Emily F. SS 3

Emily F. SS 3: Breathing is essential for life and for singing. When we breathe for speaking, we don't think about it, and just trust that our bodies know exactly how much air we need, and the body comes through for us! Learning to breathe for singing seems a whole lot more complex, mainly because we're not in touch with our instinctual selves. Inhalation may seem more straightforward, if we're aligned and released properly, but exhalation can be trickier.
Key concepts: Inhalation requires good posture and allowing the air to come into our bodies. 
Exhalation should be a natural release of breath while singing.
Key terms: diaphragm, body alignment, inspiration, inhalation, exhalation, air flow
Making connections: When I read "pooch out the stomach" a red flag went up in my mind! I think I'm starting to get the feel for what good inhalation feels like, but I recognize that the use of my air (exhalation) is not graceful at all, particularly in performance. I know that a lot of times I don't trust my air, so I breathe too early or too much, and I don't even think about my air when I phonate. It's kind of a big mystery to me--not the concepts themselves, but how it feels in my body. Learning to breathe for singing has always been a choir thing, so it didn't matter how gracefully I used my air. I've gotten really good at staggered breathing with my fellow altos, be it in ward choir, AFC, or chamber singers. If I need another breath, I just take one. Now that I am working on my solo voice, breathing seems much more important and scary. I don't really "get it" on the inside yet.