How to Breathe Better for Singing Part 4: Support

[@stellabruggen]

Oh. My. God. I finally understand what ‘breath support’ actually means. Thank you so much!!!

[@lukekent9687]

You have such wonderful wisdom on these videos (I have been watching through and taking notes of a few of them) I am a singer and teacher and I find some of my ideas being challenged and others being very validated. I Love how you don't try and tell people what the 'correct' way is but simply show them how the body best operates with minimal interference! You also have such a lovely manner about the way you explain that shows you have wisdom yet nothing to prove to anyone by trying to force any particular way of achieving something. Thankyou for your fantastic work!

[@kaholee3756]

You have the smoothest and most articulated voice I have heard.

[@chaletsax]

Finally. Great to find someone who understands and knows. So many have taught the same hmmmm misconceptions that it has been difficult to ford through it all - especially for students. Students will look up and find all the same misconceptions being passed down from teachers and others and it all gets repeated for yet another generation. Thanks - you understand. (Private instrumental teacher and past performer). As an aside, many of the other things you talk about - even vowels, tongue tension etc apply to woodwinds - I will leave it to the brass players to agree on their own hehe..

[@vocalizingdreams]

Claudia, I really love your videos! I love your energy in general. You have been very helpful for me.

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

That means so much to me! thank you for taking the time to comment!

[@VIDEOHEREBOB]

Thanks so much Claudia. Bob, singer.

[@calmaenlaadversidad]

You are awesome, Claudia! Thank you so much for your fantastic channel!

[@АннаАфанасьева-н7о]

So - I watched 3 of your videos about breathing. In the first one, you talked about the importance of "inflating" the stomach, and then you showed how you leave the ribs expanded during exhalation - at what point did you expand them? Second, I don't remember what. Third - "Exhale freely - the body will regulate itself." In general, there was no more clarity - however, I thought that the correct breath is still into the ribs (we expand), while the stomach also naturally expands - around the entire circumference and not just forward as you showed in the first video. Next - exhale - where is the control point? It is on top of our press - after all, when we want to stop breathing - this is where the "locking" of air occurs. If we sharply release this point, then the air quickly comes out - the task for the singing exhalation is to smoothly "open this plug" - then the ribs and stomach will gradually deflate! This is especially noticeable when we pronounce the long sound "s". These are the thoughts that came after watching - I have not tested it in practice yet!

[@DoriePride]

Thank you so much for your knowledge and teaching me the mystery of breathing properly. I so needed to understand what I was doing wrong as it related to my breath management when I sang. I knew I was not doing something wrong but didn't know how to regulate my breathing to sustain long tones. I found your video a true gift of knowledge that will turn into wisdom over time. Thank you!!!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Thanks Dorie! I hope it helps! Feel free to come back with any questions, and I do offer online lessons if you'd like some one-on-one help.

[@suziealthens1258]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video! It really helps to clarify what is described in the book. Excellent! That resistance band is a great idea, but I can just think that there is one there and it made a difference. Brilliant.

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Thank you Suzie!

[@jancokman5420]

Wowww... Free advanced lesson for singer. Thank youuu for the lesson madamm

[@elinaross]

Thank you, dear Claudia, for your amazing work!

[@NilahMonai]

thank you for this free knowledge 🖤

[@rachnamittal9017]

Thanks

[@RosePetal17]

Claudia, I appreciate your knowledge and that you share it here. Thank you so much!

[@colinbell-NI]

Thank you Claudia for this. I confess I am totally confused about breathing, as I have read so much. But your video is very clear to me and I plan to watch and implement it. Warm greetings from Ireland, bless you!

[@rachelbendavid2317]

Yoga develops the depth and control of breath while working away from the "tension" paradigm that sometimes occurs in sports movement, and the "pushing" concept of singing. Several famous singers were yoga afficionados.

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

I agree completely. Yoga can help develop the strength, flexibility and awareness that singers need to develop excellent breath management skills.

[@luizfilipecotrimdealmeidar614]

Thank you. I will practice and practice.

[@RachelleMossContralto]

Thank you for sharing these videos. I greatly appreciate your commitment to helping all singers and teachers. This is a great tool, in addition to your book!!

[@nghieuthanhhoanghieu4163]

Thank you so much ! I love your video

[@dorothydobkowski4176]

I love the exercise with the band around the rib cage. I will try this! Thanks!

[@stevesherwood7867]

Excellent content, very well presented. Thank you Claudia.

[@ming41160]

Very good! Thanks!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Very glad you like the video!

