Breathing. I don't think I can breathe.

[kidkage]

When I sing I seem to get winded whenever I try to sustain something or...
Ah I won't bore you all with the back-round story, here's the main point of this thread- I need to learn some sort of breath control technique or something.
Can anyone help me out? Tips, videos, articles, lungs, perhaps your vocal cords? Throw it my way if it's not too much of a problem. I promise I'll check it out.

// Thanks for reading.

 

[dintymoore]

I was like that for a long time. It's pretty uncomfortable.

There was a post that we talked about breathing a few weeks ago: https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=307450

Seth Riggs has some great books and videos, there's some on YouTube. I like his concept of speech level singing.

 

[grimtraveller]

A friend of mine showed me a technique that she'd learned as part of a drama year.

Breathe in through your nose for 8 seconds. Be sure that you let the air into your belly - you'll know you are because if you place a hand on it, you should feel it expand and also you should feel a little strain - but nothing approaching pain.

Hold the breath for 8 seconds.

Release the air through clenched teeth and tightly pursed lips so you make a kind of hissing sound. Do this within 8 seconds and gradually increase by 4 second intervals until you get to 24 seconds. The goal is to make sure that there is absolutely no breath left in your belly by the end of the alloted timespan. You'll find that you have to learn to really control the breaths. For example, it's not as easy to get rid of it in 8 seconds as it seems, but I found it easier at 20 seconds. Oh, and at no point can you open your mouth.

You can play about also with the time you hold the breath but it's important to take 8 seconds breathing in.

Apparently this trains you in being able to take in and control breaths.
I found it was interesting but I'm so full of air anyway ! Seriously though, I'd been working on my breathing some years before that. But try it, it may be useless for you or it may be the start of a promising road, who can tell........but you ?

 

[moresound]

A friend of mine showed me a technique that she'd learned as part of a drama year.

Breathe in through your nose for 8 seconds. Be sure that you let the air into your belly - you'll know you are because if you place a hand on it, you should feel it expand and also you should feel a little strain - but nothing approaching pain.

Hold the breath for 8 seconds.

Release the air through clenched teeth and tightly pursed lips so you make a kind of hissing sound. Do this within 8 seconds and gradually increase by 4 second intervals until you get to 24 seconds. The goal is to make sure that there is absolutely no breath left in your belly by the end of the alloted timespan. You'll find that you have to learn to really control the breaths. For example, it's not as easy to get rid of it in 8 seconds as it seems, but I found it easier at 20 seconds. Oh, and at no point can you open your mouth.

You can play about also with the time you hold the breath but it's important to take 8 seconds breathing in.

Apparently this trains you in being able to take in and control breaths.
I found it was interesting but I'm so full of air anyway ! Seriously though, I'd been working on my breathing some years before that. But try it, it may be useless for you or it may be the start of a promising road, who can tell........but you ?

This is oh so true Grim ....I do a lot of sound in theater and this is exactly what all of the performer do in pre-show warm up along with stretches.
It always seems a bit funny to witness (10 to 20 people at a time) but it does have a great value to the performers and their performance.

 

[dintymoore]

RE: Breathing. I don't think I can breathe.

kidkage if you truly can't breath... well it was 11 hours ago when you started the thread... I hope you're ok.

Is anyone else concerned or is it just me?

 

[moresound]

RE: Breathing. I don't think I can breathe.

kidkage if you truly can't breath... well it was 11 hours ago when you started the thread... I hope you're ok.

Is anyone else concerned or is it just me?

Nah.....He hasn't turned purple yet has he?

 

[dintymoore]

Nah.....He hasn't turned purple yet has he?

You're right, as long as we don't smell anything he's probably ok.

 

[moresound]

You're right, as long as we don't smell anything he's probably ok.

Yeah he's ok. Even if he was a little discolored he would be fakein' it just for the attention of the girls.
Maybe a little mouth to mouth.

 

[kidkage]

RE: Breathing. I don't think I can breathe.

kidkage if you truly can't breath... well it was 11 hours ago when you started the thread... I hope you're ok.

Is anyone else concerned or is it just me?

I was rescued by paramedics only a few hours after the thread was started. It was traumatizing though, kind of like watching Denise Richards in "The World is Not Enough"

 

[kidkage]

On a serious note, thanks for the help.
I'll try out that technique, I've already looked at the thread, and I'll check out youtube. Like I said I'll look into all the suggestions.

