Brett Manning's Big Singing Lie #4

Big Lie #4 - You will need special instruction to learn how to breathe correctly for singing.

Truth - You were born breathing correctly. You've continued to breathe. You breathe in, and speak easily on a regular basis. YOU KNOW HOW TO BREATHE ALREADY!

If you feel you are breathing ineffectively for singing, find a baby and watch them breathe. They are doing it just like it needs to be done for singing.

In fact, I can tell you how to check yourself, right now. Find a comfy spot on the carpet and lie down with your back against the floor. Now, just breathe normally in a relaxed manner. Feel your stomach with your hand as you breathe.

Do you feel how your abdomen rises and falls with each breath? That's how it was designed to work. As you breathe in, your abdomen moves outward.

Now, do some singers breathe poorly for singing? Yes! But it's not because they've missed out on any special instructions. It's because they are trying some strange way of breathing only when they sing. Or maybe they are getting nervous and trying TOO HARD. Or, they are thinking more about breathing than about singing!

I personally have noticed myself getting short of breath in the middle of singing or speaking in public. At that point, I realize I've been holding my stomach in so I won't look fat!

So if you can get your mind off of breathing (or looking thin) and get back to singing, your breath will normally regulate itself.

The only thing I say is this: If you notice that you are holding your stomach in while breathing, just let it hang out. If your chest is rising when you breath in, then you're probably holding your stomach in.

So stop doing that and you've got your breathing back to "baby normal," which is what you want for singing. In my humble opinion, that's about all the "studying" you need to do about breathing.

Much of classical training in the area of breathing is built on the strange assumption that your breath should regulate your tone production. But our method teaches that a singer should concentrate on tone production and allow that to regulate their breath!

If that paragraph is confusing, it's not worth laboring over.

Just remember that if you are making your vocal cords come together and produce a pleasing tone, your lungs and "diaphragm" will deliver just the right amount of air! Work on the tone, the breath will take care of itself.

Join the thousands of satisfied customers who sing with more range, power, resonance and confidence with Singing Success - the world's most professional and sought after home study singing course!

PS- Next time, I'll talk about the big lie about "falsetto" (That mushy tone
people flip into when they reach their break.)

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