Breath Support for Singing - CLEARLY & CORRECTLY explained - FINALLY! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:08hello singer friends and welcome back to
3. 0:10another edition of
4. 0:12victoria's victorious vocal tips where i
5. 0:16share my wisdom from 41 years of
6. 0:18studying voice and 28 years of teaching
7. 0:22with you
8. 0:23today
9. 0:25may be the most important video that i
10. 0:29will ever make
11. 0:30and maybe the most important
12. 0:34video tutorial that you will ever watch
13. 0:38on singing i'm going to make some big
14. 0:41and bold statements so
15. 0:44i hope you listen closely
16. 0:47repeat this video as many times as you
17. 0:50need to
18. 0:52and take notes
19. 0:54today's video is on supporting the voice
20. 0:59and this could make an entire difference
21. 1:03in your life as a singer these are big
22. 1:05bold statements i know but they're true
23. 1:09okay
24. 1:10supporting the voice
25. 1:12not often taught correctly i would say
26. 1:16more often taught incorrectly or not
27. 1:20taught at all
28. 1:23often
29. 1:24singers
30. 1:25don't even know what support is they
31. 1:27might have heard the term but they have
32. 1:29no idea what support is
33. 1:33as you know
34. 1:34i like to make things as simple as
35. 1:38possible in everyday language that even
36. 1:41a child could understand we could get
37. 1:43more technical later on but today i'm
38. 1:46going to explain support
39. 1:50concisely
40. 1:51in everyday language
41. 1:53and most importantly correctly singers
42. 1:57often either do nothing when they sing
43. 1:59they just inhale and they just sing
44. 2:04or else
45. 2:06they might have been told to support and
46. 2:08then what do they do they pull in
47. 2:12or else they push out
48. 2:16okay
49. 2:17which one is right do we pull in or do
50. 2:20we push out or do we need support at all
51. 2:23maybe it's just all for uh you know a
52. 2:25bunch of talk for nothing okay the
53. 2:27answer is all three are wrong
54. 2:30okay
55. 2:31in my opinion this is the only way to
56. 2:36support what i'm about to tell you in my
57. 2:38opinion everything else is not support
58. 2:41at all and is not helpful
59. 2:44support is based upon the centuries-old
60. 2:48italian principle of apogeo
61. 2:52from the verb apogear which means to
62. 2:56lean
63. 2:57does that mean
64. 2:58that this is only for opera singers
65. 3:02does it mean that she's trying to turn
66. 3:03us into opera singers well of course not
67. 3:06the reason this has been around for
68. 3:08centuries is because it works
69. 3:11okay
70. 3:13that is the verb that means to
71. 3:16lean that doesn't mean we lean over
72. 3:20let me explain and this is really
73. 3:22important for you to listen to because i
74. 3:24find that when students understand a
75. 3:26concept they will do it if they don't
76. 3:28understand it it's just all mumbo jumbo
77. 3:31that's fine goes in one ear and out the
78. 3:34other and they won't do it
79. 3:35you will get this
80. 3:37when we inhale properly the body opens
81. 3:41okay the abdominals open and release the
82. 3:44diaphragm descends the ribcage opens if
83. 3:48you do nothing
84. 3:50nature will take its course and the body
85. 3:53will quickly
86. 3:54contract and collapse and that's what my
87. 3:58friends
88. 3:59many of you are doing i'm sure because
89. 4:02supporting the voice is not a normal
90. 4:05activity we don't do this throughout the
91. 4:07day okay
92. 4:08singing takes larger capacities of air
93. 4:12and much more importantly the ability to
94. 4:15control the air that's how you get more
95. 4:18power without having to work harder i
96. 4:21teach how to work smarter not harder
97. 4:25so what do we do we know we don't pull
98. 4:27in and we know we don't push out what do
99. 4:29we do well we do a little bit of both
100. 4:33here's the answer
101. 4:35when we inhale the body opens the rib
102. 4:38cage opens if you do nothing as i said
103. 4:41the body will collapse quickly okay and
104. 4:43you will run out of air and then you
105. 4:45will have to push the enemy of the
106. 4:47singer okay what your job as a singer is
107. 4:51to
108. 4:52slow down the contraction of the body
109. 4:56slow down the ascent of the diaphragm
