The Music Major Minute: Take a Breath

In this installment of “The Music Major Minute,” you’ll find ways to manage your breath, from meditation to SVOT.

Breathing is both a restorative practice for wellness and a vital foundation for classical singing. Eastern healing traditions teach that renewed energy enters the body with an inhalation and old, venerable chi leaves on exhalation. The singer striving to live in the moment may wish to adopt this tradition into a mantra: inhale the new and exhale the old. Meditation is a wonderful way to experience your breath without worry; after all, we cannot mess up a moment of sitting and breathing. 

When I was in graduate school at the Manhattan School of Music, Warren Jones taught, “There is breathing for living and then there is breathing for singing.” The act of breathing itself is involuntary as it is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. We can be mindful of our breath and slow it down when we are feeling that certain type of way, but our breath is typically an unconditionally generous life partner. 

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Breathing for singing, on the other hand, requires intention and practice to support our melodious pursuits! I advise my students to incorporate breath exercises in their daily practice because moving directly from intentional breathing into singing helps them feel grounded and connected. 

Practicing meditative breathing apart from singing offers benefits for mental well-being and clarity. The practice of breath and singing are imbricated in developmental and continued progress. Two renowned vocal pedagogues describe breath as follows:

“Richard Miller, The Structure of Singing: System and Art in Vocal Technique, 1986) “Control of the breath is synonymous with control of the singing instrument.” 

“The respiratory system is considered the power source of voice production.” (Kari Ragan, A Systematic Approach to Voice: The Art of Studio Application, 2020)

Successful singers master their breath management by coordinating inhalation and exhalation to support the phrasing needed in their songs and arias. Without power, our phones are neither useful nor entertaining. The same goes for singing: without power, we cannot use or control our voices to generate the entertainment we know the world needs! 

If you enjoy great storytelling and seek to improve your own breathing, I highly recommend a book titled Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art (2020) by James Nestor. He writes about his experiences researching breath in ancient cultures and his exploration of nose breathing vs. mouth breathing (fascinating), and he preaches that slower breathing is vital to improving our mental and physical health. Nestor has a YouTube video titled “5 Ways to Improve Your Breathing” where he briefly recommends the following:

1. Stop breathing through your mouth. Nose breathing filters, pressurizes, and moistens air—sending about 20% more oxygen to your lungs.
2. Use your nose. Improve your breathing efficiency by taking slower and fewer breaths and providing your body with more oxygen and destressing all the systems in your body.
3. Improve your lung capacity. Nestor shares research showing the greatest indicator of longevity is lung capacity, not genetics or diet. 
4. Slow down. Slower breaths help control your nervous system and sends calming signals to your brain.
5. Hold your breath. Controlling your respiration calms your body down, engages concentration and focus, improves our sleep, and more.

Better health will lead to better singing, so I am writing this column to remind readers that some intentional breathing can reduce stress and boost your practice. The following breathing exercises are offered to help improve lung capacity, focus your practice, and create space for creativity.

The Farinelli

It is rumored that the famous castrato Farinelli practiced breath/suspension/exhalation to train his breathing without tiring the voice. If it worked for an 18th century rockstar, it must be a banger! 

1. Inhale silently, with closed lips, for five or more even counts (tap or use a metronome).
2. Suspend the breath for the same number of even counts, keeping the throat/tongue/jaw relaxed.
3. Exhale silently for the same number of even counts, keeping the ribs expanded and lower abdominal wall softened. Take one relaxed breath and repeat the exercise, but increase the number of counts. 

Inhale

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Suspend

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Exhale

1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8…etc.

If you add a suspension after the exhale and use 4 counts, the Farinelli becomes “boxed breathing.” 

Inhale 1, 2, 3, 4

Suspend 1, 2, 3, 4

Exhale 1, 2, 3, 4

The Ragdoll

1. Standing with your feet a comfortable hip’s width apart, bend over from the hips and let your head hang. 
2. Put your hands on your lower back while you are inverted and feel the expansion in your lower ribs as you inhale. 
3. Exhale in the same position, reminding yourself to keep your neck relaxed and let the head hang. 
4. Repeat a slow inhale/exhale in this position 3–5 times. 
5. On the 5th and final exhale, roll up into a standing position, allowing your head to roll up last. 
6. Keep your hands on your low back and inhale/exhale with the same rib expansion you felt while hanging like a ragdoll.

The Nose Roar (a.k.a. Fire Breathing)

This is a great exercise when you are feeling lethargic or unmotivated. I prefer to do this while sitting on a yoga ball, but you can stand or sit. 

1. Keep mouth closed and inhale/exhale quickly thru the nose, allowing the belly to “bounce” as it moves in and out with the breath. 
2. After 10 quick inhale/exhales, relax for a few breaths.
3. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for 3-5 sets. You can increase the number of breaths each set or keep it to 10. 

SOVT Bubbles

One of my favorite SOVT (semi-occluded vocal tract) exercises includes blowing bubbles through a straw into a half-filled water bottle. There are many benefits of SOVT exercises for singing, and improving breath management is a biggie. 

1. (Setup) Drink several sips from a water bottle so that you have room to blow bubbles without spilling. Then blow through a straw into the water while humming to create an even stream of bubbles and establish a baseline for the energy needed to blow air while doing the exercise with the next steps. 
2. Hum into the straw and blow bubbles for 2 seconds.
3. Stop humming but continue to blow bubbles for 2 seconds. 
4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 as often as you’d like, inhaling when needed. It will feel like a fun game as you generate enough air to create a consistent stream of bubbles.

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The Logical Nostril vs. the Creative Nostril 

Press your right nostril with one finger to close it and slowly inhale/exhale from the left nostril only. Switch sides and slowly breathe through the right nostril. Do you notice a difference? 

James Nestor suggests left-nostril breathing sends oxygen to the right sight of the brain and vice versa, with the right nostril and left side of the prefrontal cortex. He states, “The right nostril is a gas pedal…. Breathing through the right nostril will feed more blood to the opposite hemisphere of the brain, specifically to the prefrontal cortex, which has been associated with logical decisions, language, and computing. Inhaling through the left nostril has the opposite effect: it works as a kind of brake system to the right nostril’s accelerator. The left nostril is more deeply connected to the parasympathetic nervous system, the rest-and-relax side that lowers blood pressure, cools the body, and reduces anxiety. Left-nostril breathing shifts blood flow to the opposite side of the prefrontal cortex, to the area that influences creative thought…” (Breath, p. 82).

The Whispered [a]

This exercise is inspired by the Alexander Technique. 

1. Open your mouth and allow the jaw to soften and inhale in the shape of [a]. 
2. Exhale on a whispered [a], keeping the tongue in a neutral position and allowing the inhaled and exhaled [a] to lift the soft palate and keep a relaxed, open feeling in the throat. 
3. Slow it down and inhale for 3–5 counts, then exhale for the same number, allowing the lower abdominal wall to expand during inhalation and return to neutral on exhalation. 

The whispered [a] is an excellent foundation for singing [a]. When warming up your singing voice, inhale on the whispered [a] and exhale on a singing [a] to feel the sensation of a pure [a] vowel.

James Nestor wrote, “A last word on slow breathing. It goes by another name: prayer. When Buddhist monks chant their most popular mantra, Om Mani Padme Hum, each spoken phrase lasts six seconds, with six seconds to inhale before the chant starts again. The traditional chant of Om, the “sacred sound of the universe” used in Jainism and other traditions, takes six seconds to sing, with a pause of about six seconds to inhale” (Breath, p. 41). The benefits of slower breathing can be felt immediately, and with continued practice, you can keep calm and sing on for the rest of your days. Namaste.