 

[austinm08]

I have a question that has to do with breathing...

One of my friends swore up and down that she could breathe in and sing AT THE SAME TIME. She claimed she could breathe in through her nose and then sing while doing it. I thought she was full of it..
She said I should work on it..

Please tell me this ISN'T possible?

 

[kidkage]

I have a question that has to do with breathing...

One of my friends swore up and down that she could breathe in and sing AT THE SAME TIME. She claimed she could breathe in through her nose and then sing while doing it. I thought she was full of it..
She said I should work on it..

Please tell me this ISN'T possible?

It actually is possible. Breathing in took some time for me to latch on to, but breathing out came pretty naturally.
I wish I was better at it. I can sing while breathing, I just can't sustain anything for more than 5 seconds, then I start getting winded.
Grim's suggestion seems like it'll help me with that.

 

[austinm08]

You can breathe out of your mouth and breathe into your nose at the same time? Hmmmm....

/skeptical

----

"It is possible to breath IN through the nose and mouth at the same time, and it is also possible to breath OUT through the nose and mouth at the same time, however it is impossible to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, or vice versa at the same time. This is because you only have one airway to your lungs after your nose and mouth. The nose and mouth connect at the back of the throat which lead to only one airway. And you cannot have air moving in and out of one airway at the same time. Oh and about musicians, they are not literaly "breathing" in and out at the same time. You can close off a little amount of air in your mouth while inhaling through your nose, so if you use your cheeks and tounge you can make air flow out of your mouth while you are breathing in through the nose, but that is not breathing through your mouth, ur just letting out air already in the cheecks and mouth area via cheek and mouth pressure. Not through your main airway, and not with your lungs."

----

Now, "circular breathing" may be possible, but for wind instruments only-- not for singing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_breathing

 

[kidkage]

Ah, sorry man, confusion. I didn't know you meant in thru the nose out thru the mouth at the same time. The closest I come to that way is like I'm inhaling thru my nose and pulling the words in rather than throwing them out. I do that rarely, Ive never really needed to simultaneously breath in thru my nose while singing out :/

EDIT: Yeah I just reread your post... not sure how I missed the at the same time thing

 

[moresound]

I don't know breathing in and out and singing at the same time?
This debate could go on forever!

 

[kidkage]

I don't know breathing in and out and singing at the same time?
This debate could go on forever!

Ive got 20 min (18%) remaining on my laptop so if we could condense forever into 20 minutes that would be great.

 

[moresound]

Plug your computer into the Edison!

 

[austinm08]

That or just build a little handcrank generator in 15 minutes to power your lappy.

 

[grimtraveller]

There was this incredible jazz multi instrumentalist called Rahsaan Roland Kirk who was blind and later suffered a stroke - but he developed circular breathing and was able to play sometimes 3 saxes at once; his thing was to play two and sometimes would play a flute through his nose. I remember hearing a record of his in the early 80s and the friend that played it to me said 'notice how he plays continually for 25 minutes without a break'. It was wild ! But it does show the amazing things that can be done with breathing. Opera singers and actually, singers of all shades and hue can sustain notes for the longest while, even when mouthing awkward vowels. Like most disciplines, it requires constant practice to be able to do it and then constant maintenance to be able to keep it.

 

[austinm08]

There was this incredible jazz multi instrumentalist called Rahsaan Roland Kirk who was blind and later suffered a stroke - but he developed circular breathing and was able to play sometimes 3 saxes at once; his thing was to play two and sometimes would play a flute through his nose. I remember hearing a record of his in the early 80s and the friend that played it to me said 'notice how he plays continually for 25 minutes without a break'. It was wild ! But it does show the amazing things that can be done with breathing. Opera singers and actually, singers of all shades and hue can sustain notes for the longest while, even when mouthing awkward vowels. Like most disciplines, it requires constant practice to be able to do it and then constant maintenance to be able to keep it.

But when referencing the opera singers, you're just speaking of their ability to sustain long notes, right? I don't think they can continually breathe out/make vocal sounds while breathing in.

I do believe what you said about the guy with instruments. He wasn't making vocal sounds but only breathing out the leftover air in his mouth while breathing more air into his nose -- which I agree is definitely possible.