Transcripts
1. Intro to the Inhale: Hi guys, I'm Madeline Harvey and welcome to maximize
your breadth, part one, the inhale. So today's lesson is
going to be awesome. We're going to continually
use our powers of focus to go even deeper
into our breathing process. We're going to work with targeted relaxation
techniques to relax those muscles that
govern the breathing process. This way you will have more
access to a deeper, fuller, more relaxed inhale, which gives you the support that you will need
for your singing. So I just want to
encourage you to come to today's lesson. In relaxed attire, especially
around that middle area. We don't want to
be constricted by our clothing in the middle area, so we're comfortable
loose fitting clothes. And I also want to
encourage you to just relax and let all the
belly hang loose. That will be the point
of today's lesson. We're also going
to be working with some postures and some
gentle stretches. But if at any point that
becomes too difficult for you, I just want to encourage
you to drop out of that exercise,
continued to observe, maybe take some notes,
but joined back in when it feels a little bit more comfortable for you, okay? As we've said in our
previous work together, it doesn't matter if you're a complete beginner or if
you're an industry pro, I want to encourage
you to come back to these lessons as often as you can until these foundational techniques
become muscle memory. That way, all you need to
do is just relax and enjoy your own voice because your technique will
be working for you. Okay? You ready to get started?
2. The Breath is a Vacuum: Are we ready to get physical? Yeah, I'm really excited
about this lesson. Matter of fact,
teaching The inhale is one of my favorite
voice lessons to teach simply because there's so much wonderful
opportunity in it. Very few singers,
very few singers are actually inhaling the way their bodies are
designed to inhale. Partly because we have this confusion that the breadth is something that
we have to control. Matter of fact, that's a
popular phrase, breath control. So what we wanna do today is understand just how the
breath actually works. It works like a vacuum
or like a title. There's like an
open and open up, open in, open out. So we don't want to get
too involved in that. The body's response
when we get to involved is actually to panic. We don't want to get
too involved with that. We just want to learn
what that's all about so that we have
the tools to get out of the way and just reap
all the rewards and the benefits from staying relaxed and staying
open as we do that. But I want to talk a little
bit deeper about this. You've probably
done it yourself. I think all of us have. And you've definitely seen singers who do this very thing. They gasp. They, when
they do their inhale, you'll see their shoulders
rise like toast in a toaster pops up. Yeah. We see that a lot. And as a matter of fact, if you saw someone do
that on the inhale, you know, for a fact that exhale is going to be identical. If I breathe in, then
I'm going to say, it's like I've got to actually
put my body under stress and strain and squeeze just
to actually keep that breath. In. This lesson, maybe a
little tricky because we want to gently become aware of our patterns and our
tendencies without judgment. But we also want to
learn that we want to guide our breathing and guide our voices back to their
natural responsive, reflexive way of working. So repeat after me. The inhale is a vacuum. Go ahead. The inhale is a vacuum. What this actually means is that our only job is to
get out of the way. And if we can get
out of the way, the breadth will
actually replace itself without any
effort on our part. And to illustrate this, I have this handy-dandy
visual aid. My husband uses this to get dust off of
his camera lenses. Or you can get little buggies
and the baby's nose is. But our breathing process
works in exactly the same way. It's a vacuum. So we've got two
parts to our inhale. The first part is
this right here. So e.g. that is the
throat on us humans. If the throat is blocked
or it's not open, it doesn't matter how good we are at manipulating down here. If the throat is not open, the body is still going to have a panic response and we don't
have that vacuum feeling. So what we need to do
is just open the throat that we at least have
access to that vacuum. Let's feel what this feels
like immediately together. So go ahead and beyond for me. Good. Feel your throat gently, open. Gently, gently, gently, gently. Good. That is our trigger word and that's our sensation for it. We're going to say Open and we're going to
take our time to feel that your unfeeling God. So let's try it together. We're going to do it
three times. Ready? Open. Good, exhale. Open. Good, Exhale. Good. Good, good. Now, I just want
to make one tiny tweak just in case
you didn't feel it. And then we'll try it again. As you exhale. You feel that contraction of, oh, everything's
