So here's the secret I've been learning - and it's a revolutionary one, for me (and I suspect it will be for many):
There is NO effort involved in inhalation. If you are having to WORK at inhaling, you're not doing it as well as you could be.
The idea is NOT to draw in the breath, but to relax enough at the end of phrases that you create a vacuum, and the breath automatically fills it (nature abhors a vacuum, after all).
Yes, it's really hard, when you've been conditioned all your singing life to draw in the breath through conscious effort to retrain yourself to simply ALLOW THE BREATH TO HAPPEN.
But when it DOES begin to "just happen", it's incredible how easy singing becomes, how much more breath one has, how little one has to worry about taking too long to breathe, or managing "snatch" breaths, etc.
Some of the things that help the "ALLOW THE BREATH TO HAPPEN" process are using the ending consonant (when there is one) to "propel" yourself into a relaxed place. It sounds strange, but the idea is not to simply close up the consonant, but to let the tongue or lips close then kind of "bounce open" again - which unhinges the jaw, and tends to set off a whole series of muscle relaxation that signals, to the body, that it's time for breath to come in and fill the lungs again.
Another thing that helps is NOT feeling you have to apply compression to spin out the last note in a phrase when, in fact, you should simply be allowing it to gradually fade out. This doesn't mean suddenly "collapsing" or "shutting down" the sound - but it does mean not "putting the foot down on the accelerator" at the end of that note - because that extra effort actually causes tension that makes it harder for the relaxation (or, more accurately, feeling of openness), to occur, and the breath to come in.
The third thing is, when you're practising, to really concentrate on "ALLOWING THE BREATH TO HAPPEN". If that means taking a lot of time between one arpeggio or scale and the next, that's fine - as long as you're using the time to check what your body is doing - i.e., that it is indeed creating a feeling of openness, including a flexibility in the lower ribcage that, when the breath does come in, means you feel a stretching where the ribcage has expanded (especially around the back).
I've been absolutely amazed, when I get this right, at how easy and natural it is. It is, in fact, exactly how we manage our breathing (or, more accurately, how our breathing manages itself) when we talk. The big difference, breathing-wise, between singing and speaking is NOT how we inhale, but how we exhale. And that is why it will take time to retrain one's body - because while the inhalation is effortless, the exhalation does require effort, i.e., to control the stream of air that is released.
I think if you concentrate more on how you expel your breath, and less on how you take it in, you may find that you can diagnose the things about how you exhale (while singing) that may be preventing the feeling of openness from happening at the ends of phrases. That feeling of openness, in fact, should be there ALL THE TIME, so that inhalation is simply a matter of the compressed exhalation of air stopping, leaving a vacuum to be filled by inhaled air.
Also, finally, there are a lot of times when we don't need to take in as much breath as we think we do. The lungs are not always completely empty. If you keep the open feeling, and use the ends of phrases to help ensure that open feeling (also, strong beginning consonants can become "tools" for allowing a very tiny pause between one note and the next, in which breath can come in), then much of your inhalation will be simply "topping up the tank", and not a desperate effort to completely fill up when you're running on fumes.
Karen Mercedes ===== My NEIL SHICOFF Website: http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website: http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
----- Es en balde, majo mio, que sigas hablando porque hay cosas que contesto yo siempre cantando: Tra la la... Por mas que preguntes tanto: tra la la... En mi no causas quebranto ni yo he de salir de mi canto: tra la la...
- Fernando Periquet
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