Posture is important for the singer since a series of muscles and other structures must remain in alignment in order for the voice to function as a well oiled machine, as I like to say. It may be helpful to pay attention to pay attention to the following recommendations:
HEAD

Proponents of the Alexander Technique recommend that the head should be free and balanced on the head. The result is that there is no interference with the vocal structures and the promotion of a projected, colorful voice. To promote a free and balanced head, the singer should recognize the mind body connection and say to him/herself:

Let the head be free
Let the head go forward and up
Let the chest lengthen and widen.

No effort should be made to force the head into any position since the head will obey what it is told (creative power as in “let there be light” etc).

Singers will find that habits such as lifting the head when singing will be eliminated since this practice actually throws the vocal structures out of alignment and interfere with the singing.

TONGUE AND JAW

The tongue should be relaxed on the floor of the mouth and the tip placed behind the lower teeth. This creates more space in the mouth for the escape of the sound. Some
theorists teach that it should be flattened in the mouth, but this is not beneficial to the singer.

The lower jaw must be free and relaxed to allow the throat to open and therefore a free escape of air/sound. A simple exercise is the breathe, let the jaw fall and whisper “ah” with the escaping breath.

FEET

Surmani recomends that the feet should be placed firmly in the floor, shoulder width apart. The knees should be relaxed and not locked. Spine should be straight and t he shoulders relaxed and down. This shoulder position enhances breathing movements.

See you soon

I got this interesting article from Jeaniedeva.com and hope you would enjoy reading it. Please click the link:

http://www.jeanniedeva.com/site/444991/page/112933

How are you doing so far? In order to prevent hyperventilation (overbreathing),  I would recommend that you do these exercises at separate instances.

 EXERCISE 3

 Breathe in slowly, steadily and quietly through the nose
Hold the breath for ONE count
Open the mouth and let out the breath slowly, steadily and quietlyDon’t breathe for ONE count after breathing outRepeat the exercise 12  times, resting after each set of four.

Enjoy! 

I hope that you are experiencing marked improvement in your voice. You should be doing so if you are a diligent student. I found these useful breathing exercises in a book by K Behnke and found them useful. There are much simpler exercises, but we will talk about them later:

EXERCISE 1

Breathe in slowly, steadily and quietly through the nose
Hold the breath for TWO counts. While holding the breath, open the mouth widely and let the air escape quickly and quietly.
Don’t breathe for TWO counts.
Repeat the exercise three times.
Rest for 30 seconds after the fourth repetition.
Repeat the entire exercise three more times taking 30 second rests after each set.

EXERCISE 2

Breathe in slowly, steadily and quietly through the nose
Hold the breath for TWO counts
Release the breath suddenly while saying HAH
Don’t breathe for TWO counts.
Repeat the exercise three times, breathing out on HAY then HEE.
Rest 30 seconds after the fourth repetition

Exercises 3 and 4 will be done next time. It may be a wise idea not to do all these exercises in one sitting. Actually, I must confess that I myself have never really gotten beyond exercise one except on a few occasions. It is quite good. Enjoy
Reference

Behnke K (1948) Singer’s difficulties – how to overcome them Britain: Lowe and Brydone Printers Limited

Breathing is a very important to singing and I have discovered that it is equivalent to having a foundation for a building. Breathing exercises are important for several reasons. They help singers to:

1. develop flexibility and agility in the breathing muscles so that he/she could do things like taking quick snatches of air.
2. develop sustained singing/sing without running our of breath.
3. control and support the escape of air from the lungs
4. improve vocal tone and eliminate unpleasant vocal problems such as nasal tones, harsh sounds etc
5. develop natural and beautiful singing
One useful guideline for breathing exercises was given by Ron Murdock, in his article “Born to sing”. He recommended that the most efficient way to train the breathing apparatus is to breathe in then concentrate on breathing out in a coordinated and rhythmic manner.

Try starting with the exercises from yesterday’s post and I will add more later

REFERENCES

Hewitt G (1987) How to sing Britain: Elm Tree Books
Murdock R (2007) Born to sing http://www.alexandercenter.com/pa/voice.html

I thought that we could start with a simple, but effective exercise that will help to “free” your voice. Please click on this link and read the article. The exercises that you need are in the last two paragraphs.
http://www.thetechnique.co.uk/bornsingers.htm

If you cannot cope with the exercises here, you can adapt it by breathing in then breathing out on the vowel sound “ah”. Do not make any vocal sounds, let the “ah” escape in a whisper. This will relax the muscles of the throat and neck; open the space at the back of the throat and cause the voice to become naturally resonant or loud. Enjoy.