going, going away. And then when you're
ready for the inhale, you don't have to
think to yourself, but you don't have to do that. All you have to do is open. So now that we've done that, let's try that three times. Go ahead, exhale until you
feel like you're almost empty. Good, good, good, good
as Gleevec, those abs. Good. Now open. Good. Belly, same exact as our
turkey baster contraction. Good. Exhale again. Really feel that
contraction good. Now open. Good, very, very good. One more time. Exhale. Really get it out there. Good, Open. Good, Very good. So you are restoring
your body back to it's reflexive vacuum,
kind of feeling. We want the breath
to replace itself. That's so tricky on the inhale
for a couple of reasons. One, we're riddled with tension
or so tense or so tense. And to oftentimes, when
we sing a song that inhale happens in a one count, so you get a quarter
note of breath. So of course, people would feel stress to go through
when they breathe. So we're going to take
our time exploring this today and then
we're going to speed it up a little bit so
that we can create a solid breathing pattern that you can apply directly to songs. So now that we've
talked about open, That's our first trigger word. The second I've exhaled. There goes all my all my air. How do I get the air back here? Well, our second
trigger is just let go. Good. And if you let go
that contraction, a full contraction of
as created a vacuum. So when you relaxed,
there goes all that air gets pulled back
down in your body. So the relaxation
sucks the air in as a vacuum and you do
not have to work any harder than that right
there, ladies and gentlemen. Now that we have an idea of how this breathing inhale process
works, let's break it down. So let's start with our open. Are you ready?
3. Open "MAH" Exercise: Okay guys. So we're going to really master this first part
of the inhale process. Our trigger word is open. That also describes the
sensation we're going to feel. A sense of openness
being opened up here is going to allow us to
create that a vacuum effect. That where our breadth
is immediately, it's there for us and ready when we need that
nice open exhale. We're going to do this slowly. And then we're going to
gradually speed it up. And then we're gonna put
our inhale pattern into a quick breathing pattern that we're going to
involve voice width. This is going to mimic or
stimulate, I like that word. Stimulate the kind of the quick breadth that
we will need in a song. So we want to be able
to work up to that. Let's first just
take a few breaths. And again, our
trigger word is open. So as we exhale, we just want to see how open
we can be on that throat. So as I'm exhaling, when I'm ready, relaxed
my throat open. Good. And in order for me
to stay relaxed, maybe I'd better do
that slowly for now. So let's try it
together. We're going to do that three times. Take your time, given some extra time for us
to explore the space. So go ahead and exhale. When you're ready. Open. Exhale. Exhale. Hope. Good, very
good, very good. So if you notice that for you, it takes you like account
for two or three to just go. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. Especially if your
pattern is like that, do not want you to feel
that at all today. But let's say that was
a good pattern for you and you're ready to make
it a little bit faster. So what we're gonna
do is we want a tool, our inhale so that one
count is all that does it because just like
our visual aid here, I exhale, sing, sing,
sing, sing, sing, sing, saying there goes my breath. And then one count. The breaths can replace
itself on one count. So that way we can be in a nice, a nice prepared place
for our next exhale, which is our next
musical phrase. So we're gonna do
this in one count. I'll give you a hint at how you can make this
easier for yourself. Exhale to the point
that you feel like you're doing
crunches, like at the gym. You really want to feel
that you've created that vacuum space by
simply contracting those muscles like the place where you almost feel
that your apps could touch your spine when you
feel that contraction. Open to talk. Good. That happens very
quickly. Very quickly. But if you're
noticing that that's not you right now, that's okay. Take your time. I really want you to get this. So let's do our three
inhales and let's see if we can get our open on one count. Okay. 33 inhale, exhale first. Really feel that contraction? Good when you're ready. Open. It's almost like surprise. Good, very fast, very
fast, very good. Go ahead and exhale again. Deep, deep contracted exhale. Open. Good. Very quick. One more time. Let contraction. When you're ready. Open. Good. See you can see my belly acting and looking exactly like this. On that one count, that breadth has replaced
itself relatively quickly. Go ahead. I'm hoping that everything is feeling really good for you. So now we're going
