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When a car runs out of gas it just stops. It doesn't begin sputtering and acting strangely before the tank is empty. it just stops. The car runs on gas...the voice runs on air. Our singing "fuel" is our breath. The problem is that before we run out of enough air to finish a phrase or word the quality, power and range of our voice begins to suffer. We can keep on singing until that last bit of breath is gone, but our singing is affected much earlier. Yes, we want to develop our breathing to the extent that we never run out during a phrase, but that's a process which take time and work. And even when we become experts at breath control, occasionally we find ourselves without enough breath to finish what we started. What to do? (Cardinal Rule) NEVER PUT YOURSELF IN THE POSITION OF NOTICEABLY RUNNING OUT OF BREATH. Try this: pick a note and use it to sing through the numbers 1-50. Do this at a speed of around 2 words per second. Chances are, you aren't going to get through all 50 words (numbers) without having to take a breath. But that isn't the goal here. What we are trying to learn is how to sneak small breaths in without disturbing the flow of the "song". As you sing-count, be very aware when you feel you are going to be running out of breath. Don't wait until you actually run out, but learn to know when you need to be taking a small breath to finish the phrase. Don't wait until your sound quality is compromised. Force yourself to take those small breaths, even though you don't want to. Practice until you can get those breaths without disturbing the phrase. DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU RUN OUT TO TAKE THAT LITTLE BREATH. Now, sing through the numbers much more slowly, holding each note at least 2 seconds. Begin to be aware of having to get a little breath, but force yourself to take it IN THE MIDDLE of word. That's right. You're going to cut a word in half. Practice doing that until you can do it with as little disturbance of the phrase as possible. Make yourself cut the word in the middle. Then become proficient at it. Of course, you never want to run out of breath in the middle of a phrase or word, but if (and when) you do you need to be prepared Practice this and you will be. You're in the middle of an important phrase or word in a song and you find yourself hopelessly out of enough breath to finish what you started. What do you do so as to not noticeably disturb the flow? One of our top voice teacher-coaches has me powerful suggestions. Read on. voice teacher,voice coach,breath control,running out of breath,vocal instruction
Want to learn more easy techniques to improve your singing? Download my powerful new FREE ebook: "TIPS & TOOLS FOR ALL SINGERS" at: http://vocalvision.com/ad1.php Al Koehn is a nationally recognized voice teacher, known for achieving amazing results with simple techniques. http://vocalvision.com
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