No, you’re not bad at breathing.
When I’m working with a new voice client in a coaching session, one of the first things I often hear is:
“I’m bad at breathing.”
At which point I have to hold back a bit of a chuckle, because… whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. You’re bad at breathing? Who told you that?
There are so many false narratives around singing and the voice that it can be hard to keep up with them all, but one of the most common mythologies is related to what is required of our breath to make a free and beautiful sound. Often singing teachers and voice coaches will spend an exorbitant amount of time on breath, framing it as the source of one’s problem, when truthfully, it is more often a symptom.
Sure, breath is source. It’s the essence of life. One should not underestimate the power of a well coordinated breath, but the secret to breathing well for singing is no more than that… good coordination.
It’s not something one could be bad or good at because quite honestly, if you were bad at it… you’d be dead. 😂 And so, if you’re with me in a voice coaching session and you tell me you’re bad at breathing I’m likely to respond: “You’re not too bad at it, because you’re alive!”
Here's the thing: while breath is source, it is not sound.
In fact, I’ll even go further and say your breath doesn’t control the sound, your sound controls the breath.
I know, this is a lot to wrap your mind around, but let me explain. Your vocal folds (vocal cords) act as a valve at the top of a tube, quite literally. The type of sound you make determines your experience with the breath when you sing. More simply, if you make a sound that is more head voice, more air will leave your body more quickly and if you make a sound that is more chest voice, the air will meet more resistance and stay in your lungs longer. You’ll feel more pressure.
If you feel like (or you’ve been told) you’re bad at breathing, it might actually be an issue of register balance. (Not sure what I mean? That’s why you need a coach. 😘)
But wait, I said breath was about coordination, so let me give the secret sauce.
1) Stand or sit up straight
2) Relax your belly when you inhale. (This might be the hard part)
3) Don’t collapse when you exhale, or stay expanded for as long as you can. (This takes the most strength)
4) Repeat (Over and over and over.)
Yea, there are certainly more nuanced elements to this, but that is basically it and I promise you’re not bad at it. You might just need to learn how to coordinate it with the sound you’re making.
Be warry of the voice in your head (or the voice teacher!) that tells you that you’re bad at something, especially as it relates to your body. It’s almost never true.
