Wake up the Breath--from Vocal Training in Chorus by Robert Russel

Hi! again. As promised I'm sharing with you the following excercises on waking up the breath prior to singing.

Once the body is alert and energized through a physical warm-up, it is time to wake up the breath.

* Place your palms on the bottom of the rib cage, fingers crossing the abdomen and touching in front. Breath low and deep, observing that the fingers separate as the result of an effective inhalation. Hiss, long and sustained, keeping the rib cage and sternum elevated.
* Inhale and hiss, five times staccato.
* Inhale and hiss, twice staccato and then sustained.
* Inhale and sing on a comfortable pitch in mid voice, "Sah-sah-Saaaaaaah" (sing twice short and sustained.)
* Inhale and sing on a comfortable pitch in mid voice two staccato pitches, "Sah-Sah" followed by a sustained five-pitch scalar passage (5-4-3-2-1) on "Saaaaah" Repeat this several times, each time a half step lower, remaining generally in mid-voice range.

Other excercises
* Hold your hand up in front of your face fingers spread. Imagine that each finger has a candle lit at the end. Blow out the candles one by one with five staccato breaths.
* Toss an imaginary ball to someone across the romm. As you throw, exhale with a hiss.
* Toss an imaginary bell. As you inhale through the nose, reach up. As you exhale audibly through the mouth, pull down on the imaginary bell rope.

The intent of these vocalises is "vocal ease" Breath flow needs to be uninhibited and immediately connected to the sound. " To sing is to breathe " The flow of breath may be imagined as water pouring forth freely from a garden house. The sound on the breath is as a leaf on the stream of water, carried effortlessly and completely to the stream of water.

Observations about breathing.
* Never plan to use all your breath - This will create tension in the throat and the body.
* The issue with breathing is not who can sing the longest phrase, although it certainly is a goal of vocal pedagogy to increase the length of phrase that can be sung.
The primary issue with breathing is to keep a smooth, consistent stream of sound always connected to breath.
* Avoid holding back the breath. Give the Breath into the phrase. Holding back the breath to " save it" for the end of the phrase may lead to vocal tension and erratic voice-breath connection. The more breath you give to the phrase, the more breath you can give.
* Coordinate the breath with vocal onset, so that the sound is neither breathy nor tight.
* Maintain the body in its upright and ready posture.
* Take easy silent breaths with relaxed neck, head, shoulders.

Thats all folks!