Unfiltered Thoughts

2023.04.25 – 0845 – Birthday Candles Birthday candles Stand as previously described, with your feet firmly on the floor shoulder-width apart, knees very slightly bent rather than locked, with dropped and relaxed shoulders.·        Put your hands on your diaphragm area to help you feel and picture the following process·        Now blow out some imaginary candles on a cake, with short sharp, exaggerated panting bursts of air… you should see and feel a lot of movement in your diaphragm as you do this·        Now do this again with some sound: “huh huh huh” to engage the vocal folds as well as the abdominal muscles. You should get 10-20 sounds out per breath before running out of air. If you aren’t, focus on deeper inhalation and controlling the amount of air you exhale with each sound.·        Repeat with a series of staccato “ch” sounds Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.24 – 0844 – Sue-eeeeeeSue-eeeeeeStand as previously described, with your feet firmly on the floor shoulder-width apart, knees very slightly bent rather than locked, with dropped and relaxed shoulders.·        Put your hands on your diaphragm area to help you feel and picture the following process·        Start relaxed breathing, and let air drop in to your lungs over a count of four·        Then, as you release that air, again for a count of four, make the start of the Sue-ey sound: “ssss” through your teeth·        Repeat, for a count of six, eight, 10 and 12 for each part·        The repeat each stage, replacing “ssss” with “oooo” and then “eeee” sounds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.23 – 0843 – Let It All OutLet It All OutFocussing on full exhalations helps expand your diaphragm.·        Lie on the floor in a semi-supine position (the ‘sit-up’ position described earlier).·        Exhale all air through your mouth·        Relax and let air drop back in (don’t gasp), and breathe naturally for a minute before repeating the exercise Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.22 – 0842 – It’s Hip to Breathe SquareIt’s Hip to Breathe SquareSquare Breathing is used by US Navy Seals among others to create calmness and control. ·        Sit or lie down so you are relaxed and comfortable·        Breathe in for a count of four as you draw one side of a ‘square’ in your mind·        Pause and hold the breath for a count of four, as you mentally draw the second side·        Exhale for another count of four, picturing the third side of the square·        And then hold for the count of four as you complete the shape·        Repeat the cycle for progressively longer counts until you feel calmer. The longer time periods will help you strengthen and control your diaphragm, the ‘pump’ which regulates the airflow from your lungs to your folds.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.21 – 0841 – The Crunch and Stretch
The Crunch and StretchRib stretches open up the intercostal muscles (the ones that run between the ribs, and help form and move the chest wall), and release tension. Breath in through the mouth – as that’s what we tend to use when we are actually speaking.·        Lie on the floor and bring each knee in to your chest, and then flop them to one side and your head to the other side·        Put your arms away from your body to form a T shape·        Breath in and then swap over, with your knees and head on the other side ·        Then return your knees back to centre and notice any difference ·        Stand up and give yourself a hug·        Drop the shoulders in a voiced sigh·        Flop over at the waist at a voiced sigh … to crunch the entire front and ‘open up’ your back·        Gently breathe and let your arms drop·        Roll up, stand up gently, through the spine one vertebrae at a time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.20 – 0840 – How To Know Your Air Flow
How do you know, your air-flow?Watch the clockTake a standard breath (not a huge gulp) and then let it out as though gently releasing air from a balloon: ssssssssssss on your natural ‘home tone’ until the supply is exhausted.
Then repeat the exercise with a touch of vocality to it, swapping the ‘sss’ for a long but gentle ‘zzzzz’How long did the sound last for on each exercise? A ‘good’ flow will last for around 15 seconds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.19 – 0839 – Don’t Take Fish Gulps
But be aware of you use of air: do you tend to gulp? Or are you squeezing out the final words in a sentence with the last ounce of air you have spare? What about your other breathing habits? Be aware that in certain situations you may feel short of breath: if you are recovering from an illness, if you are nervous, if you’re tense…
If you take in too much air than you need to use:You can take fish-like gulpsYou may get light-headedYou may damage your folds…
Take a deep breath now, and notice what you feel in your larynx area. Feel the strain of air trying to get out? That’s sub-glottal pressure again, leading your folds to have to work much harder to release just what you need, just when you need it. And that can lead to damage, vocal fatigue, and a limit to the range you can talk in. So, you need to be able to take in just enough air to power your voice for what you want to say, and then control the ‘flow of the fuel’ steadily.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.18 – 0838 – Excessive Oxygenation 
Excessive oxygenation
You only really want to take in as much air as you will need to get to the end of your adlibbed phrase or sentence, or to read what’s been written. So how do you know how much that is?
As for adlibs, it usually comes naturally; I mean, how many times do you see someone strain at the end of a sentence in a conversation as they run out of air, or take a huge gulp before they say something. Almost never. You instinctively have the breath to last the ‘thought’ (or maybe we adapt what we say, as we say it, depending on how much air we have left…)
For script work, it’s good to pre-read and rehearse what it is that someone else wants you to say (or even what you wrote down to read out loud). What sounds good in someone’s head, or looks good on a screen, may not sound good when it is said. The sentences may be Amazonian in length and convolution. Looking specifically at sentence structure (you’re not just looking for commas and full stop/periods, you’re also looking for phrases and sentence sense), can help you work out where to take full or part-breaths. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.17 – 0837 – Efficient Air-Use Exercises
Now consider these exercises to help you create:·        The most efficient way to get air in to your body·        The most effective way to use it to power your voice (and that doesn’t necessarily mean to give you a powerful voice)·        How to control your out-breath for a consistent, confident sound·        And how to support your voice to the end of every sentence
I mentioned earlier that a lot of the exercises combine across the three niches of vocal, physical and mental. That is some physical exercises involve making sound as you do them, and others exercise require some imagination, as picturing something a bit abstract (like breath) can help you understand what is happening, or rather what should be happening. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.04.16 – 0836 – The Deep Breathing Double Whammy
So short and shallow breathing from your upper chest results in a tightening and tensing of neck and throat muscles (as well as affecting the pecs which raise the ribs, and the shoulders) which leads to a reaching and squeezing voice. Such breathing can be as a result of, well, ‘life’: nervousness, bad posture, the ‘stress of the day’…
Better breathing, deeper and diaphragmatic using the lower ribs and the lower back, not only gives you more air to fuel the voice, and gives you a more resonant, round sound, it also activates your parasympathetic nervous system, a network of nerves that relaxes your body after periods of stress or danger. So deep breathing is a double-whammy: a more relaxed voice and a more relaxed ‘you’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.