to put this into a breathing pattern that we're
going to put a voice into. I'm going to say a lot of words, but I'll demonstrate and
then we'll do it together. Okay, so we're gonna go
on middle C on a Mac. So it's just We're going to
mall for seven hold counts, which you're going
to see if your sweet self, that's
not long at all. Especially when you
get a good Inhale. That's not long at all. But on the count of eight, we're going to open, which
resets that breadth mechanism. And then we're
immediately going to go again for another seven on mom. And then on eight,
open, the breath, gets vacuumed back in
the body and then we will mark for another seven. So we're gonna do this for
a total of three times. I want to encourage
you do not get distracted by your
voice or your sound. This lesson is not about sound, is less than is about inhale. So we're going to feel. I'll demonstrate first. Yeah, pretty cool. Pretty cool. And
before we get going, I've seen this in
less than sometimes and it's really peculiar. Very peculiar. And
some people asked, how do I stop the sound? How do I stop this out? All you have to do
is open your throat. When you open your
throat, that mechanism is built into your
body's responses. The courts, they open. And that's what creates that vacuum. Isn't
that really cool? The vocal cords? Sorry. They open, the air, comes through them, they close. The exhale passes through
that in the form of sound. So when you're on
that count of eight, so let's say soon as
I opened my throat, my chords, they swing open, stopping the sound, allowing
that inhale to happen. And there we go. Bob's, your uncle, were ready
to go for the next one. So it is gonna be this fast. If it gets hard. I can't stress enough. Pause the video,
feel the pattern. Practice a couple
of going a little slower if you need to, and then join back in. I don't want you to get stressed
on something like this, but I do want to challenge you. So here we go. Exhale first. Ready? Good, very, very good. So hard, so hard. So we're just gonna do a
handful of nodes like that. Each one gets three
patterns of seven counts. Just we are demonstrating to our body that we're
not trying to tell our bodies to breathe. Body already knows how to read. We're just saying open. That's it. Open. Not open and very
because getting your body knows how to
breathe. Here we go. Exhale first. Okay. Good. That happens pretty
quick, doesn't it? Doesn't it? You notice
how cool that sound is? It's open going in. It's going to stay
open going out. Because that's nice and open
and supported by the breath. You're good to go first. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Very good and very
impressed with you guys. I just wanted to say we're
just gonna do two more just to more as you're
contemplating your exhale, just let that be,
Would it be right now? Don't get distracted
by your voice, by the quality of your voice. Although the power is
excellent in wonderful, but really strive to focus on feeling that
openness right here. That's all I want
from you right now. If the sound comes out,
oh, I'm okay with that. As long as you have
a nice open inhale and a normal gentle exhale. Exhale. You feel what it feels like the air simply by
opening your throat. Fantastic. Now, I'm really
kinesthetic so I like to put my fingers where
wherever I'm focusing on. So I would like I would
usually put my hand like right here or to make like
an open physical cue. That way my body kinda gets the sometimes we can just stop focusing and we
need that reminder. Open, open feel as much
natural openness as you can in your voice at that
moment of open, initiate that vacuum response. That's all you have to do. Are you ready to try
this on your own?
4. Open "MAH" Practice: Okay guys, I want to give you as much access to this
exercise as possible. So we're going to begin this
exercise a little lower. If it's too low for you, come back in when it
feels more comfortable. So we'll start with
the G and then we're gonna go all the way
up to the G so we get a full octave of inhale practice before moving
on to the next exercise. So as a reminder,
really concentrate on exhaling first,
create that contraction. And then when you're ready
for that inhale, just embody. Open, open that
throat. Here we go. Each one, count of seven. Open on Excel first. Open. Open. Open. That contraction. Ready? Open. Open. Open. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Elec contraction. Opening it through
as much as you can. 0 000-000-0000. No. I did eight on the last one. Boy. Good, very, very,
very, very good. The point of this
exercise is to stay calm. Stay calm while you're
measured against your inhale, you're just going to
exhale normally for now. The exhale lesson is later. Today is all about that inhale. And right now we're
hyper focusing to how open can I feel in my
throat. Excellent job guys.
