It All Starts With a Breath

It has been a real dream come true to be able to help people find their voices - their singing voices. It’s wonderful to work with my students and help them learn to use their voices in ways they didn’t know they could. With that grows confidence and many things that we work on with singing transfers over into other aspects of life- in particular - Breathing. By that I mean the kind of deeper breathing that we need to learn for singing- what the Italians call Appoggio. Appoggio means to lean into the breath. This is the type of breathing that the classical and operatic singers learn- and it is the best. They’ve been learning and perfecting it for a few hundred years and they’ve got it down to an artform all its own. With this style of breathing we can learn MASTERY of the breath.

It all starts with a breath. Our breath fuels our voices much like we need fuel for a car - we need proper breath support for our voices. We need this for singing and we also need it for speaking. But proper breathing does so much more. I'm sure you've heard many times that we adults don't breathe sufficiently. We tend to breathe very shallowly - I think particularly women tend to breathe very shallowly. For our health, and for our voices, it’s important to breathe more deeply.

What I’ve learned is that learning how to master the breathing process certainly helps us find our voice as a singer, but also can help us gain confidence, gain groundedness and restore calm in our bodies- which can lead to finding our voices in other ways as well. Yet another way the amazing things that we learn through singing (the technical AND the non-technical) transfer over to other aspects of our lives!

Breathing is something that we do on average around 30,000 times a day or so- generally speaking, we do it beautifully without even thinking about it- except when we think about it! Thank goodness our bodies are so much smarter than our brains when it comes to breathing! When our body needs extra oxygen, our body knows just what to do- we YAWN or we sigh. Let’s do a yawn and see what happens. So, I’d like all of you to put your hands on the lower part of your rib cage and intentionally yawn.

So what did you feel happen in the lower rib cage area? Yes, the rib cage spreads open multi-directionally. We’ll call this a rib stretch. Now can you intentionally isolate this rib stretch movement? Excellent. So here’s what happening when we do this. Our diaphragm, which in its resting position is dome shaped and sits right below the rib cage, automatically flattens out and moves down when the ribs stretch open. The lungs automatically expand sideways AND down- filling that space that you just created and getting the most amount of air with the least amount of effort. It is VERY efficient.

When I work with a new student and watch how they breathe when they sing, they typically will do a few different things. When they come to a phrase that requires more breath support they will either puff up their chest like superman, raise the chest or just sing the phrase with little or no breath support and squeeze it out of their throat. Not so efficient.

So we work on how our breathing works and we start with a yawn. This is because this is how the body brings in a lot of breath - at its most extreme level naturally without us even needing to think about it AND without effort! We utilize our body’s own breathing process and we slow it down- we maximize it!

Here is a breathing exercise to help you isolate this process and build your breath support:

Let's try silently inhaling (by just stretching the ribs open) on a count of 3 - and start with just a little rib stretch to begin- because remember, we get the lungs expanding both sideways and down with each rib stretch - so more bang for your buck - so to speak. Even a small rib stretch will allow the lungs to expand more than you might think! So inhale on a count of 3 and then we’ll hiss like a snake for 3, then we’ll increase to in for 4 and out for 4, in for 5 and out for 5, in for 6 and out for 6. This is helping us get used to how this rib stretch breathing feels and how to do it on command.

When we have this down and it feels pretty comfortable, we’ll double the exhale. We begin to experience that this process is very relaxing to the body- which is awesome! However, it’s also important to intentionally relax as we do this- especially as we get into these higher numbers. It’s like a cycle- the more we relax, the longer in a count we can inhale and exhale AND the more deeply we are breathing the more relaxed our body will become.

Gradually, with baby steps, we will increase our inhale up to 10 and our exhale up to 20! We do this gradually, just a little bit at a time so that the body builds the endurance in a healthy way. No short cuts or overbreathing- a step at a time!

Now, what happens when we get to these higher counts is the rib cage wants to draw back in rather quickly when we start expanding it more than it’s used to doing. So we work on the next step of this process and that is to Appoggio - to lean into the breath. We do this by countering the body’s desire to bring in the ribs too quickly by images, by motions. Here are a few:

Rib stretch in for 5 and hiss for 10 but IMAGINE a balloon expanding and continuing to grow as you do your hiss for 10 OR slowly open your arms sideways on the outbreath and pace it to the count of the hiss for 10.

Here is a great way to test how relaxed your body is AND to mimic how that easy rib expansion should feel. Stand in an inside doorway and press your arms upward against the doorway frame for a count of 20. REALLY push for the entire count! Then let your arms drop like rag dolls to your sides and step out of the doorway. You should experience your arms gently and easily lifting up sideways on their own! Here’s the trick though- what’s supposed to happen isn’t going to happen unless you are RELAXED.

Building this ability of delaying the rib’s need to draw back in so quickly gives us the breath support needed to hold out a really long note or sing longer phrases without running out of air. It also is very helpful for people who do a lot if public speaking. Supporting your speaking voice with proper breathing will help keep your voice sounding clear and resonant and not get so fatigued.

So how does this system of breathing help us in other aspects of our lives? As I mentioned before, this deep breathing brings calm to the body.

Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to face a really stressful situation, or any situation where you feel nervous and bring calmness- groundedness back into your body? Heck yeah!

One of the first things that I tried to use this deeper breathing with was to help me fall asleep because I do have some issues with insomnia once in a blue moon. Let me just say that it really works- very well! Just do the breathing exercise mentioned above. Start with small rib stretches and very gradually increase your rib stretch as you go up in your count. Intentionally RELAX into the inhale and intentionally RELAX into the exhale. This takes some practice, but you will find your body naturally relaxing as you go through the exercise.

The second thing that I tried was to conquer my fear of flying. Through using this method of breathing, I can say that I have managed to conquer my fear and bring calm my body in many stressful or anxious times.

What happens in our bodies when we're facing something like panic or anxiety or just being very stressed is we do get very tight in our bodies and, depending on the severity of the experience we’re going through, we can actually find it difficult to take in a full breath. This is an awful feeling and feels like we no longer have control of the fear or the stress or whatever it is. This feeling alone can heighten the fear or stress creating a catch 22 situation of fear or stress.

Intentionally slowing down your breathing, using the counts using the hiss, intentional relaxing into the inhale and the exhale can help you gain your control back in those situations. Sometimes it may take a little longer depending on you know whatever it is that you're dealing with, but be persistent!

Knowing that you can help yourself fall asleep more easily, bring yourself down from nervousness or anxiousness, or even just enjoy a massage or your reflexology appointments…. That much more…. can be a very powerful thing and help you know ahead of time that you have more control of these things and breaking the vicious cycle of feeding the fear and increasing the stress and tightness in your body. You can gain control of these situations instead of them controlling YOU and that is a very powerful thing! Just this knowledge can give a sense of calm and groundedness in your life, which leads to more confidence and will help you find your VOICE.

It all starts with a breath!