Let’s Start Singing!

by Amy | May 31, 2017 | singing

Let’s start at the very beginning…

…a very good place to start.  Sorry…a little Sound of Music reference there.  When it comes to singing, however, whether we are just beginning to sing or starting over, we need to first understand the fundamentals…the basics, if you will.  So that, my friend, is what I wish to lay out for you right here…right now.  Because, there’s no other place I wanna be.  (ugh…sorry again.  It’s a problem of mine.)

Anyway…

When a student comes to me for the very first time, I never assume that they know everything there is to know about singing.  After all, if they did, they wouldn’t be needing a lesson from me, now would they?  Instead, I ask them a series of questions about what they know and what they feel they need to know in order to be the best singer they can be right now…or very quickly.  Whether a student can articulate all of that is irrelevant, but usually they can describe to me what isn’t working.  And usually, their instincts are right!

So, here are a few questions I ask a new student, and the (bold parenthesis) are what it tells me about how we’ll begin our journey.  As you read through these, ask yourself the same questions:

1. How long have you been singing? Have you had any formal training?  (experience and knowledge about singing)
2. What are you working on? (repertoire interest as well as knowing who they are)
3. What do you know about breathing? (knowledge about breath management)
4. What do you know about sound?  (knowledge about the vocal tract and resonance)
5. What’s your sign?  Just kidding…just wanted to make sure you’re paying attention.
6. What do YOU feel works really well in your voice?  (strengths and confidence)
7. What do YOU feel like you need help with?  (self and vocal awareness and needs)
8. What is your goal for taking lessons or enrolling in online vocal training?  (setting goals and making a plan)

If I can get this information up front, it takes a lot of guesswork out of the picture.  And both the singer and I can be clear about what it is we’re aiming for.  Without these important answers, we’re just blindly wondering around trying out vocal exercises and flipping through pages of song books without a goal.

So, if I may ask, what are your answers to these questions?  By answering them, you should start to get clear on some things and hopefully, get really excited about singing!  I know it makes me excited.  And I sometimes even go back and ask myself those questions from time to time in order to stay in check with myself and make sure I’m on the right track.

So, when it comes to technical knowledge, the obvious first big question has to do with breath management and breathing.  What terminology are you familiar with?  What do you use to inhale?  Is it the mouth or the nose?  Where are the lungs?  Where is the rib cage?  Typically, I get students who mention that they breathe through the mouth, although some have suspected the nose is also involved.  Most students know about some vague thing called the “diaphragm” and talk about breathing coming from somewhere in their belly region.  So, I begin tackling that topic by making sure they understand precisely where they breathe from and how the breath works for singing.  This concept of body mapping was taught to me by my graduate professor, and it works wonders in helping us find a place to start and getting us from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible.

So, here, I’ve broken down some basic concepts that I always try to clarify within the first lesson or two:

• We breath through the mouth.  First off, we want to note that we breathe through our mouths when we sing–unlike yoga where we breath through our noses.  We do this because, well, we can inhale more air through our mouths.  And, our mouth is like a stage that we set up for that initial sound to be produced.  We want to make sure it is open in the back with an elevated soft palate (which we won’t go into depth about here) and the opening in the front of the mouth is also relaxed and open to the degree it needs to be opened for the first sound we will produce.  Breathing through our nose has the opposite effect:  It causes our soft palate to be lowered and can result in a nasal sound.  Plus, our noses cannot inhale a whole lot of air, so we will come up short when we have to sing long passages.  Just say NO to breathing through the nose.  Except for yoga.  OK, moving on…
• Locate rib cage and lungs.  The rib cage starts much higher and end much lower than we think it does.  It begins right beneath the shoulder blades and ends right at the middle of our upper body just above where our elbows hit when we allow our arms to dangle down.  Our lungs are housed inside our rib cage, and also begin just beneath the shoulder blades.  We have no lungs in our stomach region.  Many times, singers feel sympathetic movement in their stomach, but this is not where the lungs are and not where we should focus when we breathe.  Also, the lungs are not just in the front of our bodies, but they are present within our sides and back.  I like to refer to the lungs as an inner tube of air going all around our upper body.  When we breath for singing, that inner tube expands all around and supports our sound.