I hope that you are ready to move onto the “secret” techniques for breathing and singing with ease. Here are some recommendations based mainly on the writings of Ron Murdock in Singing and the Alexander technique:

1. Breathe in and out through the nose.

This is physiologically sound since air taken in to the mouth would enter the stomach and not the lungs.

2. Breathe in SIPS OF AIR rather than huge inbreaths.

Several actions result if one takes in too great a volume of air. One of these is that the diaphragm falls too low and this affects vocal cord function (the diaphragm and vocal cords are connected).

In her book, Learn to sing, Karen Farnum Surmani also explains that taking in sips of air is more in keeping with the natural breathing process. When the singer breathes in naturally, this supports a natural breathing process leading to more beautiful singing. My singing improved tremendously after I adopted this technique.

3. Breathe out fully and rhythmically

This fully utilizes all of the breathing muscles and helps the singer to work fully with nature. This also allows the singer to breathe in again as a natural reflex action rather than having to heave air into the lungs.

4. Train the breathing structures

There are many breathing exercises for strengthening the breathing structures. However, the simplest explanation that I have ever read comes from Murdock in “singing and the Alexander technique”. He recommends that the most efficient way to train the breathing organ is to concentrate on breathing out air in the lungs . As the air is released, the reflex action of breathing in will be initiated.

Next time – breathing exercises, throat open position and neck position. See you then!

To access this simple and interesting book by Karen Farnum Surmani, please click on “TEACH YOURSELF TO SING” in Blog roll located on the lower right side of the blog.

Aha! I caught some of my readers here, because this is a commonly taught approach to breathing and certainly one that I was taught when I began to study singing. However, I have since changed my technique based on new and scientifically sound information that I received.

What is diaphragmatic breathing?

Basically, proponents advocate that the singer should breathe using the stomach as support. When breathing in, the stomach should raise to allow the diaphragm to become flat, allowing the lungs to maximally fill with air. Conversely when breathing out, we should pull in the stomach muscles to allow the diaphragm to return to its normal position, thus squeezing air out of the lungs.

The technique usually requires the singer to breathe in a large amount of air at the beginning of phrases.

Dangers of diaphragmatic breathing for singers

Ron Murdock in his article “Singing and the Alexander Technique”, pointed out that the vocal cords are connected to the abdominal muscles and that there are dangers inherent in pulling in on the abdominals when singing. These include:

1. overuse, collapse and distention of the lower abdominal muscles. This in turn leads to severe collapse of the chest and diaphragm, pulling in of the lower back, stiffening of the pelvic muscles and legs and shortening of the muscles at the front of the body.

2. increased effort in breathing in initial and subsequent breaths causing breathing becomes exhausting.

3. Increased use of time (sometimes very quick breaths have to be taken between phrases).

4. lack of rhythm (I could personally attest to this having used it and found that I had to squeeeeeze in on that abdomen to prevent myself from “running out of air”).

5. It works against the natural breathing process of nature since the action of breathing in a large amount of air is not a natural human response in normal breathing.

Next time – recommendations for natural, beautiful breathing for singers.

You can read more on the Alexander Technique by clicking on Alexander Technique in the blogroll. See you next time!

When we breathe in, air enters the lungs and the following changes take place:

1. the lungs and ribs expand.
2. The diaphragm lowers and becomes flat.

If you place your hand on the ribs (bony part at the front of the chest), you will feel the chest rising.

When we breathe out:
1. the lungs and ribs recoil and return to normal position
2. the diaphragm returns to its normal position.

Again, place the hands on the ribs anteriorly. You should feel the chest fall when you breathe out.

Normally some effort is required for breathing in (not much) while breathing out is an effortless activity. This is the reason some singers “run out of air” as they are unable to match the escape of air with the duration of the phrases or sentences that they need to sing. This can be overcome by doing simple excercises which we will speak about later.

Since breathing is an area that many singers have difficulty with, I usually teach my students about the lung capacity of normal individuals to show them the amazing  capacity of the lungs to hold and exchange air. Here are a few facts:

1. During normal breathing, about 600 mls of air goes in and our of the lungs

2. When we breathe in deeply, 6000 mls can enter the lungs

3. When we breathe out after having breathed in deeple, about 4800 mls of air leaves the lungs

4. All of the air does not leave the lungs when we breathe in and out. Therefore the lungs are never empty of air. Singers therefore never “run out of breath” but need to learn to control the escape of air from the lungs.  

Men may be happy to learn that their lung volumes are greater than that of females.