Misconceptions about breathing abound among singers. I have found with my students, that understanding how we bring air into and out of the lungs can help them master crucial coordinations for breathing and, more important, singing. *smile*
Singers tend to fall into two camps regarding breathing: savers and spenders. Singers who spend air when they sing use up all of the breath right at the beginning. Phrases start out strong, but taper off to a whimper. (You feel like you never hear the end of what they are singing.) Contrarily, savers never […]
As I have said before, breath is important to and for singers. Learning to let the breath “take care of itself” makes our singing easier and better. For me, understanding how my breath and vocal folds work together was crucial to improving my singing. … So. Imagine your windpipe is a garden hose. Now imagine […]
The average person takes 21,600 breaths per day. The body requires 88 pounds of oxygen per day. (25% of that is used by our brains!) The maximum amount of air the lungs can contain ranges between 4 to 7 liters. One to two liters of air remain in the lungs at all times. (Note: there are […]
For singers, the goal of breathing exercises is to let the body learn to take care of breathing on its own. (As always, we practice technique so that we won’t have to think about it when we need it.) As singers our job is to control the exhale. Singing is (usually) done on the exhale, […]