[@vivid7771]

Hi Claudia, Thanks for this video! When you demonstrate an optimal onset, you have a beautiful vibrato there, but my voice has no vibroto. Is this something that I should try by manipulating mu vocal? Thank you in advance!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Hi Shinhye! Vibrato is not something that you do but rather a quality that emerges when your breath and voice are flowing freely and energetically. Paradoxically, when singers think they're supposed to deliberately produce vibrato, it causes them to sing in an effortful way that makes a free organic vibrato impossible. Here is a blog post I wrote on the topic a while ago. www.claudiafriedlander.com/the-liberated-voice/2012/05/vibrato-hell.html

[@marilynramberg2637]

I THINK I understand. But if I keep my ribcage expanded during exhalation, at some point my rectus abdominis muscles want to contract (or maybe push) straight back toward my spine to keep the air going. As I do that, the low abdominal (suprapubic) muscles curl slightly forward, as if I were rolling a toothpaste tube very slowly from the base !). If I don't engage those abdominal muscles and just let the diaphragm return slowly to its original tented position, I get a short duration of pretty light breath going, and not much sound is produced. (I hope I am communicating clearly....) It seems that you are saying that I may be doing something wrong in letting the abdominal muscles engage in this way? Is there another way to think of this that I have missed? Thank you so much for your time.....

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

What matters is that each of us develop strategies for regulating subglottal breath pressure that a) work well for our own bodies; b) are sustainable over the course of any phrase we might sing; and c) do not involve creating additional resistance at the vocal folds (i.e. tightening at the glottis so you've got more to push against). If what you are doing meets those criteria, you're good to go.

[@marilynramberg2637]

@@ClaudiaFriedlander Thank you for such a quick reply! I was worried a about maybe too much abdominal tension, but this is reassuring. Your explanations are so clear and helpful and very much appreciated - Best wishes to you!

[@danielwright4226]

hello nice video, bit confused dont you need breath support from the onset not (later on in the phrase) ? but throught out the beggining to end? many thanks

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Have a look at the previous video in this series. The point of breath support is optimizing your subglottal breath pressure. After a full inhalation, it is already optimized without your having to do anything, so if you release your breath in a well-coordinated way there is no need to do anything right away to directly control your breath pressure. Support is often necessary to sustain this optimal level of breath pressure, depending on the length and range of the phrase. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmnLo2mvgtKSgtE

[@danielwright4226]

@@ClaudiaFriedlander heyy thanks for fast reply, i kinda understand the concept, but what would be the advantange of not actively trying to engage support from the onset? or do you think its the same either way? or prehaps better delaying? i can only sing well if i do it from the beginning of vocalisation ( im just questioning if this is the best way) 😊 x

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

@@danielwright4226 Because the instrument we are playing is our own body, we need to take advantage of the things our body does naturally and instinctively that are more efficient than anything we would do to consciously manipulate it. If you agree that the point of breath support is optimizing our subglottal breath pressure, and you understand how efficient pulmonary elasticity is for achieving this, you will not want to *override* this process and supplant what you are guessing might be the correct level of breath pressure. When singers do that they almost always end up supplying too much force, whereas when you learn to use your support system in tandem with pulmonary elasticity you're much more likely to provide an optimal level of pressure. That said, these things are tricky to talk and write about. There's no way to be sure we're using different language to say the same thing.

[@danielwright4226]

@@ClaudiaFriedlander thankyou! im pretty sure we are talking about the same thing! its the first time ive heard this method so just really curious! thanks again

[@nadiavieira7785]

20:16

[@mariebellnero585]

hi I have a song on youtube call I believe I wont to know if iam breathing right on this song or not

[@curtsheldon5320]

When I sing I sound like that balloon. LOL j/k I sound fabulous. Keep up the great work!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

Hey, the balloon is consistent!

[@4444marla]

Students who do a lot of crunches usually have an inflexible, hard diaphragm. I am not a believer in giving crunch exercises to students for this reason.........I welcome your feedback!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

What is actually going on is that students who do a lot of crunches, fail to stretch afterwards, and neglect all of the other important muscles of the abdomen, develop a firm, inflexible rectus abdominis, aka "six pack". The diaphragm itself is not directly impacted by crunches, but a tight six pack makes it much harder for the diaphragm to do its job well because if you can't relax your stomach you can't take a full, low breath. Here's an article I wrote for Classical Singer that elaborates: www.claudiafriedlander.com/ABStinence.PDF

[@venushynniewta5476]

I didn,t get the point that I really need Her To Explained

[@vic_yuse7083]

你是我可爱的老师，爱您❤

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

非常感谢你 我很高兴你喜欢这些视频！ （我希望谷歌翻译工作）

[@youtubeuser6725]

@@ClaudiaFriedlander wow you speak Chinese?!

[@ClaudiaFriedlander]

@@youtubeuser6725 Google Translate is very useful.

[@pamelajohnson834]

Poor audio: I can barely hear her at times and struggle to hear her other times.