In last month's tip, I talked about abdominal breathing and the benefits of starting breaths through the nose and continuing through the mouth.
However,I received many emails opposing this advice, saying that "you should breathe in through the mouth" or that "breathing through the nose takes too much time". So, I decided to do some research on the Internet.
Practically everybody for every instrument advises abdominal breathing. However, there is much less consensus on exactly where to breath in from. I found people advising such diverse things as "breathe through your mouth, except in special circumstances", "breathe through your mouth as far as you can, then even more through your nose", "breathe through your nose as though you were smelling a flower", etc., etc.
There were so many disparate opinions, it seems the only thing that is agreed upon is that it's hard to breathe through your nose if it's completely stuffed up!
However,it seems that most people use their noses for in-breaths. Even those (who say they breathe in through their mouths) talk about difficulty when their nose is stuffed, which to me indicates that they are actually using their nose.
However,what is important is that you be able to breathe in quickly, quietly, and in large volumes. Any method that enables this is fine. Try different ways of abdominal breathing through your nose until you hit upon the way that's most natural and efficient for you.