Ian Sidden

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On the Breath

Find the Overarching Breath Gesture

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Each phrase you sing can and should be prepared in the breath beginning with the moment of inhalation, and it should be followed through — like you’re riding on it — until the end of the phrase.

  • Determine how you want to structure a phrase in your practice.
  • As you inhale, hear the phrase (the pitches, the dynamics, etc.) in your mind and imagine how it should feel to sing that phrase. Tune your throat in advance of the onset and in reaction to your imagination. With practice, this can be done quickly.
  • Seamlessly integrate the end of inhalation and start of exhalation into one larger breath gesture.
  • Sing the phrase by shaping the exhalation with your body to your desired phrasing. Utilize both inhalation and exhalation muscles to find balance.
  • Repeat for the next phrase.

You can practice by doing simple sounds without worrying about more complex phrasing. Some body-connected sighing can start the connection. Do the steps above, just remove the music. Experiment with different inhalations and exhalations and pay attention to the resulting sound and how you feel about it.

There are, of course, smaller techniques within each of the steps above. Just the exhalation portion can be stuffed with other guidelines. But this is something of a macro overview, and the main idea is the mind/body integration around an overarching breath gesture, in which the actual sound-making is only a part.

Anyway, that’s my rough personal definition of “on the breath”.

Open Jug Breath Holding

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Holding the breath comes naturally to us when underwater or when lifting something heavy. This is the closed-jug technique (my term). Picture a jug with a cork in the top. We fill our lungs with air, close the glottis (bring the vocal folds together to block further inflow and outflow of air), and leave it like that for as long as we need to do so. We can relax the breathing muscles themselves since the closed glottis is doing the work. Or we can even tighten our abs and push against the closed glottis.

In both of the cases I mention above, swimming and lifting, that’s a good strategy.

But for singing, this is not so helpful. We want to maintain a sense of inhalation and expansion. We want to reduce excessive abdominal pressure. We want flowing onsets that aren’t glottal attacks.

Think of your body as an open jug. Inhale and then leave the body in the position of inhalation. The ribs remain expanded, the remains belly gently down and out, and the glottis remains open. The air in the lungs remains as long as the lungs remain open. Any collapse in this position leads to the air leaving, and any expansion allows more air in.

We’re holding our breath, but we’re not trapping it. Instead, our breathing muscles are doing the work rather than the glottis.

From here, we can practice remaining in the position of inhalation, or we can sing a note. This is the open jug technique (again my term).

Breath as Relaxation

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Music-breath I had a great lesson with Dr. Martha Rowe of New Mexico State University the other day, and her ideas reiterated to me very clearly that I have tons to learn (which makes me happy). The main point I took away was to use the breath as a moment of relaxation. I had been experimenting with this before, but I was not going as far as she asked me to. Taking it that next step really worked for me.

What to Do

If you’ve ever sung a very challenging aria, you will know the feeling of fatigue that sets in as you approach the end. Your voice may not register it externally, but there is an impending sense that “Wow, this really takes a lot of energy”. If you don’t know this feeling, then that’s great.

To counteract this sensation and the panic that comes along with it, use each breath as a chance to release any tension built up during the preceding phrase. At the cut-off, release all the muscular pressure you’ve used, and inhale with as little muscular effort as necessary to feel satisfied. The breath should feel like it’s falling into you rather than being forced in. I sometimes use the image of the breath “beaming” into the lungs (you know, like Star Trek).

Just as important is that by reminding yourself what “relaxation” feels like, you can find easier paths through which to sing. If all you know is tension, then you will sing with tension.

Ways to Practice Outside of Singing

I practice this breath relaxation every day in my yoga and meditation practice, so that may be helpful to you as well when you are not singing. Practice also by walking with a very relaxed abdominal area. Many of us walk around with unnecessary ab tension. Let it go. Then apply it to your singing breath.

Weekly Gathering

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The Weekly Gathering (named after a singing concept taught to me by my current teacher) will feature some of the better singing and music articles I’ve found around the web in the previous week.

From Classical Singer Magazine: The Legacy of Richard Miller

NPR’s Report on Better Breathing: Baby Steps to Better Breathing

Vocal Advice’s Article on “Would-be” teachers of singing. It’s calm but hard-hitting: To ‘would-be’ teachers of singing: on inexperience and charlatanry

And vibrato.

Rachel Velarde’s article at Music Teacher’s Helper on Applauding Guidelines: “To Applaud or Not to Applaud, that is the Question”

Rachel Velarde’s article on her own blog about voice studio promotion: Promoting Your Studio-Ideas

From the Well Blog: 11 Health Myths That May Surprise You

From Finding my Singing Voice: Can music make us more empathetic?

From the relatively new but very promising blog MusicEdMajor.net: 5 Low-Stress Ways to Stay Musically Active Over the Summer