Wayne goes through the roof if anyone comes to him asking him how to breathe properly for singing. The reason is because, as he often says, we were born breathing correctly, then we spend the rest of our lives figuring out how to screw it up. If you look at puppies or babies breathing when they are asleep, their belly moves slowly up and down. Same with any of us when we are sleeping. But somehow when we are "trying" to sing, we forget how to breathe naturally and start trying to "help." Breathing correctly for singing is as much about expiration as it is inhalation. We should be like bagpipes or an accordion. As the breath comes up from the diaphragm it crosses over the vocal chords creating sound. If you cut off the breath from below and try to sing from your throat, you won't have much sound or resonance. When it comes to singing and breathing, it's important to get back to the basics.
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Wayne is always saying that the biggest enemy any of us have when singing is tension. Tension will kill your voice. It cuts off the natural flow of air through your vocal chords. As we sing we should be intense - in the sense that we should be focused and intent on delivering the message of the song we are singing. But never tense. So he will say to us, “Relaxed Intensity! Intense, but not tense.”
He says it often enough to make it stick in our brains. Actually doing it is another story! |
Amy AllenI am a student of Wayne's and want to share his wisdom with you! Archives
March 2017
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