I've been really paying attention lately, and realised that my problem isn't that I actually run out of breath - it's that I occasionally impede the flow of the breath, usually by tensing either my midriff or my jaw or tongue. The reason I say I haven't actually run out of breath is that I've done an experiment: If there's a particular phrase that I find I cannot CONSISTENTLY get through on a single breath, but which I CAN get through sometimes on a single breath, I try two things while singing that phrase:
I move my arms while singing, to make sure my midriff doesn't "lock up".
I make the consonants very "explosive", which automatically releases my tongue and jaw.
I find that the bodily motion and the repeated releasing of the tongue/jaw conquer the "unable to get through the phrase" problems - so that my main work after that is to tone down the body movement to subtle, visually acceptable proportions, and to tone down the explosive consonants to the point where they still provide the release without sounding ridiculously over-emphasised.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ One must be something if one wishes to put on appearances. - Ludwig von Beethoven
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