How To Breathe, part 2

In this lesson you will learn fundamentals about proper breathing, part 2.

We will use the the first verse of the song “More Than Anything” by Lamar Campbell to practice these techniques with.

Lyrics: I lift my hands in total adoration unto You You reign on the throne for You are God and God alone Because of You my cloudy days are gone I can sing to You this song I just want to say that I love You more than anything

Timing of the breath

Listen to “When You Believe” by Whitney Houston again. Notice the timing of when Whitney breathes. The breath has to be postponed to the very last instance before singing. Let’s take a look at some music theory.

In songs we usually count out a beat to four, like this: “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and”.

Here is the general rules of timing:

(1) If you begin to sing on a number, you must breathe on the “and” before that number. For example, let’s say the song begins on 1. The you must breathe on 4 and.

(2) If you begin to sing on “and”, you must breathe on the number before that “and”. For example, let’s say the song begins on 1 and. Then you must breath on 1.

Exercise 1: Pick a number between 1 and 4. This is the number that you will begin to sing on (you can simply sing “la”). Practice breathing on the “and” that comes before that number. Repeat this exercise with different numbers. Exercise 2: Now, breathe on the number and sing on the “and”. For example, breathe on 3 and sing on 3 and.

Exercise 3: Sing “More Than Anything” several times. Practice the timing of your breaths. Notice that when you come to the end of a line, you must wait with breathing until the next line actually starts.

Now you can learn to sing right here in Post Falls. Learn more here.