Keep Breathing
Keep breathing!
Hey you guys! Welcome back to The Singing Studio. Today we are going to continue our adventure with strengthening our voice by strengthening our breath support. Like I’ve said so many times and in so many different videos, breath support is so important because breath is the foundation of singing. That’s what makes our instrument work – it’s through breath. In this video today we are really going to focus a little bit more specifically on breath and how we can do more breath support exercises.
So why do I focus on breathing so much? Well first off, breathing helps us relax just in general. If you’ve ever taken yoga or any sort of dance class and other forms of exercise, they focus a lot on breathing. Breathing puts oxygen into our bodies and our brain. Whenever I’m stressed or whenever I’m feeling really anxious, I like to do deep breathing because that oxygen going into my brain really helps relax me and helps my body not be so tense. That’s why I focus so much on breathing because not only is it a really important aspect of singing, but it’s going to help relax our bodies and it’s going to help relax us. We don’t want tense muscles and we don’t want our voice to be stuck or really tight and straining. We want to make sure that we are breathing so that we can relax our voices and our bodies.
Today I’m going to specifically talk about vocal breath onsets. I’m going to demonstrate what these different onsets sound like, but our main goal through it all is to have a nice, even, and consistent sound. So how are we supposed to know what that is supposed to sound like? Right? I like to think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. When she goes in the house and sits on the different chairs, and sleeps in the different beds, and she tries the different porridge, it’s like, “Okay this one was too hot, this one was too cold, and this one was just right.” That’s kind of what we’re going to go for today and what I’m going to demonstrate. I even have a really fun exercise- an onset exercise- that I will demonstrate later in the video.
We want to make sure that we have an even and consistent breath. We don’t want to have too much breath, but we also want to have enough breath. We don’t want to be short of breath. So if we have too much breath this is what it might sound like. Hear how it’s a lot of breath and it’s not really even? This is what it sounds like if I don’t have enough breath. Oftentimes this is called a glottal. Maybe you’ve heard that term in choir or if you take voice with a teacher. We don’t want to have too much breath because it gives us that sound. And we want to make sure that we have enough breath so that we don’t accidentally have this glottal. You want to make sure that you’re nice and even. Making sure that we’re nice, even, and consistent takes a lot of practice, which is why I have some fun exercises for you to do to help remind you of having that even and consistent sound.
The first thing that we’re going to do is we are going to make sure that the muscles in our face are nice and relaxed. When we are breathing, obviously we’re focused on filling up that inner tube and making sure that our bodies are ready and prepared to breathe correctly. But something that we sometimes forget about is that we need to make sure that our muscles are nice and relaxed. Our shoulders, our neck, but also our face. So this is a really fun exercise that I love doing to make sure that my face is nice and relaxed and the muscles of my jaw are ready to go. I like to call it a big face, small face and this is what it looks like.
I’m going to do a really big face and then I’m going to squish into a small face. Then I’m going to go back to a big face and then squish down to a small face. So here we go. This is my big face. This is my small face. And back to big face. And this is my small face. And this is my big face. And my small face. So doing that over and over again, I like to do maybe ten each, really helps get my muscles moving. Especially if you’re going to practice in the morning, sometimes we’re a little sleepy and this will really wake you up. This was big face, small face.
We are going to do some lip trill sirens. I know that I love doing sirens and lip trills. You’ve probably seen some variations of this in previous episodes, but I always like coming back to it because it really helps me and reminds me that I need to have good breath support. So I’m going to demonstrate it and then I’ll explain a couple of the goals.
Like I said, I love this exercise. It reminds me to have that good breath support. One thing to keep in mind is that we are jumping an octave. So we are going from one note all the way up to the same note but just an octave higher. That can be a little bit intimidating for our voice because sometimes we are going to be jumping from our lower register to our upper register, so that can be a little tricky. Just make sure that as you are jumping the lip trill that you think of that fountain analogy that I use sometimes – that nice and open, nice and forward and it’s flowing out. So if you think about that, that’ll really help you get into the vibe of this exercise. Try to be relaxed. Take your time with it. Don’t force anything. Again, this is supposed to feel really nice on the voice. It’s one of my favorite exercises to do. Just be sure and remember to have that good breath support as you’re doing this.
In this exercise we will be working on the onsets. So let me just demonstrate it for you and then I’ll explain some of the goals. So basically I’m going to be doing three different variations of these breath onsets. The first one will be breathy, the second one will be that glottal, and then the third one will be just right. Here we go.
It’s a really fun exercise. This one definitely takes a lot more time because we are just focused purely on those onsets. And obviously, like I’ve explained earlier in this video, it’s our goal to have that third example where it’s nice and even. So basically we don’t want to have too breathy of a sound and we don’t want to really punch it. Now as we sing different songs, especially in musical theatre and some pop and more contemporary songs, we can add little glottals or scoops or cool breathy things to embellish the song or make it sound cool. That’s all great, but for the purpose and making sure that we’re doing correct breath support it’s really important that we focus on that nice, even breath and that even sound. Sometimes even as I’m doing it, for example, if I go like this and let’s say that third one I didn’t get it quite where I wanted it, I’ll keep repeating on that note until I get it correct. And then I’ll move onto the next note.
That’s all for our video today. Be sure to check out the supplemental exercises that go along with this video. Be sure to like this video. I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I’ll see you in our next episode.
I do these videos every other week, but if you still want more musical theatre, check out my newsletter! It’s called “Beyond The Score”, and it just takes a closer look at musical theatre history. You can find that at jskstories.com.
Breathing Exercises 2
Hey you guys and welcome to today’s supplemental video. This video goes along with Keep Breathing. So be sure to check out that episode before jumping into these exercises. With that, I hope you enjoy today’s video.
Breathing Exercise 5: Big Face / Small Face
Big face. Small face. Big face. Small face. Big face. Small face. Big face. Small face. Big face. Small face.
Breathing Exercise 6: Lip Trill Sirens
Breathing Exercise 7: Onset Ahs
Thank you for watching! These exercise videos are made to guide you through your practicing! Be sure to take breaks if you are feeling tired and make sure to drink water.
Make sure to like this video!
I do these videos every other week, but if you still want more musical theatre, check out my newsletter! It’s called “Beyond The Score”, and it just takes a closer look at musical theatre history. You can find that at jskstories.com.