GENERAL BREATHING TECHNIQUES

Step One: Good posture

Good posture allows the breathing mechanism to fulfil its basic function efficiently without any undue expenditure of energy. Part of being able to sing well includes the ability to be aware of your body, identify and correct problems that arise due to incorrect posture. Please note that this does not mean that you will not be a singer if your posture is less than perfect or that if you suffer with a disability that you cannot sing. Posture is not a substitute for vocal talent, just a means of improving your control and providing your voice with optimum conditions for reaching its potential.

To begin, you'll need to create an unobstructed pathway for the inhaled air to travel to the lungs. The head is erect without stiffness; the spine straight, not slumped; the chest moderately elevated and the feet firmly and squarely placed so that the entire body is buoyantly supported.

I have also noticed that when singers assume good posture it often provides them with a greater sense of self assurance and poise while performing. Audiences also respond better to singers with good posture. Habitual good posture ultimately improves the overall health of the body by enabling better blood circulation and preventing fatigue and stress on the body.

First, stand up straight, with your feet shoulder width apart. Roll your head around to ease any tension in your neck, and then hold your head level, with your chin parallel to the ground, not tipped up or down. Let your shoulder blades slide toward the centre of your back so that they're back and down. If you do this, your chest will be open instead of collapsed, which is just what we want.

Slumping, or even rounding your shoulders forward slightly, partly collapses the upper rib cage and keeps the muscles between the ribs from being able to expand to accommodate the lungs as they fill with air. What we're looking for is the physical ease that comes from good alignment.

Now bend your knees slightly — just relax and unlock them — and tuck your pelvis under. This slight adjustment helps ensure that the diaphragm can function at maximum capacity. You could think of these movements as taking the kinks out of a garden hose so water can flow out easily. You're creating an open pathway for the movement of air.

Sure, it's possible to keep talking or singing if you slump, but it takes a lot more effort than you're probably aware of. If you'd like a vivid demonstration of what happens to the voice when the rib cage is obstructing air, try this:

Sit with your chest in proper alignment, with back straight and shoulders down. Begin to count aloud or softly slowly to ten, and as you count, round your shoulders and move them toward your knees, as if you were doing a sit-up. Move slowly. You'll notice that as you get farther and farther down, your voice will begin to close, finally reduced to a squelched wisp of sound. Try to take a deep breath in this position and you'll feel the air physically blocked. Slight slumping and slouching won't constrict your voice this much — but they definitely put a pinch on the pipes.

Paying attention to alignment will help you eliminate much of the muscle tension that impedes good singing and speaking. I'm impressed by the ideas developed by movement specialists like those practicing the Alexander Technique, and I think they have definite applications for the work we're doing here.

Paying attention to the alignment of the head and the spine can help correct the body's overall coordination and bring us back into balance. Once we find balance, it will be essentially effortless, and so is the flow of air into and out of our bodies. Discovering a way of standing that opens and lines you up may seem incidental to singing, but it frees space and energy for producing beautiful sounds.

In summary, here are the dos and don’ts of Posture:

Do’s:

1. Be relaxed and natural
2. Keep your movements fluid
3. Keep your chin level
4. Keep your knees loose
5. Keep your head up
6. Keep your shoulders sloping and relaxed
7. Keep your toes pointed forward with your weight on heels and soles
8. Keep the front of your neck loose - don't stretch it
9. Keep abdominal muscles relaxed
10. Keep your back muscles relaxed
11. Smile!

Don’ts:

1. Drop or hunch your shoulders
2. Move stiffly or jerkily
3. Drop or tuck in your chin when trying to sing low notes
4. Stretch your head upward when trying to sing high notes

5.      Strain or push your abdominal muscles

Exercises for Improving Posture

The exercises below are used by schools and deportment teachers to help models, actors and singers achieve correct posture. These age old practices have been used for years and are designed to help you become more aware of how your body works, therefore enabling you to move fluidly and correct mistakes as you feel them happening. Take them at your own pace. Master one exercise before moving on to the next. Don't rush or try to do too much in one day. 