5. Let Go "MAH" Exercise: Okay guys, We have successfully done the first part
of the inhale, so let's get our
visual aid back here. We've got, we've
prepared the way. We've opened up the throat
so that vacuum feeling can be initiated and a deep
responsive inhale can happen. Now, we're going to work
on this secondary part. So if our trigger word
up here was Open, exactly, our trigger word down here is going to be let go. My belly responded
to it, just let go. Now that's so much
easier said than done. So much easier said than done. Because I would say all of us, all of us have tension
in our torsos. However, that presents
for some people it could be like self-conscious tensions. Some people it could
be nervous anxiety. For me. I did a lot of like ballet and gymnastics when I
was really young. So my abs developed so early that it actually pushed my stomach
organ to the side. So gross, I know could probably have spared
that one for you. But it's very crucial because our abs and our ability
to relax these big, big muscles, the abs is going to allow us to either
successfully inhale or not. So I'll use a
different visual aid. So these are gonna
be my apps, right? So let's say if our
abs are rock hard than the diaphragm which kind of
rests on top of the APS, cannot lower when those lungs are ready to fill or
they're filling up. It can't push down there, pushing against
the abs which are not allowing for that release. When that release
doesn't happen, the body then has panic
response because the air is not going where it should as a vacuum so that we
have to pull the breadth. And oftentimes this is why you see people
when they get upset. There's a lot of,
lot of energy kinda going on in their bellies
in there like that because there's a lot
of energy firing off nervous, anxious,
excitable energy. And those apps are not
letting that diaphragm lower. So it's really, really
important that we first of all
understand that being able to relax these
really big muscles depends on our inhale,
depends on it. Our inhale really depends on it. Just like you saw with the throat work that
we just did with open, we had to exhale
beforehand, right? We used our apps. We really felt that
deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep, deep
contraction, right? And the one we already
for the inhale, we just let go. Good. But let's say your abs
don't want to let go. Then what can you do? This is what we're gonna
do with the remainder of our lesson today. Because this is really,
really hard, really, really hard physically to do, because we all have
issues down here. So first thing I would
like you to do is just stand with your feet about
shoulder width apart. Doesn't need to be wider
than shoulder width apart. We're just going to put
our hands on our belly. Now, if your back is
swaying like that, then you will have to
tilt your hips forward. Let it feel like a little
old lady on a walker. Hips will tell all the way in that way these bottom
apps can get some relief. If the back is swayed, it looks great, though.
It looks really great. But if the back is swayed
now those bottom abs are unavailable because they're
supporting the spine. So tilt the hips under, lift the chest up Ta-da. Now hands around
your belly button and then just let your
belly turned to water. Take your time. You may need a good minute just to even feel. Feel with this feels like let your belly turned to
water and your hands. Relaxing. Very comforting. Good. Now go ahead and exhale. Feel that those those abs
lifting that diaphragm, the body is getting
skinny again, good. Keep exhaling till you feel that massive amount
of contraction. When you're ready for the
breath, Take your time. Our trigger word is let go, just let go. Good. Feel that returned
that big bag of water. Excellent. Let's try that again. Exhale. Keep exhaling till you feel there is a point of
tension on that contraction. Feel that point as a button, then just let go. Very good, Very good. Now this is not fat at all. This is the diaphragm gently pushing down and
out your organs. Because two objects cannot
occupy the same space. So we have to add muscles
are huge. They're huge. They normally carry a
lot of tension in them. So just take some
time to feel like what would it feel
like if you just let go right in your belly? Your lungs? Depend on it. So
now let's do this. Let's see if we can.
