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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 |
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