no inhaling allowed!!

[VideoHere]

now that i have your attention, lol!!!!

i'm taking a survey....i am no longer "actively" inhaling air to sing. now when i sing, i have trained myself to make the lower core muscles totally responsible for any intake of air.

this was suggested in a few books i've read recently.....to remove the "activity" of inhalation of air. the drawing, the active inhalation.....the habit we have so ingrained in us.

learning to breathe this way gives us a balance of air to fold adduction that is truly awesome.

does anyone breath for singing in this way?

[Keith]

Yes, that is how I breath also - except at a show lol. If I am standing up straight, then yes. BUT, if I am running around or what have you, then I tend to not breath properly. I really do not notice a difference in the way my voice sounds - but I do notice how the length of time I can hold a note, or feeling tired in the throat when I move too much. I am still not to the point of breathing perfection, and when one does not breath properly, everything else just kinda breaks down.

[ronws]

It's been so long since I have consciously thought of taking a breath or trying to inhale.

The only time I have to take a quick, largish breath is the middle of "Heaven on their Minds."

The lyrics are sung in one breath.

"Nazareth, your famous son should have stayed a great unknown like his father carving wood he'd have made good"

*inhale!*

"Tables, chairs, and oaken chests would have suited Jesus best he'd have caused nobody harmed no one alarmed!" with a bite on the ascending note of the last word.

Other than that, I have not really thought about it. But I do watch how much air I am exhaling. If I have to push, my intonation or resonation is off, because then I am pushing to create volume, which is the wrong thing to do.

[VideoHere]

i just wonder how many beginning folks know what we mean by this. i feel it would help so many folks to know this from the beginning.

[bigfoot]

@ Bob - It happens at times, but I don't think I'm conscious of exactly what I'm doing to make it happen!

[VideoHere]

you start out very intentional. it takes some getting used to because it can feel unsettling. your turning off a very ingrained habit. you're teaching yourself to sing using very little air.

but it has helped me immeasurably to mentally disconnect the responce of sucking in air, and pressurizing too much air which only turns your vocal folds into a cork on a bottle instead of a pitch maker.

now i'm not ramming and jamming the air into the folds, but rather applying the air to the folds, then channeling the air to the most appropriate resonating cavity per my voice, my anatomical makeup.

obviously, this is not the most technical way to describe it...lol!!!!

[Guest]

I was working on this today. Actually it didn't seem very difficult. I can't say I was just doing it, just like that and have it down pat. But what I mean is that I think I can grasp this easy enough. That is, if I am interpreting this correctly. The easiest way I can describe what I was doing today, or at least the feeling of it, was that Instead of taking air in top down I was pulling it bottom first. Like a bellows expanding and automatically drawing air in rather than blowing the bellows open by blowing air through the top.

Well, something like that. :D

[VideoHere]

easiest way to look at it...while you sing, you resign yourself to the fact that the only way to get air into your lungs is through the expansion down below ribs, abs, back.

you cannot suck in air except through this expansion. works really well once the methodology becomes automated.

[jonpall]

when singing, one should LET the air in, at the rate/speed it wants to go in, and not try to force/suck it in.

[Mivke]

My last vocal coach taught me this "trick" by telling me to act surprised and at the same time "make room" for the air. It actually works very well, because when you get surprised your are not actually thinking "I'm gonna suck in alot of air fast and make my eyes big!" you just do it and its a sensation everyone can relate to.

At last that works for me, but sadly I have not gotten to the point where this happens automatically for me, so I guess I must just be patient :)

[Guest]

I can see how controlling the intake this way would also help prevent drying out. Or at least slow it down.

[ronws]

I am reminded of what Herbert Burtis said about the 3 rules of singing.

Breathing, breathing, and what was that other thing ... uh .... just a second, ... oh yeah - breathing.

The hardest part people have about the inhale is to counter the years they spent holding their stomach in, trying to look thin. Wear loose clothing, let the belly expand. There is no bony cage in front of the belly. Let it expand and you will intake all the air that you need.