Circular breathing is absolutely possible, and thousands of musicians around the world use it regularly. The technique allows a person to maintain a continuous stream of air from the mouth while simultaneously inhaling through the nose. It sounds like it defies basic anatomy, but it relies on a simple mechanical trick: using your cheeks as a temporary air reservoir.
How Circular Breathing Works
The name is slightly misleading. You’re not actually breathing in and out at the same time. Instead, you’re alternating between two air sources so quickly that the outward airflow never stops. Here’s the sequence: while you still have air in your lungs, you puff out your cheeks to store a small pocket of air in your mouth. Then, while your cheek muscles squeeze that stored air outward (like a bellows), you quickly inhale through your nose to refill your lungs. Once your lungs are full again, you switch back to pushing air from your lungs and refill your cheeks for the next cycle.
The soft palate at the back of your mouth acts as a valve, temporarily sealing off the throat so that cheek air goes forward out of the mouth rather than backward into the airway. This is the same mechanism your body uses when you gargle or blow up a balloon. Coordinating all of these movements into a smooth, unbroken airstream is the challenge, but there’s nothing anatomically unusual about any individual step.
Who Uses It
Circular breathing is deeply rooted in traditional music cultures. Australian Aboriginal musicians have long used it to play the didgeridoo, an instrument that essentially requires the technique to produce its characteristic drone. Sardinian players of the launeddas (a triple-pipe reed instrument), along with performers of traditional Asian oboes, shawms, and flutes, have practiced the technique for centuries.
In Western music, it’s become a valued tool among wind and brass players. Jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk was one of the first to bring the technique wide attention. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, trombonist Trombone Shorty, clarinetist Martin Fröst, and classical oboist Marcel Tabuteau have all incorporated it into their playing. Oboists find it especially useful because the instrument’s narrow reed naturally restricts airflow, making long passages physically demanding without circular breathing.
How Long a Note Can Last
When executed well, circular breathing can sustain a note for as long as the player’s endurance holds out. The current Guinness World Record for the longest continuously held note belongs to saxophonist Vann Burchfield, who held a single tone for 47 minutes and 6 seconds. Kenny G famously held a note for 45 minutes and 47 seconds, and Nigerian musician Femi Kuti pushed to 46 minutes and 38 seconds. All three used circular breathing. Guinness has since retired the category and no longer accepts new attempts.
How to Start Learning
Most instructors break the learning process into small, manageable steps that don’t involve an instrument at first. A common beginner exercise from Berklee College of Music works like this: puff out your cheeks with air, then practice breathing normally through your nose while keeping your cheeks inflated. You can even hum while doing it. Once that feels comfortable, you add the squeeze: inhale through the nose while pressing your cheeks inward with your fingers to push the stored air out. The goal is to make the transition between cheek air and lung air seamless.
Another popular starter exercise involves blowing bubbles through a straw into a glass of water. The visual feedback (continuous bubbles) makes it easy to tell whether you’ve maintained an unbroken airstream during the nose inhale. On an actual instrument, players typically start on notes that respond easily and don’t require much air pressure. Oboe and saxophone players, for example, often begin with lower, stable notes in the middle of the instrument’s range.
There’s no single timeline for mastering the technique. Some people get the basic coordination within a few days of focused practice. Applying it smoothly during musical performance, with consistent tone and no audible “hiccup” at the transition point, takes considerably longer. Most players spend weeks to months before they’re comfortable using it in front of an audience.
What It Does to Your Body
Prolonged circular breathing changes your blood chemistry in measurable ways. A 2025 study published in Communications Psychology found that sustained circular breathwork significantly lowers carbon dioxide levels in the blood. Active breathers in the study dropped to an average end-tidal CO2 of about 20 mmHg, compared to 37 mmHg in the control group. That’s a substantial decrease, roughly cutting CO2 saturation in half. Blood oxygen levels, meanwhile, tend to increase. These shifts are similar to what happens during any form of deliberate hyperventilation, and they can produce lightheadedness, tingling in the fingers, or altered mental states during extended sessions.
For short bursts of circular breathing during musical performance, these effects are minimal. They become more relevant during prolonged breathwork practices that use circular breathing patterns for 20 minutes or more.
A Surprising Medical Application
Regular didgeridoo playing, which requires circular breathing, has been shown to improve obstructive sleep apnea. A randomized controlled trial published in the BMJ found that four months of didgeridoo practice significantly reduced daytime sleepiness scores by an additional 3.0 points compared to a control group. More notably, the apnea-hypopnea index (a measure of how many times breathing stops or becomes shallow per hour of sleep) dropped by 6.2 events per hour more than in the control group. Partners of the players also reported significantly less sleep disturbance. The likely mechanism is that circular breathing strengthens the muscles of the upper airway, making them less prone to collapsing during sleep.
Who Should Be Cautious
Because extended circular breathing alters CO2 and oxygen levels, it’s not appropriate for everyone. Research protocols studying circular breathwork have excluded people with cardiovascular conditions like uncontrolled high blood pressure or heart arrhythmias, chronic lung diseases such as asthma or COPD, epilepsy, and a history of psychotic disorders. Pregnancy is also typically listed as a contraindication for prolonged breathwork sessions. Brief circular breathing during music practice is a different intensity level than dedicated breathwork, but anyone with these conditions should be aware of the physiological demands involved.