True or False?
1. If you take a big breath when you sing, you’ll have plenty of air to spare.
2. If you breathe from the diaphragm, you’ll have no breath worries as a singer.
3. If you hold on to control your breath, you’ll never run out of air as a singer.
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HOPEFULLY you bellowed FALSE to all 3 of the erroneous statements.
We already breathe. At least we are breathing now if we are lucky.
When singers make sound, the best sounds come from a heightened and directional use of the breath we use every day.
The word for a singer’s breath is often called “support.” Vocabulary is so often inadequate. The word support can mean vastly different things to various people.
However you define a singer’s “breath support,” I will assert the following:
“A singers support is only as good as how the breath moves and flows from the body. ”
Or so I’ve found.
I don’t care how epically “huge” my inhalation may be, if I am physically tight when I make sound, I will run short of breath.
Today all of my invested voice lesson shekels yielded their continuing worth.
I had a gig to record tracks of liturgical music. I needed to match the track, stay rhythmic, and sustain extended phrases. Ubi Caritas in particular is a deceivingly challenging ditty that has singer sand traps a plenty.
When it comes to breathing and making music, every voice has a different tank of fuel (aka breath.) My tank moves a set of vocal cords that runs on more cylinders. If I am tight and holding tension, it is harder to get my motor running especially on music that is less easy for bigger singing engines.
So I opened up my tool box and got to work. Stretching my body, lifting my palate on the breath, heightening my vowels, and moving my breath in a forward position got me in the zone. I found the pocket related to my particular instrument that helped me integrate the piece into my throat.
So yeah, many thanks Mom and Dad, your sponsorship continues to make good on its returns.
#akintsucrooner
akintsucrooner 