Ok, like I stated in a previous thread, it is hard to put something so physical into words for you to understand. So these "mini" lessons are just gonna have to do until I can recrod some stuff for yall.
So today's lesson is:
BREATHING!
I can't tell you how many people breathe WRONG when singing! Basically, when you inhale, you don't lift your shoulders...that is a no no!
1) Stand straight up, shoulders back and feet spaced about a feet apart. You basically want your body even and grounded...in order to take a nice, grounded breath.
>>>>>side note<<<<<<
I have also done this laying down. I used to have a problem with gravity and my shoulders. So when you lay down, your body is forced to be straight.
2) Inhaling is done like this....BREATHE(inhale) through your nose and "fill" your lungs. When you do this, you will see your chest expand (more around your stomach region). While doing this, make sure your shoulders are not rising...if they do, you are taking shallow breaths and will not be able to support full notes completely. They will rise just a little but that is due from your chest expanding and naturally your shoulders will lift a little. It will seem like there is a balloon inside your body. Also, when you inhale like most people inhale by lifting the shoulders, you are just getting maybe half the breath you can really fill your lungs with.
3) Exhaling is done like this...Slowly exhale the breath through your mouth (for example use and "ooo" vowel or simply just blow through your lips as if you are whistling). Your body should be slowly collapsing back to its original position it was before you inhaled. Visually, your stomach should be coming down also. They key is to do this slowly...you are preserving air for those long notes. When you get better at doing this, you can start controlling the air better depending on note lengths and all that good stuff.
4) Continue to do steps 2 and 3 over and over and experiment with different vowels, if you feel comfortable.
Ok...there is another sort of advanced way of breathing that can be confused with the way people tend to do it. It is the "open throat" technique. In step 2, instead of inhaling through the nose, you inhale with your mouth with an open throat. This technique is used for different types of singing...which I will get to later.
Like I said, this is just a "mini" lesson...the basics...the bare minimal...to get your through! If you have questions, feel free to hit me up anytime because I just may have left something out or confused you! See ya soon with lesson 2! Not sure what it will be over quite yet, but most likely it will be over CORRECT VOWEL FORMATION AND CONNECTING IT WITH THE BREATH AND SOUND! I'm telling you now, that one will be looooong!