We're going to keep it kind of slowly. Slowly, but we're going to your breathing pattern of seven, breathe on a slower
breathing pattern down a little bag of
water in your hands. Exhale. We're not going to sing. Like contraction point. Good. Go. Exhale. 123467. Good, Take a moment. Let go. 1234567. Heck moment. Let go. 1234567. Good. Just really tuning in
to just take a second. Don't try to make
anything happen. And just let go
and take your time with feeling that
feeling of let go. If you need a moment
to feel those abs, take their time and release. I want to encourage
you to stop the video now and practice with that for a day or two and then come back because now we're gonna
do it a little faster. Okay. Keep your hands on your belly. Bag of water. Let your Oregon's just
relaxed down and good. Very good. Now, exhale. We're looking for
that one count. When you're ready, just let
go and feel one cow exhale. Get my visual aid. Let's go. Exhale. Let go. Exhale. Ready. Let's go. Excellent. Very good, Very, very good. Now, I know no way for us
to do two things at once. But once you get both
of these sinks in, you'll feel the work,
the work of sync. And there'll be glorious
and wonderful and just like our little turkey
baster visual aid. So now, same exercise
that we did before. We're gonna go a little slower because these
muscles are bigger, this response can
happen pretty quickly, but this response happens a little slower for
a lot of people. So I want to set
you up for success. So we're gonna go
a little slower. Let's do our three are three cycles of seven counts
on, starting on this G. Exhale first. Go. Ah, ah, Good, good, Really
easy, isn't it? Exhale. Feel that contraction. Set yourself up for
the maximum amount of vacuum effect. Let go. Lego. Lego Logo. Sounds like Lego. Lego. Lego. Let go. Good. Just feeling that that can be a relative, relatively
quicker response. If you also find
that you're going. That's really weird. But it's normal. But it's
normal because you have this new response competing
with this old behavior. So if you feel like there's
movement happening, but that doesn't feel
like the same amount of air that you're used to. So you feel like you've
got to go on top of it. Don't do that. Don't do
that. Now I'll tell you why. When you relax and you see
that bag of water belly, your lungs have just filled up. They just filled up.
It doesn't need to be this big crazy thing. Your breath follows that
sense of relaxation. Visual aid. Yes, we contract. And then we relax. That breadth follows that feeling of relaxation all the way
down to the lungs. Keep it very simple
for yourself. Try not to breathe
on top of that. I know how tricky
this is and I know how hard it is to put
it into practice. So go easy on yourself. Just let go. That's all you have
to do. We can exhale. Good, very good. Lego lego Logo. Lego. Lego. Let go. Let go. Let go. Let go. Let contraction syndrome. Most point. Let go. Let go. Let go. Exhale. Don't get distracted with your voice, just
exhale normally. Last one. Very good. Our objective is to create that quick breathing
pattern where it's open in. You can stay open out and we're tuned in with
that vacuum effect. You ready to try
this on your own?
6. Let Go "MAH" Practice: Okay, Here we go guys, remember to keep your belly
feeling like a bag of water. Take your time to really feel
what it feels like to let go when you're ready for
that inhale starting here. Now. Go that deep contraction. Ready? Go. Deep, deep, deep contraction. Feel your abs all the way
to almost like they could touch her spine. Contract. Let go. In tracking jack the jack. When you're doing great.
7. Recommended Postures: All right, Good job guys. I'm so proud of the progress
that you're making so far. Remember to go easy
with yourself. Concentrate primarily
on the sensation of each aspect. Open. Go slow. What does
that feel like? Let go. Go slow. What does that? So for the remainder
of our lesson today, I'm going to walk you
through three postures that you can do to help explore, continue that
exploration work of deep inner relaxation
in the torso. We're so not accustomed
to doing this. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you some postures that
I love to use. And you can apply
these postures to any one of the exercises
that we did today, the piano version
of that exercise. You can also apply them
directly to songs. So you can put your body in these postures to help encourage that deep inhale work
as you work with songs, as you transfer
your work to songs. Our first stretch, oh, and I just want to
say this first. If any of these stretches
feel uncomfortable for you, I will give you a
slight modification to make it a little
bit more comfortable. But if that doesn't
work, either, just watch and jump into the next possible
stretch for you. We don't want to
force anybody to do anything that it's
not ready to do. Our first stretch. We're going to talk those
