Singing For Dummies. Pamelia S. Phillips

and back to expand, and your abs to release and drop. If the motion is still unsteady, keep practicing until you really feel the movement in your body. It may take a couple of weeks to feel the movement enough that it becomes familiar.

      Catching a quick breath

      Your song may have a long phrase and then a very short rest to catch a breath. The struggle is to get in enough air in a short time. To understand how to catch a quick breath in your song, you want to know how to quickly open your muscles. If you opened the muscles slowly in the preceding exercise, you may be ready to open them quickly. Try this exercise to explore a catch breath.

      Get yourself slightly winded by running in place, dancing around, or doing any other movement that gets you moving. When you start to breathe faster and get winded, stand and sing part of your song. Your body really wants to inhale. When you finally take a breath, notice how the breath drops quickly into your body. Most people describe the sensation of the body opening quickly to get air in. It’s different from pulling in air or gasping. With a gasp, your throat is tight and you’re pulling or sucking in air. Opening the body (including your throat) helps you make a quick and quiet inhalation.

Although inhaling may be natural for everyone, you need to practice the efficient and ideal posture to inhale in order to breathe your best while singing. Correct inhalation means keeping yourself properly aligned, with your body free of tension, your throat open, and your shoulders steady to allow the most air to fall into your body. Try the following to feel the difference between incorrect and correct inhalation:

       If you gasp, you can feel a tight sensation in your throat as you try to squeeze air in while your vocal cords are closed. However, if you pretend that you’re hiding and don’t want anyone to hear you breathing, you leave your throat open and can take in plenty of air.

       If you inhale and intentionally raise your shoulders or chest, you can feel that, as your shoulders rise, your neck gets tense. However, if you keep your shoulders and chest steady and inhale, you get more air into your body.

      

You may be tempted to push down the tongue as you inhale. You may feel like pushing down the tongue helps you get the air in faster, but it doesn’t. To help release any tension in your tongue as you inhale, release the tongue forward. Your tongue then moves forward, or toward your teeth, as you inhale instead of pushing back or pressing down. Compare the two. Push down your tongue as you inhale, and then try releasing your tongue forward as you inhale. You may find that the release forward helps you get the air in quickly and has your tongue released to start the first note.

      Inhaling efficiently should now be fairly easy for you. Singing “Happy Birthday” tests your ability to inhale correctly and then sing a song. Before you start the song, feel the breath moving into your body. When you’re in the groove, go for it.

      1 Sing all the way through the song “Happy Birthday.”

      2 Take a deep breath and sing the first phrase again.

      3 Pause.Before you sing the second phrase, remember all that you recently discovered about inhalation. Take your time and find the efficient and ideal posture to take in that inhalation. You don’t have to rush.

      4 Calmly take the breath back in.

      5 Take the time to find the correct motion of the breath on the inhalation and then sing the next phrase.

      6 Repeat this series of steps until you finish the song.Remember to get the breath right instead of rushing to the next phrase or gasping for air.

      Each time you try this exercise, it gets easier. Try it the next time you sing a new song to coordinate your breathing properly.

You’re not alone if you feel like you can’t remember how to breathe. Your body gets confused putting all this information into practice, so just work on the inhalation until it’s easy for you; then move on to another exercise. Go back and reread the explanation about how the breath works in the body, and then try some of the exercises again. You may find that they’re easier now that you can picture the movement of the air as well as feel it.

Practicing Exhalation

      When you sing and exhale, remember not to collapse your body too quickly. Keep the same aligned position that you had for your inhalation: Keep your chest steady, and have your abdomen and ribs gradually move inward as you release the breath. When you aren’t singing or speaking, and as you go about your everyday business, you normally exhale much more quickly than you should when you sing. When you sing, however, you have to inhale quickly and extend the flow of air over a longer period of time. It takes practice to be able to sing a long phrase without stopping in the middle to breathe. Practice a steady, controlled exhalation while maintaining good posture.

      Blowing in the wind

      This exercise helps you develop the control needed when you sing a long phrase of music. The object of the exercise is to make a candle flame flicker by exhaling and not blasting hot wax onto your hand! Make sure that you exhale with a steady, slow stream of air — just enough to bend the flame. If you don’t have a candle handy, you can blow air across the top of a hot cup of cocoa or tea, or just use your imagination. You can work this exercise with your imagination, or you can actually light a candle.

      

Be careful with the candle if you use a real one. Hold or set down the candle in a holder that’s at least 8 inches from your mouth so you don’t burn your eyebrows.

      Follow these steps:

      1 Light a candle and hold it 8 inches from your face.

      2 Take a deep breath, keeping your shoulders and your chest nice and steady.

      3 As you exhale, blow gently on the flame to make it bend but not flicker wildly.

      4 Continue the steady stream of air to keep the flame bent, counting silently to see how long you can bend the flame.

      Be careful that your body doesn’t collapse quickly as you exhale during this exercise. Instead, feel a steady movement in your body during the exhalation. If you can bend the flame for the count of five the first time, try to make it to six the next time. Bend the flame for six counts several times in a row before you try for seven. Each time, make sure that you notice what’s happening in your body.

      Trilling for exhalation

      A lip trill is an itchy exercise, but it’s great for feeling the movement of the exhalation. The vibrations of your lips may make your nose itch after a few minutes. No problem — scratch your nose and keep going. What’s a lip trill? Ever see a horse blowing air through his lips? The horse’s lips flap in the breeze. This may seem silly, but it’s a great test of your exhaling endurance. Take a breath, and send the breath between your lips and let them vibrate. If your lips don’t vibrate like Mr. Ed’s, it’s probably because they’re too tight. Loosen your lips and just let them hang free as you blow air between them this time. If your lips are tight, place a finger at the corners of your mouth and gently push the corners toward your nose as you do the lip trill.

      1 Practice trilling your lips.

      2 When you have the lip trill moving easily, start counting silently.

      3 Sustain the lip trill for four counts; inhale slowly for four counts and repeat the cycle. Make sure that you take a good breath before you begin. As you count to four, notice what moves in your body as you exhale. Try not to collapse your chest as you exhale; let your lower body do the work to move