In this episode I'm going to refresh our basic understanding of breathing anatomy and isolate each of the main areas for breath with a few simple exercises.

If you're a singer or an actor, you're going to need more breath than someone who's not. There's a balance that we need to work on between how much breath is released so that the vocal folds can manage the airflow and produce vibrations to get the result you want without blowing apart, and not having enough air to sustain the sound to the end of the phrase.

We'll get into that more in later episodes. But for right now, I really want you to think breathing = easy. It supports your vocal expression and it helps you to relax. When you're doing nice deep belly breaths, it can really calm the nervous system. You'll probably notice that if you're just chest breathing, it can make you feel a little bit more anxious?

Whichever way you look at it. The most important thing is that the intake of air is easy. The exhale is controlled and the shoulders aren't involved so that the singer or actor has enough breath to sustain long phrases without running on empty, which puts extra pressure on the vocal folds.

Enjoy and please grab this download for further practice :)

2 Minute Breathing Exercise Audio Link

For a messy transcript of this episode and more; click here!