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do i need to take up breathing exercises, again?

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Benns

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hi guys,

I used to practice breathing exercises for months when i first started taking singing lessons, however i stopped after i noticed that my breathing started to improve. Anyways, recently i have noticed that anytime i sing a line,or just before i am about to finish or start a line, i kinda unconsciously make a slight gasp for air. I can sing whole songs but i always do this gasp for air thing. What do you guys, think? I don't feel like i am completely breathless when singing or that i struggle to finish singing a song...

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Benns it doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. A good singer's breath isn't that much different than a gasp, it should ultimately be quieter but taking in a lot of air quickly and often is good (at least in my experience). You do mention wanting another gasp of air before you finish lines though which is of course not optimal. The solution to that is usually just finding another convenient place in the line to take a quick breath so you don't run out by the end. But if that alone doesn't work or there's no place to do it, then yes, breathing exercises would be a good idea for learning to carefully meter out the air through long phrases instead of wasting it all too early and wimping out at the end.

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Benns it doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong. A good singer's breath isn't that much different than a gasp, it should ultimately be quieter but taking in a lot of air quickly and often is good (at least in my experience). You do mention wanting another gasp of air before you finish lines though which is of course not optimal. The solution to that is usually just finding another convenient place in the line to take a quick breath so you don't run out by the end. But if that alone doesn't work or there's no place to do it, then yes, breathing exercises would be a good idea for learning to carefully meter out the air through long phrases instead of wasting it all too early and wimping out at the end.

Hmm, see the thing is that just before i sing, i always make this quick gasp (which is almost loud sometimes)..Ah, i see..How about if i try taking a quick breath in the middle of a line so that i don't have to take one just before the line ends?

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learn to open the vocal tract so your inhales are more efficient & complete. inhale predominately through your mouth.......they should be silent.

(the thing that puzzles me here is if you were doing breathing exercises for months, why would you be running out of air?)

expand your back and ribs and allow the air to come in...move away from actively drawing it in.

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To answer your question, yes. But regarding the first part, you do realize that singers do have to take a nice full breath before every line though, right? You seem like you're thinking that is something to be avoided, it's not, it's necessary for singing.

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But regarding the first part, you do realize that singers do have to take a nice full breath before every line though, right? You seem like you're thinking that is something to be avoided, it's not, it's necessary for singing.

Owen I have to disagree with you here. It depends on a lot of things. For instance if you want to belt then a quick shallow breath is preferable.

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Hmm, maybe i'm just being a little bit weird hah. Not sure if you can hear the gasps i make like after singing the word "sunrise". Those gasps are ok, right?

https://soundcloud.com/bs9000/new-recording-121

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Try and smooth out the pronunciation of sun rise.

To me, it sounds like Sun.Rise.Sun.Rise. The full stops represent your staccato attack on the word.

If that makes sense. You're not fully stopping the air flow and it's not too breathy just you need to be more

legato and smooth the transition between the two words.

That's my take.

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Try and smooth out the pronunciation of sun rise.

To me, it sounds like Sun.Rise.Sun.Rise. The full stops represent your staccato attack on the word.

If that makes sense. You're not fully stopping the air flow and it's not too breathy just you need to be more

legato and smooth the transition between the two words.

That's my take.

Ah, yeah, i thought there was something a bit funny with my pronunciation

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but benns, you have to understand why your inhales are better....because in the first recording they weren't ...what is it you think you did differently?

You mean in the first recording, i sent a few weeks back? I don't even know, man. It's just something that randomly started thinking about - the whole recent breathing issue

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You stopped because your breathing started to improve... And what does your teacher say?

From "starting to improve" to "working to sing with" is a huge gap.

I do breathing exercises for what, 6 years now. One week without some kind of maintenance, and it starts to affect my voice. You can work with sibilances, scales or the singing itself, but it must be worked and needs attention.

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In an interview of classical singers they mentioned a professional tenor over 60years old that as they stated he wasnt "suposed" to sing that good at his age, when they asked him how was that possible he answered he does breathing exercises every morning. First thing i do since i heard that, when i wake up take a few deep breaths.

* Here, its at the last minute but the whole interview is totally worth listening, also there are 5-7 other videos of the same intervie of equal interest.

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And I read in an interview with Ron Keel, that he spent a month or two just working on his breathing so that it was not competing so much for his attention when started to work on singing exercises. That may sound odd to some people but I think it has worked for me. Any time during the day, and even as I lay down to sleep, I pay attention, if only for a few moments to assure that my breathing action is coming from the belly, not the chest.

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i've always talked about breathing and support being seriously important.......

now the lift is getting in there too. if you don't support well , you can't sing well...period..

and again, (because i can feel daniel ready to down on me any minute...lol) it's not about standing there doing simulated defecating......it's about control....control over release, control over exhalation..... and depending on the sound you are going for, it can be very physically tiring at first.

i do breathing exercises, one way or another, because as phil said, scales work support, messa di voce, works support, and as daniel said, just singing has to as well.

if you want to do more like breath holding, and "leaky tires" and all of this...it can only help.

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