What does breath support mean when singing?
Breath support is a familiar term that you always hear in singing and speech technique lessons. Most people, however, don't know what it really means. I will now give an explanation that has emerged from my own experience over time.
Firstly, support is related to breathing. When we normally inhale and exhale, our upper midsection moves. Most people breathe more upwards than downwards. The lungs fill with air and expand like a balloon. When we then exhale, the air escapes quickly and everything collapses again.
You can see this in the following video, where you can see "normal" breathing.
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When we want to speak or sing, the vocal cords close so that only a very small amount of air can pass through. If the air then escapes as quickly as during normal breathing, the result is a breathy sound or, in the worst case, no sound at all. In any case, this excessive burst of air eventually becomes too much for the vocal cords, and unpleasant side effects such as vocal fatigue, a sore throat, or, in the worst case, even loss of voice can occur.
That's why breathing support exists. You can imagine it a bit like a balloon that makes a noise when you stretch the balloon as the air escapes from the neck. If you observe this, you'll quickly notice that the balloon doesn't collapse, but rather slowly deflates, and the "body" remains stably stretched and inflated.
That's exactly how our breathing support works. We fill our lungs so that the diaphragm stretches downwards, much more so than in the video below. This expands not only the upper ribs but also the lower ones. If we then maintain this expansion and produce a sound, the air escapes in a controlled and measured way, allowing the throat and, most importantly, the vocal cords to relax sufficiently for effortless and prolonged singing.
Breath support is about allowing the breath and voice to find internal support, so that the voice can flow without strain. I've included some exercises for this in my video course "Fit with Your Voice - Basic Course 1." You can find it here: https://www.barbarapavelka.at/challenges
I will tell you more about this on this blog over the next few weeks.
If you have any questions, please write to me so I can answer them.
Enjoy breathing!
Your,
Barbara Marie-Louise
PS: If you would like to book a trial lesson with me, you can do so here:
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