Please Note: Whilst the following exercises are easy and safe to do people with disabilities, back pain or any physical disorders should consult a physician before attempting any form of exercise.

For these exercises you will need:

1. A long mirror (preferably full length)
2. A largish book of medium weight
3. Wear comfy loose clothing
4. Wear flat shoes, trainers or bare feet.
5. A flat long surface i.e., hallway or enough room to walk several paces.
6. A friend who can observe and make constructive comments notes.
7. Patience & a good sense of humour!

All movements should be fluid and breathing natural. Place the mirror in a position at the end of the hallway or room where you can see the whole of (or at the least the top half) of your body. Stand facing the mirror. Study how you stand and compare with the Do's and Don’ts above and make adjustments to your posture if necessary.

When walking, your weight should be mainly on the balls of your feet, so your heels just lightly touch the floor, with the majority of movement from the hips and legs. The upper body should remain straight, relaxed and not 'swing' from side to side. 

Even if it seems that you are standing and moving with the correct posture it is difficult without an impartial, experienced observer who will notice bad habits that may appear normal to you. 

The following exercises will not work if your posture is incorrect!! 5 to 10 minutes practice a day will help you to achieve better posture, the ideal is to reach a point whereby your posture and movements become automatic and unconscious.

Exercise 1
Place the book centrally on the top of your head.
Turn your head slowly to the left, return to center then repeat the exercises turning your head to the right. The head movements should be smooth with eyes ahead, chin level, head, neck and shoulders relaxed. If the exercise is done correctly the book will remain in place. Tense up, drop the jaw or move jerkily & the book will fall! Repeat this exercise until you can do it several times without the book falling off.

Exercise 2
Stand at the end of the walk space and place the book centrally on the top of your head.
Walk normally towards the mirror, observing your posture as you walk. If your posture is correct and your movements are smooth then the book will remain in place - if not it will fall! Repeat this exercise until you can walk the length of the space without the book falling.

Exercise 3
Stand at the end of the walk space and place the book centrally on the top of your head.
Walk normally towards the end of the walk-space, turn and walk back towards the starting point. If your posture is correct and your movements are smooth then the book will remain in place - if not it will fall! Repeat this exercise until you can do the exercise without the book falling.

 Step Two: Breathing

With the chest already elevated, there is comparatively little or no movement in the upper chest and shoulders. Expansive rib action surrounds the entire chest, especially toward the lower and middle back rib, while the diaphragm and abdominal walls remain flexible and vital.

·         Inhale

Now I'd like you to put your hand on your stomach, with your middle finger on your belly button. All the action that follows should take place in the space between the base of your ribs and just below your belly button. Keeping your shoulders in that beautiful, open position, back and down, imagine that your stomach is a balloon, and as you inhale, let it fill with air. Concentrate on filling this "balloon" only. And when it's full, blow the air gently out through your mouth.

Try this for a few minutes, remembering that you just want to blow up the balloon without lifting your shoulders or puffing up your chest. Raising your chest and shoulders as you inhale is called accessory breathing, and it's the surest way to get the least amount of air into the body with the least amount of control. Directing all the air to the upper part of the body results in very shallow breathing. Both of these styles of breathing, of course, can be so habitual that they feel completely natural.

If you're in the habit of dramatically involving your chest and shoulders in your breathing, you're only partially filling your lungs, and if you pull in your stomach as you do that, your diaphragm has no chance to drop. The quieter, much more subtle way of breathing we're using here may make you feel like nothing's happening, but rest assured — subtle is fine.

Diaphragmatic breathing is supposed to be completely relaxing to the body. But on occasion, in the early stages of learning, people can create all kinds of pressure and muscle tension. A few students, for example, say they feel a bit of tension in their stomach or lower back as they inhale. Some have even mentioned that the pain made diaphragmatic breathing an unpleasant experience. This kind of discomfort is not too common, but when it occurs, it's usually because the student is using the muscles of the stomach improperly.