Here is a picture of our rib cage and lungs.  See how high up they are?  Who knew?  (well, I kinda did…)

• Dispel the diaphragm myth.  The diaphragm itself is an involuntary muscle that runs through the middle of our upper body, directly below the lungs.  I repeat, it is an involuntary muscle.  That means, we have no control over it — at least not directly.  We don’t do anything with the diaphragm, and we can’t feel it.  The diaphragm does have a job, but we use other muscles to control it and not the diaphragm itself.  I’m not sure how it got to be such a popular term within the vocal arena and why it’s talked about so often within the choral world, but it is irrelevant for singers to know about.  There.  I said it.  My philosophy here is, if we can’t control it, why should we talk about it and focus on it?  It makes singing too complicated.  And no student I’ve ever met understands what it means or what it does.  So, why talk about it?  Who cares?  OK, I’ll step off my diaphragm hotbox and move on, K?

Here is a picture of the involuntary diaphragm contracting when we inhale.  See the arrow showing how the diaphragm descends down?

Here is a picture of the involuntary diaphragm relaxing when we are completely out of breath.  That is the diaphragm’s natural resting state.        

• Appoggio.  Now, before you think I’ve switched over to Italian and you tune me out, just stay with me.  This is the real deal.  This is the good, important stuff we need to be talking about in terms of breath control.  The word appoggio (pronounced uh-podge-oh) comes from the Italian word appoggiare, which means “to lean into something”.  When we sing, we use our intercostal muscles, that are in between our ribs, function to create a resistance and help control our air flow.  So instead of addressing the overly-used “diaphragm spiel,” I talk about the appoggio.  When we expand our rib cage (like we would if someone were to sucker punch us or how we do if we’re surprised), we allow space for our lungs to then expand.  So try that.  Expand your rib cage and inhale (through your mouth) and concentrate only on the lungs expanding and nothing below.  When we use the appoggio, we basically resist deflation or retard the ascension of the diaphragm.  And that, my friends, is breath control — in a super-condensed nutshell.

Here is a picture that shows the antagonistic muscles, the external and the internal intercostal muscles.  These muscles oppose or resist the actions of each other.  This antagonistic action is the appoggio in action!

To demonstrate this concept, I always ask the student to place his/her hands around my rib cage (but only if he/she is comfortable doing so) and I show them how I breathe.  This area around the rib cage is, generally-speaking, right below the breast where the rib cage is a bit more elongated.  When the student feels the resistance I use when I sing, most of them are totally surprised that this is what is what should be happening.  Then, after I have demonstrated how it should work, I ask the student to allow me to put my hands around their rib cage and guide them to resist with those intercostal muscles we just spoke about and utilize their appoggio as well.  It always feels awkward for them at first, but then, I always see a light bulb go on, and they smile with a really cheesy big smile, because THEN…they get it!

After we’ve done that, I do a series of breathing exercises where I ask them to inhale and do this:

1. Ch-Ch-Ch | Ch-Ch-Ch | Chhhhhhhhhhh until they have no breath left.  I ask them to feel the resistance.  We do a few of those, and then we do:
2. S-S-S | S-S-S | Sssssssssssss until they have no breath left.

After we do a few of those to really feel the resistance of those muscles, we then work on singing through some phrases — either from a song they already know or a simple vocal exercise and focus on that area a little more.  I may spend a lesson or two on the concept of breathing and breath management while allowing them to sing their songs they brought in or already know.  My goal of each lesson is to give them as much knowledge I can while allowing them to do what they came to do in the lesson:  sing.  However, the concept of breathing and breath management is one that comes up a lot throughout my time with each student, and we must continually readdress it and sometimes relearn how to utilize this savvy singers’ tool effectively!

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUGftTxJjYA[/embedyt]

Was this helpful for you?

If this post helped you, I’d love to hear about it!  Has anyone talked about the concept of using your appoggio before — either in a lesson or another learning setting?  Did I clear up any myths or issues you may have previously had about the diaphragm?  If so, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.  Also, please do me a favor and share this post now if there is someone you may know who might need to hear this information.  Knowing the correct information is vital when it comes to developing your voice as a singer!

As always, I offer you the opportunity to sign up in the box below, and when you do that, I’ll send you a FREE printable download which goes into more depth about the appoggio.

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