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Techniques for Developing Breath Velocity for Singing

Episode 1491 - July 2021

1. WHAT IS BREATH VELOCITY?

Breathing, as we had talked about in one of the previous Podcasts and as we all know, is the ever-constant inward and outward exchange of air in the body. It is vital to life and continues on and on through our lifetime, often unnoticed unless there is some kind of problem. Unlike speaking, singers have to sustain sound over varying lengths of time. While some phrases are short, some musical phrases require very long breaths. The amount of breath and the speed of the breath that is being exhaled while you are singing a phrase of a song, is referred to as Breath Velocity. 

2. HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH AIR TO GET TO THE END OF A PHRASE?

Of course, before you exhale, you have to begin with a deep relaxed inhale. I’ll often encourage a student to release the lower belly and at the same time, feel the release as you inhale all the way to the tailbone. If all of that releases, you can get a great amount of air into the body. This is how singers have to learn to breathe for singing to be any good at this. Then the air has to leave. You cannot exhale all the air all at once. Then you won’t make it to the end. Singing lessons are supposed to show you how to manage the exhale so you always have the right amount of air left for what is happening in the song. 

Your question is how will I exhale and still have enough to get to the end of a phrase? In order to do that, I have to learn how to release the air gradually through vocal exercises that demand that I get to the end and still have left over. I have to learn to release air over time… something that we do not do when we speak.

3. WHAT KIND OF EXERCISES TEACH YOU HOW TO DO THAT?

One kind of exercise that I teach is called a repetition exercise. Repetition exercises prepare you for sustain exercises and are a first step in the learning process for developing Breath Velocity. They are a way to learn how to sustain notes. An example of this kind of exercise is as follows:

Begin with three notes in a row that are all on the same pitch.

Use the same syllables that are not actually words such as sounds like hee or huh…

And then sing that as a phrase like 

HeeHeeHee…HeeHeeHee….HeeHeeHee

Do that 2 times and then the 3rd time ...hold pout the last Hee

So it sounds like HeeHeeHeeeeeeeee.

At the third repetition, you are sustaining the last syllable, to see how long you can hold out the sound without struggle. Once you see how long you can hold out the note, then you have an idea of your starting point. Pitch repetition exercises are quite useful as a tool to develop and to increase your understanding and mastery of Breath Velocity.

4. DO YOU HAVE TO BE STRONG TO DO THAT?

You do not have to be strong to begin. You can begin from any level. You can start at any level of strength and at any point in your ability. In fact, one of the most important things to know when you begin singing, is exactly where that is. It is important to know where your starting point is. Then you can work to develop your strength level as you go along. Sustaining long, loud notes does require strength in your voice and also in your body. However, that is not always the best place to start. That is something that gets developed along the way.

5.  WHAT KIND OF EXERCISES MAKE YOUR VOICE STRONGER?

The goal of all vocal exercises is to make you stronger and more agile. Exercises that begin to give you strength, start small and get longer as you go along. They also start softly and then get louder as you go along. It resembles lifting weights. You start with a small weight and then build up to a heavier weight. 

In singing lessons, at least in this training, you start with short phrases and then build up to longer and longer phrases. You start with medium to soft volume and then increase the volume as you go along. The inhale and the exhale have to change to accommodate any increase or decrease in either volume or length of a sound. That is, at the most basic level, the difference between speech and singing. Speech does not usually include held sustained sound. Regular speech has a smaller range of volume than singing. 

While breathing for life and for speech is automatic, breathing for singing is not and is also not necessarily intuitive. It needs to look like it is as automatic as everyday speech, but that is an illusion. It is, in reality, not that way at all. Since it is internal and you cannot see how someone is doing it, it gives a different impression than what is actually happening. Breath velocity and the regulation of the breath leaving the body in order to sing, has to be developed to be able to hold all those notes and make it look easy and normal. And it is in constant flux because songs are all different and music varies in so many ways. And it is absolutely not “Normal”…It is a very learned behavior.

6. DO MOST SINGERS START WITH THE SAME KIND OF EXERCISES?

Most people have the ability to sing three to five notes in a row, so that is where we start. 

Even the most developed singers usually start with shorter phrases for the beginning of their training in this approach. Their inhale has to be sufficient to allow enough air to leave the body in order to finish a phrase. So I begin to explore the ability of the student with something that will be pretty easy. The technique of learning to develop your capacity to exhale, has a direct correlation to your ability to inhale. As you start, you want to do it correctly without the pressure of an exercise that is too heavy.And once you begin training, the technique that you start with also has to be easy to understand.