As you expand the "balloon," you're not helping if you apply huge amounts of physical and mental force to push your stomach muscles out and distend your belly. All that pushing can cause you to tighten up, and with enough pushing, you'll feel like a bomb ready to explode. It may be that you're trying to fill your lungs too much, thinking that you have to fill every available space with air. It's a bit like trying to top off the tank at the gas station. It doesn't make sense, as the lungs will naturally let you know when they're filled to capacity. Going for unnatural expansion can put huge amounts of pressure on your back and even show up as pain there or in other parts of the body.

Don't feel alarmed if you see only a small movement of your stomach when you quit pushing breath in and just let it flow. Many people experience only a small expansion in the front of their bodies as they inhale this way but they feel their lower back area expand far more, because the diaphragm extends from the front of the body to the back, and its full motion affects the whole core of the body. You can detect the movement at the back of your body by putting your hands just above your waist on your back as you inhale.

In a very short time, your inhales should be free of chest and shoulder action, and you ought to be able to inhale without stomach tension.

·         Focus on the Exhale

This is supposed to be the easy part, the release. As we exhale, the body is designed to allow the stomach to fall easily back to its normal position. It doesn't take muscle to exhale, just relaxation. When we exhale, many of us use force. We tighten and make it a hundred times harder than it's supposed to be, thinking, mistakenly, that to get the volume we want, and to hit the high notes, the best thing to do is to fire our voices out-a-cannon. We all know how forcefully we can make air leave our bodies because we've all coughed or sneezed.

When our body tries to clear its air passages of obstructions, we automatically tighten the group of muscles located at the top part of the stomach area in the centre of the chest where the ribs come together. Tension on this spot can create pressure strong enough to expel a foreign object from the body with more than ten times the force of a normal exhalation. That pressure build up is actually the same thing you feel when you strain to force a bowel movement. It wreaks havoc on the body. Tension on these muscles blocks your access to the full use of your voice.

Feel it yourself by placing your index and middle finger on the belly button of your stomach. You will definitely feel the muscles under your fingers tighten and lock up when you shoot out that syllable. What you're doing, as you tighten, is cutting off the flow of air from your lungs. Why do we do it? Many, many untrained singers tighten up the higher they try to go in the range because they equate high pitches with difficulty. As the singer moves up the scale, the brain and body go into what I call weight lifter mode.

·         Making the Exhale Easy

A little awareness will go a long way to achieve a less-rigid exhalation. As you exhale, keep your hand resting on your stomach, and be conscious of when your muscles tighten. You can massage your muscles softly as you exhale to remind them to relax. And if need be, as you're learning, you can also help your stomach in by pushing gently with your hand, which creates less pressure than using your abdominal muscles. Remember, the goal is not to pull anything in. Just let your stomach fall to its neutral position.

There's no need to try to push every last bit of air out. There is always air in your lungs (unless one of them is punctured); when all the breathing muscles are relaxed between breaths, the lungs still contain about 40% of the volume of air they did when they were completely full. If you forcefully exhale as much as possible, you'll still have 20% of the air left. Take a breath and then blow out all the air in your lungs until you feel they're empty. When the stream of air stops, blow again. You'll notice that you still have more air.

·         Deep Doesn't Mean Slow

My students used to think that diaphragmatic breathing takes longer than "regular” breathing, actually, it doesn't. Sometimes they think that in order to get air deep into their lungs, they need to take long, drawn-out breaths. After all, they figure the air has farther to go but that idea is not true. Once you stop raising your chest and shoulders, air will rush into the lungs in record time. Remember that when the diaphragm is free to move, its movement changes the air pressure in the lungs, and that shift sucks air into your body.

If you try to take in air very slowly, you're actually restricting the flow in and most likely inhaling through your mouth. You'll notice that your lips are partially closed and pursed, or your teeth are close together of which you might even hear air get caught teeth meet, creating the hiss of air being sucked through a tight opening. This is not diaphragmatic breathing. When you're doing it correctly, the air flows silently in through the nose and races into your lungs.

