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The Ins and Outs of Breathing

1130 - June 2021

1. BREATHING IS SOMETHING WE ALL DO, SO WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO BREATHE CORRECTLY FOR SINGING?

While most of us breathe in and out all day and all night without ever giving it much thought, that is simply not the case for a singer.

One of the most important things about singing is the regulation and control of the comings and goings of the air. You are supposed to get to the end of a sentence as you get to the end of the exhale while singing a song. Just like speech, the rhythms and phrases of singing a song vary greatly. Some parts of songs have long sustained notes and are quiet, some are sustained and are very loud.

Some songs have lots of words that move along very quickly and some have so many words that it is almost impossible to find a place to breathe. This requires a great amount of flexibility with your breathing. And…all the while, you also have to make it look easy so the listener never gets distracted from the music by your breathing. It is really quite remarkable! Not enough breath often leads to pushing and to notes going flat or sharp and can really hinder the total impact of what is possible when singing.

2. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REGULAR EVERYDAY BREATHING AND BREATHING FOR SINGING?

The reason why everyday breathing seems so different is because we generally breathe automatically. There is a system in the body that regulates the breathing and to put it quite simply, we breathe on auto-pilot. Our breathing is usually operating on its own as the sympathetic part of our nervous system, the part that regulates things without our deliberate concentration, regulates the inhale and the exhale without us paying much attention…Singing, on the other hand, obviously involves much more than that.

In order to sustain a musical phrase, it is necessary to go through a series of steps so that while you are relaxed, you are also allowing into your body much more air than you would normally need for speaking. Then that air has to be matched to the demands of the musical phrase that you are going to sing. Singers must have much more than the normal capacity for regulating and controlling their breathing mechanism. And they have to have much more than the normal lung capacity to inhale all that air in the first [place. As the singer learns to coordinate the inhale and the exhale of the breath to the song, the amount of air gets handled on its way out of the body in a very different way than when we are speaking. It happens over time in a way that resembles speech but is much more like jogging or running compares to walking.

3. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BODY WHEN YOU LEARN TO REGULATE YOUR BREATH?

There are many wonderful things that happen to the body when you learn to regulate your breathing. First of all, when the body takes in a regular amount of air and then it happens again and again as it does when you are doing vocal exercises, the whole nervous system calmed down and you change into a very meditative state. The even flow of air in and out calms the body systems and lowers your heart rate. It is an activity that allows the nervous system to relax and the muscles to also relax. As the air comes into the body it expands internally to allow for a free flow of air. The muscles between the ribs expand, the diaphragm lowers to make room, the back learns to relax and expand and your body gets filled with a tremendous amount of oxygen. And then in a blink, it all leaves and the process begins all over again. It is really miraculous!

4. HOW DO I KNOW IF IAM BREATHING CORRECTLY OR NOT?

Even if you are not a singer and have never thought of your breathing, it is not very difficult to determine if you are breathing correctly or not. When air comes in to the body, your body has to relax. Bit for the air to enter. If your muscles are very tight and you get a lot of headaches, absent some medical condition that may cause that, you could be breathing wrong. Your breath could be very shallow and very quick. That is also not desirable. Some people who breath almost backwards, pull in their abdomens when the air is entering the body. That is exactly the opposite thing that is supposed to happen. Some people do that and also slightly lift their shoulders as they inhale. Wrong again! Others, when they are first learning to sing, raise their shoulders a lot and that is all wrong for breathing too.

You can do a simple check by just putting your hands on your belly and observe what happens. If there is a free flow of expansion and contraction, you are probably breathing correctly. Also another thing you can do is to watch a little baby or a child breathe when they are asleep. Their little bellies move out and in rhythmically and that is how we all should breathe.

5. IS IT DIFFICULT TO LEARN TO BREATHE CORRECTLY FOR SINGING OR FOR ANYTHING ELSE?

The quick answer to that is that it shouldn’t be difficult to learn. In the training that I received and that I teach, we tap into the natural way that people should breathe and use that system. It is already here and available. It seems like a mystery but it really isn’t. Again, we can begin by starting to pucker and hiss like we tried last time. The body loves to breathe correctly so, with the right guidance, you should be able to pick it up quite quickly.

6. HOW DO I BEGIN TO LEARN TO REGULATE MY BREATH?

There are many ways that we could begin so let’s begin with something that is easier to follow. First, just sit there and breathe. Put your feet on the floor and let your hands just rest on your lap. Now just close your eyes, straighten your back and let your head rest on the top of the spine easily and comfortably. Just breathe in and out and allow your body to calm down and to be very still. Now start to listen to your breath as it comes in and out. Check to see if that is easily happening. Next, put one hand on the chest area and the other hand on the abdomen. Just sit there as relaxed as possible, and try to determine which area is moving more freely. You want the abdominal area to be more relaxed and for it to move more freely than the chest area. If it is not, then direct the air to allow it to move deeper into the body until you feel your abdominal muscles letting go and moving in and out. Just by doing that, you have already learned the beginning steps toward breathing more correctly and more easily.

7. ARE THERE EXERCISES THAT I CAN DO TO BREATHE BETTER EVEN THOUGH I AM A BEGINNER?

YES, there are many exercises that are available that will help. So for starters, I would like to do the “Pucker and Hiss “exercise that we did in the first podcast….(Then I will re teach that exercise)

8. IS THERE JUST ONE WAY TO DO THIS CORRECTLY?

There is usually more that one way to do anything. However, when it comes too breathing, there are certain ways to activate your breath that are, according to science, pretty uniform. There are numerous sources of information from many different traditions that teach things like Yogic Breathing that approach things in a more detailed way and some of them are fantastic for helping a singer to expand their skills.

9. HOW WILL BREATHING CORRECTLY MAKE ME SOUND BETTER WHEN I SING?

Well, for one thing, breathing correctly will make your voice sound even. It will help with the phrasing of your sentences and allow your voice to connect all the lyrics so that you can sing with emotion and clarity. It will help with the formulation of all the vowels and consonants that we find in our language so the you can be easily understood. The right amount of air flow will help you to determine the soundness and the softness of your singing…the list goes on and on.

10. DOES LEARNING HOW TO BREATHE CORRECTLY BENEFIT ME IN OTHER WAYS BESIDES SINGING?

Yes, the benefits are enormous. You will be healthier because you are getting better circulation and more oxygen into your bloodstream. Your skin will be healthier. Your nervous system will be calmer. And because your immune system and your nervous system are so connected in our bodies, you will feel the positive effects in your digestive system as well. Your lungs will be stronger. I can’t think of a negative thing that cannot be helped by learning to breathe better and easier.