110. 4:59slow down the return of the body to its
111. 5:02original position and how do you do that
112. 5:05by a gentle lean
113. 5:07a pujari lean
114. 5:10in the opposite direction so this is how
115. 5:12we are doing two things at once the body
116. 5:15is coming in yes the body is coming in
117. 5:19the body will win but we must slow it
118. 5:22down and the way we slow it down is by
119. 5:25leaning in the opposite direction so
120. 5:27instead of the body collapsing after the
121. 5:29breath
122. 5:30it's going to
123. 5:33contract little by little because you
124. 5:36are slowing down the contraction with a
125. 5:39gentle lean in the opposite direction
126. 5:41now before you scratch your head and say
127. 5:43what the heck does that mean you know i
128. 5:45love to make things as simple as
129. 5:46possible i have some very simple
130. 5:49analogies
131. 5:50everyone gets this and if you are open
132. 5:53to
133. 5:54this it will change your life as a
134. 5:56singer okay
135. 5:58what i would like you to do is stand up
136. 6:00place your hands around the midsection
137. 6:02okay
138. 6:04and pretend that you are blowing
139. 6:07a silk thread very very thin silk
140. 6:09threads you're just gonna
141. 6:13you probably don't you shouldn't be
142. 6:15feeling anything there that's like real
143. 6:17that's just
144. 6:18like talking to a baby hello
145. 6:21hey baby you're cute okay
146. 6:23now
147. 6:24pretend you're blowing an easy balloon
148. 6:27it blows up very easily
149. 6:31go through these motions with me
150. 6:34what do you feel around the midsection
151. 6:37some people call it tension or tight i
152. 6:39know what they mean but i don't like
153. 6:40those words it's not tight
154. 6:42what we're feeling is
155. 6:44resistance all the way around the
156. 6:46midsection front sides and back all the
157. 6:49way around around the waistline also
158. 6:52known as support
159. 6:55okay
160. 6:56that's the easy balloon
161. 6:59now maybe you have a thicker balloon
162. 7:01it's a little bit it's harder to blow so
163. 7:03you have to apply a little bit more
164. 7:05exertion
165. 7:09what do you feel around the midsection
166. 7:11you feel a little bit more resistance
167. 7:13also known as my friends support do you
168. 7:17see
169. 7:18how this may be different from what you
170. 7:20have heard
171. 7:22this is in my
172. 7:24opinion based on all my experience the
173. 7:27only way to support everything else is
174. 7:29not support because if you think about
175. 7:31it
176. 7:32why would you pull in
177. 7:34you you've done this nice work of taking
178. 7:36the breath and if you pull in well
179. 7:38you're just helping your body contract
180. 7:40that much more quickly okay why would
181. 7:42you push out that doesn't make sense
182. 7:44either because when you push out then
183. 7:47you are actually hindering the body from
184. 7:50coming back to its original position the
185. 7:52body does have to win and if you push
186. 7:54out then what you're going to do is
187. 7:56you're going to push out the air that
188. 7:57much more quickly or else you are going
189. 7:59to lock another enemy of the singer no
190. 8:02locking so we are resisting in the
191. 8:06opposite direction as the body comes
192. 8:10back slowly so the abdominals will come
193. 8:13back
194. 8:14into its their original position little
195. 8:16by little
196. 8:22okay so we just did the analogy of
197. 8:24blowing the balloon okay let's stand up
198. 8:26let's try the sneeze these are all
199. 8:28muscles we use every day but we don't
200. 8:31think about it in talking okay let's
201. 8:33pretend we're getting ready now let's
202. 8:35pretend we're going to sneeze
203. 8:42same muscles you feel this resistance
204. 8:45okay engagement all the way around the
205. 8:48midsection how about a laugh
206. 8:54the same muscles all the way around the
207. 8:56the midsection what about the lip trill
208. 8:59many of you still trying to do the lip
209. 9:01trill
210. 9:06engagement all the way around the
211. 9:08midsection so remember
212. 9:10the abdominals never lock we don't want
213. 9:13them locked but remember singing is not
214. 9:15a relaxed activity the abdominals relax