Step Three: Relaxation

Relaxation is defined as freedom for action, a state of balance, equilibrium, or readiness to perform. It is neither limpness nor inertia. It must be understood that the skills necessary for good singing call for the most delicate balance and interplay of muscular adjustments in and around the larynx, neck, tongue, and mouth; adjustments which often change with great rapidity in the act of singing.

Breathing Exercises  

Use all your lung-space when you exercise. Keep your shoulders relaxed and let your arms hang loosely. Look at the mirror, and make sure that your posture is good: erect, but not militarily stiff. When you breathe in, make sure that you fill the lower part of your chest, where the ribs fill the lower part of your chest, where the ribs have most movement. This area is the real powerhouse of your vocal technique. Allow your stomach muscles to relax as you breathe in, and gently squeeze the air out with these same muscles. Babies provide a good example of where vocal power comes from. Watch a baby yelling and you will see how wide its little throat is, and how much effort comes from its middle! Once you learn to breathe as calmly and steadily as a child does, you are on your way to fabulous vocal reaches.

Your breath is a fuel - it keeps the vocal engine running. When you sing, you do not always need a huge breathe; the amount you take in will depend on the length of the phrase you are going to sing. But it is nice to have the capacity then when you will need it.

When you are doing breathing exercises, breathe in through the nose and sometimes, just clear the nose and the head resonators (sinuses), but when you are about to sing, breathe through the mouth. Think of a yawn or ‘Aah’ shape and you will be able to breathe in deeply and silently. Breathe in and out rhythmically. Do not hold your breath at all – Sing!

Make the following deep-breathing exercises part of your daily routine:

1.      Stand with your feet a little apart and bend forward as far as you can comfortably can lose, head relaxed. In this position, breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your body to rise a little with the intake of breathe to fill up your lungs as completely as you can; and then breathe out slowly through the mouth. Do this again. Stay relaxed: keep the tension out of your neck by rolling your head around, and slumping or even rounding your shoulders forward slightly so as to partly collapse the upper rib cage and keep the muscles between the ribs from being able to expand to accommodate the lungs as they fill with air. Next, as you breathe in, straighten up slowly to a standing position, and stretch your arms above your head. Stretch really tall and then release the breath quickly and relax back into your starting position. Repeat this exercise two or three times. If you can, study your breathing exercise in front of a mirror.

2.      Stand straight and comfortably, head and shoulders relaxed. Breathe slowly in through the nose as you raise your arms sideways just to shoulder level, then stretch forwards, still breathing in. let your arms drop as you let the breathe go.

3.      Sit or stand comfortably. Take a fair-sized breath that pushes out the lower ribs a little – pant! Start slowly, like an old engine starting up, and then get faster and faster. Remember to keep your shoulders relaxed and loose; they never need to rise. If this exercise is new to you, you may find it quite tiring at first; that is a sign that you need to do it regularly. Get used to the controlled strength of the diaphragm muscle punching out the breath; that is where the power and vitality of your voice ultimately reside.

Start every practice session with your breathing exercises, without fail. Vary them, and introduce others to counteract boredom, but do them! The details of what you saw and felt are important.  Focus on what you're doing!

If you do not have time for special routine, then do your breathing where and when you can. Walking – breathe in four paces, out for four; waiting for the bus, or queuing in the bank – wherever you go, you have to breathe, so, unless the air is really polluted, breathe deeply. It would be good for you, even if you were not a singer. Stand comfortably in front of a mirror and take a deep breath, inhaling through your nose.

Note that you allow breathing to happen, and not to force it!

Presented by Godwin E. Omoba (Music Consultant, Vocal Coach, MD/CEO GEOCREATIONS) 

New from NAIJA SHEET MUSIC.com "ILU MI NIGERIA" by Godwin Omoba.

Ilu Mi Nigeria

Written by Godwin Omoba & Babatope James. Piano/Vocal/Guitar/Chord Charts/Horns/Bass/Organ/Percussions. 35 pages. Scored & Transcribed by Godwin Omoba. Published by GEOCREATIONS!

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