Category: Breathing

So, what is Breath Support??

8/7/2012

"What brings success? Vision, initiative and perseverance. Let the desire to sing command your energies. Let your singing educate and discipline your muscles.
~ Giovanni Battista Lamperti

Breath Exercise: Locating the Breath Support Muscles

A good starting point towards developing your diaphragm and abdominal muscles is by doing breath exercises. Why? Because if these muscles are strong and controlled, they'll be able to squeeze a small portion of air out of the lungs, providing plenty of air to sing any phrase.

A small amount of air under pressure from the lower breathing muscles and controlled by the diaphragm and lower ribs goes a long way towards smoothing out and strengthening the voice enabling you to hit those high notes with ease.

This exercise will help show you instantly where breath support comes from. It will take out all the guess work of trying to understand What is Breath Support! And you will need to use it to assist your singing you have to be able to feel it right!

Try this...

Take a medium sized comfortable breath through your mouth down into the diaphragm, filling your lungs from the bottom up. Do NOT let your shoulders or chest rise when you take a breath. Feel the stretch happening in the lower abdomen. Note your lower back and ribs expanding as you inhale while keeping your chest relaxed. Begin to immediately exhale. While you exhale make a 'ssss' noise by placing your tongue behind your upper front teeth and squeeze air through a tiny opening between your pursed lips.

Emit the 'ssss' sound fairly intensely, if you are making this noise correctly it will sound what you'd imagine a loud air leak in a tyre would. Continue making this 'ssss' sound as long as you possibly can. Squeeze out the last drop of air. As you are doing this notice which muscles which muscles are working to press the air up to the cords. What you are feeling is the compression of the support muscles around your lower abdomen at work. If you are doing this correctly you will feel it in and around the belt level just below your navel.

This is the sensation that you want and need to feel support when you are singing. It won't be as intense a feeling as it is in this exercise as for when it is singing however this will exercise will make you aware of what muscles tuse and how to.

I hope you found this blog helpful. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask.

Have a great day.

Sarah Morrison

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What happened to the singer who didn't breathe?

4/9/2012

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HABIT IS A MANS SOUL COMFORT. WE DISLIKE DOING WITHOUT EVEN UNPLEASANT THINGS ,TO WHICH WE HAVE BECOME ACCUSTOMED. ~ GOETHE.

If you really want to build vocal power, you've got to build breath control and support. It is important that you become familiar with the diaphragm being the major muscle of inhalation and how to use it. So lets focus first on how to breathe correctly.

Try this...

Be aware of your body as you breath and notice…
Is your stomach rising and falling? or
Does your chest do all the work?

Raising our chest and shoulders is a common habit, but it really causes us to draw a shallow breath, and this creates problems later when we need more breath to support our singing, especially for high notes or for long phrases in a song.

Notice the way a baby breaths and you will see their little bellies rising and falling. This is the way we naturally breath, however somewhere along the way we have forgotten and fallen prey to laziness, stress and tension causing us to breath short shallow breaths.

When you sing do you get a sore throat? Do you find it hard to sustain the high notes or even reach them? The key to unlock the answer is all in the breath control and support, along with your vocal exercises.

As a singer YOU ARE the instrument, and just like any instrument the better the care, the better the outcome. If you take good care of your voice, you can look forward to learning how to produce an amazing tone and strength; which will lead to you singing with the ease and power that not only the stars do – but YOU will too!

Try this…

Place your hand on your stomach and breathe deeply into your diaphragm; as you do this, your hand should rise and fall as your diaphragm is filled with air.

Now imagine your stomach is like a balloon as you blow it up – what happens to the balloon? As you breath out, all the way out, imagine this balloon is in your stomach. Place your hands just above your hips and feel it expand as you breathe in and deflate as you breathe out.

Remember:
~ In order to care for your instrument you must breathe properly.
~ Shallow breathing into your chest will limit the quality of voice, limit your range and tire you out!

Some important points to note: Our shoulders and chest area should be relaxed when we inhale. If we find that our chest area lifts up high or our shoulders are raised when we inhale, then just rest both hands on your stomach and repeat the inhalation exercise.

My challenge for you is to make the breath work a part of your daily routine!

Be aware of your breathing (even when you are not singing). Make a conscious effort to breathe deeply into your diaphragm. This will require some persistence though soon enough it will you will do it naturally (the way we are meant to breath). This will not only significantly help your singing, it will help your circulation of oxygen to your blood for a feeling of optimal health, energy and zest for life.

To conclude I’d like to recommend ‘The Breathing Book : A Practical Guide to Natural Breathing’ by Brad Thompson. This is a great little book, packed with practical exercises to enhance your breathing as well as better understand the physiology and mechanics of breathing.

Disclaimer
Before incorporating any of these practices into your routine it is the authors recommendation that if you have any health issues to consult with a health professional to ensure no pre-existing condition could be jeopardized by any of these exercises.

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So, what is Breath Support??

Breath Exercise: Locating the Breath Support Muscles

What happened to the singer who didn't breathe?

Sarah Morrison

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