215. 9:18for breathing and they engage for
216. 9:21singing just like we did based upon the
217. 9:23principle of appoggio okay what about
218. 9:26the chest as you know i've said this
219. 9:29before it makes me a little bit crazy
220. 9:31when i see singers lift their shoulders
221. 9:34and just to breathe and then collapse
222. 9:37when they sing
223. 9:38okay it looks bad it looks weak
224. 9:42and
225. 9:43it's more work for nothing
226. 9:46a pajama also involves the chest i like
227. 9:49to think of your chest as if it is being
228. 9:52held up
229. 9:53by a string it's just being suspended
230. 9:57in air by the string so that you don't
231. 10:00want the chest to collapse
232. 10:01because those are your lungs and you
233. 10:03can't afford to sing with the chest
234. 10:04caved in and the ribs caked in you will
235. 10:07have no air and you will push
236. 10:09pushing is the enemy of the singer so if
237. 10:12you're getting tired and you're getting
238. 10:13sore throats or your voice is weak think
239. 10:16about are you supporting the escape of
240. 10:19air when we support my friends
241. 10:22we are using
242. 10:26the big muscles that can take the work
243. 10:28and we're taking the work off of the
244. 10:30very delicate muscles around the larynx
245. 10:33and the delicate vocal folds we don't
246. 10:35want to put a lot of work there they
247. 10:38will open the vocal folds will open and
248. 10:41close beautifully if we apply the right
249. 10:44amount of air pressure which is
250. 10:46controlled by our support the upper and
251. 10:49lower abdominals the torso and keeping
252. 10:52the chest up
253. 10:54remember
254. 10:56the body will contract we don't want to
255. 10:59fight that the body will come back to
256. 11:01its original position but your job is a
257. 11:04singer and your one of your biggest jobs
258. 11:07is to support the escape of air so i
259. 11:10know i have made some big bold
260. 11:12statements i will
261. 11:14summarize
262. 11:15however it's important to know that it
263. 11:17depends upon the sound that you want so
264. 11:20like i always say if you're just singing
265. 11:22a little lullaby to a baby hush little
266. 11:25baby don't say a word mama's gonna buy
267. 11:29you a mockingbird then you don't need
268. 11:31any of this but
269. 11:32how are you gonna get more power are you
270. 11:34gonna get more power by yelling
271. 11:36are you gonna get more power by pushing
272. 11:38pushing more more muscle and blowing out
273. 11:41a lot of air
274. 11:42okay that's pushing the enemy of the
275. 11:45singer if if that's the only way you
276. 11:47know how to get more power is by pumping
277. 11:49it up and beefing up your voice and
278. 11:51yelling uh you don't need to take voice
279. 11:54lessons for that but
280. 11:56working on support is what will allow
281. 11:59you to have more sound to sing for
282. 12:02longer periods of time without getting
283. 12:05tired
284. 12:06and your voice can sound healthy
285. 12:09vibrant and youthful for the rest of
286. 12:11your life i'll be honest i am not a
287. 12:13spring chicken i have been singing since
288. 12:15i was
289. 12:1614 years old i started serious voice
290. 12:19lessons okay
291. 12:21and
292. 12:22i sing opera
293. 12:24pop rock r b jess it works for all
294. 12:29styles okay you know i love to
295. 12:30demonstrate
296. 12:38[Music]
297. 12:43[Applause]
298. 12:49all right
299. 12:51that comes from
300. 12:53stamina and support support will make
301. 12:56you strong in the body it will
302. 12:59give you more power more buoyancy more
303. 13:03thrill in your
304. 13:04voice while you are singing smarter
305. 13:08if you have any questions be sure to
306. 13:11leave me some comments i will be doing
307. 13:14more videos on this because support is
308. 13:16so important and like i said
309. 13:18most often either not taught at all or
310. 13:22misunderstood and this will make a huge
311. 13:26difference in your singing life
312. 13:28i hope you have enjoyed another edition
313. 13:30of victoria's victorious vocal tips
314. 13:34leave me some comments give me a thumbs
315. 13:37up visit my website and i hope to see
316. 13:40you all soon
317. 13:57you