hips and remember that we want to keep those lower
abs nice and relaxed. They cannot relax if
the body is swayed, if the spine is
swayed like that, these lower abs can't relax and we actually can't
get a full breath. Tilt those hips em little
lady on old Walker. On old walker. It could be a new walker, but lady on a walker, lift your chest, stand up nice
and proud, nice and good. Now, bag of water
for your belly. Take your hands, put
them behind you, interlace your fingers. Good. Now you're going to energy. Energy, energy goes
down the body. You can see that chest pop out. Good. Now we're basically lengthening the
shoulder muscles, giving them something
else to do. They can't they can't
contract and constrict, which is what makes
those shoulders pop up. So energy is going down. You're just going to feel bag of water back in your belly. Take a moment to feel that. Good. Now, exhale. Now when
you're ready, let go. Very nice, Very nice. I just want to add this
because I know this is a really common adjustment
for people's bodies to make sure that you're, again, you're not
swayed back like this. You feeling the length in your shoulders but your hips are continually talked inward. Okay. Go ahead and relax head again. When you're ready, let go. Very good. So let's try our
mom on middle C. Three cycles, seven
counts, couch. Each cycle. Here we go. Exhale first. Lego. Logo. Lego. Very, very, very good. Now this is a good
posture for you. If you notice you've got some really stingy shoulders and they want to
keep pulling upward. This gives those muscles
something else to do so they can't
interfere with this. Now the modification for this is go ahead
and hug yourself, but wrap your hands around
your shoulders. Same thing. Tucks hips, the hips
in, lift the chest. You're going to
just lean forward ever so slightly,
ever so slightly. Keep that back
nice and straight. Good. Relax your belly bag of water. Exhale. Let go. Exhale. Let's go.
Good one more time. Now let's try that on our
middle C. For three cycles, seven counts each cycle. Next we'll go good. And really, I really like
both of those postures. I like both of those postures. Now this next posture doesn't
really need a modification. And it's just like
basically like a huddle. You're gonna make
a little huddle like you're like listening. Or you're, maybe you're playing some flag football or something. But your feet are gonna be slightly wider than
shoulder width apart. Hips are always tucked in. Chest is lifted up, back is nice and straight. You don't want to
be at the club. Okay? So back is nice and straight. We really need these
lower abs to be able to be responsive so
they have to be relaxed. What's going to help
you in this exercise? Gravity. Gravity is
gonna be so much, it's gonna give you
so much assistance. So with a straight back, it's like you're going to slide your body down a wall and
then we're just going to lift fault or hinge forward.
At, at the hips. You can put your hands on
your thighs if you'd like. But you want to
feel that most of the work is being
done by gravity, pulling that belly down. This will also let you take
that feeling of relaxation even deeper into the lower back. Now, it's okay if you don't
feel that right away, but you will tune into
it relatively quickly. So straight back. There you go. Good. Bag of water. Relax your belly. Good. Exhale. When you're ready, let go
but feel gravity pulling. Good. Exhale. Let go. Off your hello there.
One more time. Let go. Good. Now let's do our middle
C. Feel gravity, let go. Ah, yeah. I love that one. I always noticed
that when I just lean forward and just
feel gravity pulling, my voice feels the experience of my voices that have feels
deeper, it feels fuller. And I don't have to work harder
to create that sensation. I'm just kinda getting
out of the way and letting those vibrations in that breadth do their thing. So our last stretch is
a little uncomfortable, so I will give you a
modification for it, but I'm going to
describe it for you. Notice how, as we've worked
with these three postures, we started at what the
tendency is up here, right? If you felt that we had to give those muscles
something else to do. So as we did our huddle,
our lunge forward, we were able to tune
into how it felt in the lower back and
also feeling gravity. So this next posture is one
of my favorites and I will, if I'm practicing and I'm doing a song that's
particularly guilty, I will actually hold this posture while I'm
working on the song. The targeted area for this posture is the
interior muscles, the fascia, the big sheets of muscle that can
also be very tight. So we're going to use a powerful application
of imagination as well. I'm going to describe it for
you first because it is a little uncomfortable and
then we'll do it together. So just my dress here. It's like we're
going to reach up. Our hands are together,
but they're up. And then we're going to
