Long notes falling flat?

We all remember those moments in songs when the singer magically takes a breath and holds a note for an extended period of time. We clap. We yell. We cheer them on. Every singer vocalist longs for that moment. But how do you get there?

Lets start simple. We will get to the more complex portions of the physicality of singing later. We simply need a place to start. So we warm up. Im not talking about warming up your voice, yet. That’s part of it but even that comes after where I want to start. I’m talking about starting with stretching your muscles. You can’t take a deep belt line breath if you can’t stand straight and tall. You can’t make room where there is none when you haven’t stretched the muscles to learn how to make room. You need space. Space within the space you have. And then strength. you will need strength. Imagine a swimmer, someone who has spent copious amounts of time learning to take in as much oxygen as they can and control it so they can move themselves though water. Their lungs strengthen and stretch. It’s amazing honestly. They become more adaptive to their environment by stretching. They can hold their breath longer and longer over time. I bet you are wondering what do a swimmers lungs have to do with singing? The truth is they have been stretching those lungs the way you can stretch your diaphragm. You can give yourself a better support system for singing if you put time into building that support. How to? 1) You will need a full length mirror. Stand in front of it. 2) take a slow deep breath and focus on the breath going down into you belt line. (you diaphragm is down there) 3) make sure your chest does not expand during this exercis.4)let out the breath while using a lip trill. 5) Time you lip trill. This is a stretch! This is an exercise. Truth of the the matter is this Is also something that you need someone to watch you do too. You can practice and practice but you need those extra pair of eyes that will point out whether you are taking the breath into your diaphragm. Tiny corrections can mean all the difference in growing. Hey, lets be honest, sometimes people cheat. Poking out your Stomach doesn’t mean you’ve taken a great breath. It means you’ve poked out your stomach. Timing your trill will tell you if you’ve been building the length of your breath and whether you’ve expanded that muscle. The trill will tell you if you’ve got a long solid enough support system to hold the trill. And all all of this will translate to your singing so that you can handle the long notes Without fear. I dont know how well I can drill this into my students. But I focus on it all the time. This is the building block for all types of expansion. You need to ensure that you know how to breathe before you can truly master attaining each vocal goal. We all assume breathing is second nature. But the truth is for most of us, it is not. We need to retrain our brain in order to develop the thechnique that is safe, healthy, and sounds good. Online lessons are availabile for anyone looking to expand their breathing technique. Simply message me and get on the schedule! Email: teach@yourpurevoice.com