Breathing through the mouth is the proper way to breathe when singing.
Breathing through the nose is what you do all day every day or you will die!!
It is normal and natural.

Stop for a moment, exhale all the air out of your lungs (well, as much as
possible...you'll never get it all) and take a deep breath through your nose.
Notice what happens to your body. Your stomach expands and seems to fill with
air. What is really happening is, as your stomach gets out of the way, your
diaphragm drops, allowing air to rush into the lungs. That's what you do all
day, every day. Your little old tummy keeps going in and out and that old
diaphragm keeps dropping, and you are alive to tell about it.

It is exactly the same sensation you get when you lie on you back. Check it out
tonight when you go to bed. That old tummy just keeps going up and down all
night!

Now, if the body does that all day, every day, why would anyone want to use the
body to breathe any other way? So learn to use your body to take breaths while
singing. Singing is one of the few times you have to manufacture breath on
command. When you take a breath, pop the gut, let the diaphragm drop, let the
lungs fill and proceed to the next breathing place.

Now where were we.....?

Jim

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jim Dodge
Director - Portsmouth (NH) Seacoast Vocal Union
NED/HEP Singing A's Coach


----- Original Message -----
From: johnsondp@...
To: BBSBasses@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [BBSBasses] Re: Proper singing



I share Alex's preference for breathing through the mouth, in normal
circumstances. When standing with good posture, i.e. erect, with rib case
expanded, shoulders back but relaxed, lowering the diaphragm will cause the
air
to fill the lungs to capacity through either the nose or an open mouth.
Because their is less restriction to air flow through the mouth, the breath
will
be quicker and less noisy.

George, I suspect that if nasal breathing seems to provide greater
capacity for increased note duration, something else is going on involving
posture, chest expansion, or diaphragm action. Perhaps being consciously aware
of
the breath process is causing you achieve fuller rib case expansion and
lowered diaphragm. I doubt there is a significant difference in air
temperature. On the other hand, if it works for you, great!

Some people advocate nasal breathing for health reasons, but that's a whole
different story. But it's a less efficient process, as you quickly find
out if you attempt to breath through your nose during heavy exercise.

Duane Johnson
Hoosier Gentry and Summit City Chorus




In a message dated 9/22/2009 9:13:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
beardedtree28@... writes:

There is one thing that concerns me about this. Yes breathing through your
nose can fill your lungs, but there is one thing that breathing through
your mouth really benefits over singing through your knows, and that is to
help with proper placement in order to create the ultimate resonant sound by
lifting the soft palate and giving you space for creating the best
overtones. Breathing through your nose fills your lungs, but leaves the mouth
with
nothing, meaning all the more work that you have to do to get your voice
into the best placement. It also might have a tendency to cause a droopy sound
that might cause you to dig at the sound versus float on top of it to get
the best resonance.

This is just my thoughts, if someone more knowledgeable would be willing
to share their $.02 that would be great.

Alex Donaldson
Bass in the Great Northern Union (Hilltop Chapter)

--- In _BBSBasses@yahoogrouBBSBas_ (mailto:BBSBasses@yahoogroups.com) ,
"george.luken" <georgelj@..g> wrote:
>
> Gentlemen: I discovered another secret and you tell me if it works for
you. Do you have problems on tags or just long passages where you don't seem
to have enough oxygen to make it through the phrase?
> Close your mouth and pull the air in
> through your nose only, the warm air warmed by your nose that you use
> for singing will let you belt a tag out or make it through a phrase like
nobody's business!
>
> What say you? George Luken
>

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