BREATHING ... REVISITED

December 2007
 
I had the pleasure of watching Josh Groban on Good Morning America, last week, singing three songs of his new Christmas Album, “Noel,” which is the first seasonal album to hit #1, since 1994–according to the L A Times. He sang quite beautifully. My buddy Seth Riggs taught him, from a pup. He sang quite beautifully ... even though he was “sipping” the air in little backwards breaths. He had no long phrases, in the three Carols he sang ... but, I suspect he can still sing a long phrase,
 
It’s actually a lot easier to breathe in harmony within nature’s design. It is far better to let nature fill your lungs to capacity ... with a minimum of effort ... you never know when you’re going to need it! Josh was just breathing enough for each two word phrase he sang. That can bite you on the throat!
 
If you get a chance to see Josh doing these songs live, watch how his chest rises, every time he takes a little sip/breath. Tonight, while you are watching the Tonight Show re-runs, between your feet, rest a couple of fingers on your belly button–BB–and take note of which direction your BB goes, when the body takes in air. (You probably noticed I refrained from saying, “When you “breathed.” While lying down, the BB goes up/out ... to allow air to come in, and goes down/in ... to expunge the CO2. The body does that all by itself ... if you let it. You don’t have to make it “pull air in” unless you restrict the air by tightening the throat a tad, to “feel” the air move.
 
Can you have a career with this kind of breathing? Of course you can–reread my Sept 15 Tip--but allowing the air to quickly enter, with a crisp pop out of the BB, mouth and throat open, fills/tops-off the lungs instantaneously ... allowing you a brief moment of rest ... to purge the body of “accumulated tension”

Thimpk on this:

Axiom: Every phrase is an entity, whether it be fifty notes or one note. Each time you sing, first you pop/rest. You lungs are full! You then initiate the first tone of the next phrase, with a crisp shot of breath pressure--with a crisp, short “kick” of that same BB going in--to instantaneously center the first note ... as you lift and grow through the rest  of the phrase, a kick for every high note–an extra shot of impulse air, as you get tall–i.e. making more vertical room–taking care to lift and grow through the last tone of every phrase.
 
That last note becomes the most important note in the process. Even though your body may be yearning for oxygen, at the end of a long phrase, the air in the lungs will firm up the last note, with that last kick, taking the BB all the way in as you ... pop and rest. Remember: Learn to let the air in, rather than pulling it in, while you are singing–most often you don’t have the time to “breathe,” and it wears you down.
 
 To stop a note ... simply pop and rest, with your throat open. The tone stops–because the air is now coming in rather than going out ... and three things have been accomplished. You’ve stopped the last note–without that a separate event of closing your throat–your BB is out and resting and, not incidentally ... your lungs are full! And ... you didn’t have to pull the air in!!!
 
Try it tonight, a dozen or so times, while lying down ... then get up and do it in front of a mirror. Instantaneous air ... you’ve purged the flexible, parasitic  tension generated in the singing of that last phrase ... and you lungs are full.
 
Thimpk about it!


NOVEMBER  07 - HOW TO KILL A COLD IN FIVE DAYS

OCTOBER 07 - A BIT MORE SUPPORT

SEPTEMBER 07 - MORE SUPPORT

AUGUST 07 - INTRO & BREATHING/SUPPORT