The second (and most obvious) way we horn players can use our breath is, of course, while we play.  It is a different action from our “original breath,” but still rooted in that very natural process.

Here are some common “checking-in” points for the way we use our flow while playing:

–       Does the intake of air and the blow into the horn happen in one smooth motion?  Is the breath held before playing?

–       When you breathe in, where is the air going?  Do you feel the back ribs expand? The belly? Your chest?  The pelvic floor? Try checking in from time to time.

–       As you move from note to note or through a phrase does the air and the support underneath it keep going?  (Is your flow raging?) Or is there a manipulation and stopping of the air between notes?  My first horn teacher Bill Capps used to refer to it as “blowing between the notes” and I think it is a very effective way to think about it.  Another way to get in the habit of playing in a continually supported way or on the air is to play passages slurred first in order to train the body to play through or sing through the phrases or passages – then add the articulation.

So, happy breathing and – Let your flow rage!

Recommended Reading

I highly recommend reading Donna Farhi’s The Breathing Book.  It is geared, not towards musicians, but to absolutely anyone.  She offers the best guidance I have found for undoing the less healthy body and breathing habits we acquire through life and finding our “original breath.”

Another interesting book for tapping into the power of breath is a book called Breathwalk by Gurucharan Singh Khalsa and Yogi Bhajan.  This book may be a little more “out there” for some of my readers, but I found it interesting and helpful to read years ago when I picked it up.  It brought an extra dimension and awareness to the importance of the way the breath moves through the body as we do everyday activities – like walking!