The simple rule for beginning this process is that you have to finish exhaling the breath when you finish the musical sentence. Exactly like speech, which we all do automatically all the time, the amount of air has to serve the upcoming phrase. So, we begin with short phrases of three to five notes and listen to see if there is any air left over when the musical phrase is finished. The exhale and the last note of the phrase, have to meet at the end together. Then between the end of that musical phrase, and the beginning of the next one, you must replenish your breath with the correct  amount of air to do the next musical phrase. Each upcoming phrase may be the same or very different, so it is ever-changing. This is a dance that goes on and on until the musical piece is done.

7.  ARE THERE EXERCISES TO HELP YOUR BREATH VELOCITY THAT ANYONE CAN DO?

Yes, there are  two very interesting exercises that you can do while laying down on the floor.

First Exercise

Lay down on the floor on your back and put your hands on your abdomen. If you’re breathing correctly, you will feel the regular movement of your abdomen as it rises and falls, swells and contracts. This is what is known as involuntary breathing. Allow yourself to do this until you can really feel what is happening with your breath. This is how you will be able to gauge your capacity in the second part of the exercise.

Now, to add to the resistance and allow the body to work a bit harder, put a book, or a few books on your abdomen. Breathe against the books and try to allow your muscles to expand as they did without the added weight. Be careful to add books gradually so as to not strain yourself in any way.

Then after a short while, remove the books and allow yourself to breathe freely.

You will most likely notice that you have more freedom and expansion in your breath after the resistance of the books have been removed. The idea of this exercise is to demonstrate to yourself how the body reacts to the increased resistance and how it releases afterwards. 

Second Exercise

Now, turn over on your stomach. Put one arm down on your side and then extend the other arm up along your head. Turn your head to one side and make sure that you are lying comfortably still. Begin the process of observing your breath again.

This time you can use the floor as the resistance. Breathe so that you make full contact with the floor as you inhale. Don’t force or push for that would not be involuntary breathing and therefore incorrect. Breathe steadily and easily and observe the expansion of your body.

Now, inhale and comfortably allow a full amount of air to enter the body. Begin to count in a whisper and see what number you reach before you run out of breath. Repeat this again and see if you can reach a higher number. Keep repeating this until you reach a number that appears to be your limit. That is your beginning number. That number tells you how much air is leaving in a way that you can use to make a sound.

As you gain singing skills that number will change considerably. This is a starting point and an exercise that you can continue to play with. This number expands with singing training and any number of aerobic activities that you incorporate into your life.

8. WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS WITH THE BREATH AS YOU HOLD A NOTE?     

To understand that, I think it would be useful to understand what the Larynx does. The Larynx is where the source of the sound occurs. It makes the pitch, the vowel and acts like a gauge to regulate the air. This is not, however, it’s original job. It’s real job is to close when we eat, when we need pressure in the body for climbing, lifting, childbirth and a few other things. Singing is what is called an overlaid function. We, as humans, made that up. Singing is something that we made up. 

So as the air is leaving the Larynx acts as a regulator. It allows a certain amount of air to leave as it simultaneously holds the air back so as to allow you to sing a note for a determined amount of time. It also changes how much it opens and closes depending on the vibration of the pitch and how much air it allows to leave depending on the volume.

9.  WOULD YOU EXPLAIN HOW THE BREATH VELOCITY CHANGES ACCORDING TO THE VOLUME?

Different volumes need different amounts of air leaving the body. Softer notes need a different approach than louder ones do. Also, different areas of the voice, referred to as low notes or high notes, also demand different amounts of air.

What happens in the lower part of someone’s voice, is that more air naturally leaves. In the upper range of the notes, it changes. The Larynx is always allowing a certain amount out and the strength and force of that air will determine how loud and soft a sound you’ll make. 

For example, if I’m singing a lower pitch, I have to relax and allow for more airflow to sing the note, regardless of the volume. If I want to sing that note loudly, I have to take a deeper inhale and then allow all that to pour through the note getting to the end of the phrase and using up all the air at the same time.

If I want to sing that same note in a softer volume, I have to learn how to let just the right amount of air out, while holding the rest back. The air that is held back is referred to as compressed air.

If I am singing a higher pitch, I need to allow the sound to come forth, while holding a lot more air in reserve, and while having enough to let it out over the time of the note. In order to do that, I have to learn more about compressed air. There are exercises for that since this is not a natural behavior… it is very much a learned skill.

The vocal cords are thicker on the bottom and stretch longer and thinner on the top. If I allow too much air to leave, I can overwhelm the thinner state of the vocal cords and the note will not really work. 

10. ANYTHING FINISHING COMMENTS?

Increase your physical fitness doing whatever exercises that you enjoy. Try to do a combination of aerobic, stretch and strength training, as those will help the most. Repetition is the key.