Question from a Reader ~ Same Reader… Different Question

You said…”how to use good breath control to not lose your breath whilst singing etc?”

<h4>My Comments</h4>

When you hear someone who has a wide, strong voice range, this is what they are doing, even if they don’t know it. You probably didn’t think “Wow, they know how to mix their registers!”…instead you just thought “Lucky dog! He can sing higher than I can and still sound great!” The assumption is usually that you have all you’re going to get, range-wise. This is not true. You can develop the range of your voice. The timbre or color determines where you like to sing or fach. If you want to increase your range, like the questioner asked, come for a lesson.

Again, a wonderful question…not because no one else thought to ask it…but because LOTS of people ask it. I would say that when a singer has the thought…”I need to get some help with my voice.” Their next thought is VERY often…”I need someone to help me learn to breathe.”

This is because it is what we have always heard from anyone “in the know” about voice instruction…breath control…breathe from your diaphragm…etc. I’ve dealt with this in many times before, but let me say again…you know how to breathe or you’d be dead right now! But we forget how we breathed and screamed at birth. Seriously, let me look closer at this man’s question…

AHA! He added something very helpful to his question about breath…he wants to know how to “not lose breath while singing…” Now we’re getting somewhere. The good news is that the answer to this question is not so complicated. Let me simplify how you think of breathing. You are just filling 2 balloons with air and then squeezing them out over your vocal cords. If you’re having trouble, there are just a few things to check, barring some medical problem.

WHEN THE BALLOONS(YOUR LUNGS) GET FILLED
Are you letting your stomach move out of the way of the bottom of the sacks? If not, you won’t start with enough air to get you through a number of notes without having to breathe in again. You can check this very simply. Just breathe in a nice, deep breath and picture yourself breathing that breath into your stomach. If you do that, your stomach will move outward, out of the way. Congratulations, you just breathed the exact way you need to for singing. There are teachers who think my approach is a bit flippant. But I assure you, it’s not. There are dozens of philosophies on breathing…Do you “let” the air out, do you “hold” the air back, do you “push” the air out, etc.

WHEN THE BALLOONS GET EMPTIED
The most common problem with running out of breath has little to do with breathing! That problem has to do with allowing too much, or too little, air to escape while you’re EMPTYING the lungs. If your cords are coming together with a nice seal, it takes VERY little air to make a strong, firm tone!