Ask Dr. LJ: Singing.

[saxikath]

So, I'm doing this solo with a bell piece that we're playing in late February. And wow, am I out of practice. The piece is slow, with looooong breath lines. (At least long for me.) Breath line was never my strongest suit, even when I was in better vocal condition, and now -- ouch.

So the question is, for you singers out there: what exercises do you recommend for working on breath line?

In related news, there is a distinct shortage of me-accessible musical theater this spring. Foo. Princess Ida is still an option, though I'm not all that wild about Blanche and can't imagine they'd actually cast me as Psyche. But I want to sing somewhere! (Brigadoon isn't happening in Belmont after all.)

(And yes, I went swimming again yesterday. And am going again tonight. I'm a quarter of the way across the Hellespont at its widest. Rawr!)

Comments

[stellavision.livejournal.com]

Oh lordy, I need to know the answer to that question too. (Breath lines, that is.)

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

One of the vocal books I have recommends the following (I can photocopy that page for you if you'd like):

Take a measured breath in (I can't remember the count).
Say the alphabet. When you run out of breath take a catch breath and continue.
The goal is to say it three times in one breath.

Another exercise that my conductors often lead:

Breathe in on a count of 2 (although I think we should sometimes do a count of 4 because always doing 2 trains us to breathe late.)
Hiss out for a count of 8
Repeat with a 12 count hiss, and then a 16 count hiss, then a 20 count hiss.
The goal is to be completely out of air at the end of the hiss without having a big explosion of air at the end. (I try to achieve this by conserving until the halfway mark.)

And my vocal instructor used to have me buzz my lips (hmm, I'm not sure I'm explaining well. It sounds like a motor; the lips really get flapping) while doing certain vocal warmups, which was also for placement, but is a great breath exercise because it takes so much air to keep the lips flapping.

Yay swimming! Be sure to remember to stretch since you're doing all sorts of new things to your shoulders.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Those are lip trills. mister_nick, being a trumpet player as well as a singer, is really good with lip trills and might be able to recommend some related exercises.

[saxikath]

Gah, I suck at lip trills. Always have. Probably related to aforementioned lack of breath line. :)

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

I had the hardest time with lip trills until I realized that you have to be totally relaxed. If I think about how ridiculous I look, I start to laugh and it all goes to hell. :)

[kayre]

The above is excellent advice-- but I suspect swimming regularly will do all you need for additional breath support, so there's another motivation! You've never said what strokes you do.. if you do the crawl, work on breathing every other stroke (but please, no hyperventilating in the pool).

[saxikath]

I do do crawl; it's the only stroke I ever had any real facility with. (I can sort of do backstroke, but never got the coordination down for breaststroke, and butterfly is too much at the moment!) So I'll try the every-other-stroke thing -- good idea.

[cnoocy]

When we did Evita in college, our lead spent spring break rehearsing her songs while treading water, but that may not be feasible in a busy pool.

[kayre]

Great-- first try skipping a stroke occasionally. Then try one length, after you're warmed up; back to breathing every stroke for a while, then another length of skipping a stroke, etc. You'll have breath support like never before! :)

[mister-nick.livejournal.com]

You should totally audition for Princess Ida, even if you want to attach the caveat of "I don't want to be Blanche." It doesn't hurt to try, and there's no good reason to think of yourself as limited to the contralto roles. (I don't know enough about the show to comment on the suitability of Psyche for you, but it sounds like you are mostly being negative for typecasting reasons, to which I say "bah!") I at least try to think of myself as a possibility for any part I can plausibly sing that isn't an awful character fit. And in the end it all depends on a lot of different things, including who else auditions.

I don't have much to say on the subject of breath line, unfortunately. I do enjoy lip trills, but mostly as light warmup and relaxation thing. I could ask my teacher for suggestions when I see him tomorrow, if you'd like.

[stevie-stever.livejournal.com]

the breathe-in/breathe-out warm-up that's already mentioned is great.

For actual singing, once I've warmed up, I often taken a challenging run that I know from one piece or another and run through it. It doesn't have to be pretty...the idea is to get used to singing with as few breaths as are possible.

Selections from Bach's Magnificat are good for this, as are selections from B Minor Mass.

My favorites are various Mozart runs and of course almost -anything- from Handel's Messiah

[dharklady.livejournal.com]

One of the things my singing teacher used to have me do is hold my arm out straight in front of me then hold up my pointer finger and pretend it was a candle. Then I would take in a deep breath from my belly and let out little bursts of air trying to "blow it out" until all the air was gone. It also helps wih projection.