actually pull upward as if we're hanging from like
monkey bars or something. And then we're going to
feel as if our belly gets or we get cut in half and all our organs
fall to the floor. Major, major low
muscle relaxation. Really, really awesome. So I'm going to exhale, feel that contraction when I'm ready, I'm going to let go. Big belly, good, Exhale. And then I'll put my arms down. Now, you don't want to force none of this is about
pushing that belly out. It's about relaxing
and just letting those muscles immediately relax, go, go relaxed to go
so deeply relaxed. We, I love this exercise
because again, that fascia, those anterior muscles of interior tensions are
really hard to relax, especially if we don't
know they're there. So if we can imagine that
were hanging from something that our torso gets cut in half and it's like a Oregon
just fall to the ground. We're tapping into the
influence of gravity. Yet. Again. If this exercise, if
you just already know, this is gonna be
uncomfortable for me, the modification is
grab your elbows, but then like lift
your shoulders. We are being pulled upward. There's active energy
pulling upward. This is also going to open your back and open your ribcage, giving more expansion
in the lungs. Okay. We'll do both of them together. So don't worry, we're gonna
go with the reach up first. Let's try it together. Arms reach up, nice and
tall. Hands together. Pull up like you're hanging
from something good. Bag of water, your belly. Good Exhale. And imagine
you get cut in half. Let go. Yeah. Good. One more time. Exhale. Let go. Good. Exhale. Let go. Good. Very
good. And relaxed. Put your hands down. Restore
the blood flow to your arms. We're going to try it
with our more cycles. 477 counts three cycles. There's our note. Go
ahead and reach up again. Lift bag of water. Good. Exhale. Ready? Let go. Ah, ah, go ahead and relax. Restore that blood flow. Love, love, love that stretch. I just feel the muscles around
my hips and my lower abs. They relax a little deeper. It's good. Now let's try the modification. Arms up, elbows. Lift up your hair. Good. Relax the belly bag
of water. Exhale. Let go. Let go. Look. Good for your ear. There's our middle C. Go
arms up. Relaxed, the belly. Exhale. Here we go. Ah, good and relax and relax. You can feel free to do
more than three cycles. Also, feel free to make
more counts if you want, if you want to double
the time and go to instead of seven, go to 15 and breathe on 16. I really strongly
encourage that to that way we build
up some endurance. So those are our postures. That's how we can take the
experience of the breadth so much more deeper by
relaxing shoulders, relaxing back and ribcage, and then going
further deeper into that fascia and into
those lower ab, muscles. So there we have it guys. Let's go ahead and recap
what we learned today.
8. Summary: Congratulations guys. You did it, refocused. You showed up. And hopefully you
learned a lot about how to tap into your
most authentic, amazing vocal power
through the inhale. So there's a couple of
things I just want to reiterate that we learned today. Your inhale is a vacuum. So our primary work is
getting out of the way. Now we're not distorting
or contouring anything. We're just using relaxation to gently stay out of the way. So we've got two
components to this. We've got the open
of the throat. Spend a couple of seconds before you begin your vocal work with gently exploring
that sensation. Just keep that sensation is active in your focus
as you possibly can. This will demonstrate
to your body what you want it to do when
you actively sing. Same thing is true with let go. That one's a little bit trickier because it's really hard
for us to be able to relax. But as you begin to build that dexterity with those
diaphragmatic muscles, spend a couple of seconds
doing the same thing. Just exhale, relax, let go. The more you can
do this slowly and feel the full extent
of that relaxation, then you can do it quicker and quicker and quicker developing a breathing pattern you can immediately apply
to your song work. Also feel free to use any
one of these postures. If you're focusing on some work and you're not quite sure
what your breath is up to. Put yourself in one of these, put yourself in one
of these postures and sing as you normally would. This really allows
your body to not rely on those restrictive
behaviors with the inhale, but instead to go straight to that lower abdominal
release work. So as I've said before, it doesn't matter if you're a complete beginner or if
you're an industry pro, come back to this video
as often as you need to. You'll get something
new each time. And we want to make sure that
these foundational habits, our total muscle memory. So comeback as often
as you need to there, here as a resource for
you in your learning. If you're feeling all firstly, and you want to share some of your work demonstrating
what you've learned today. Be sure to leave a link of you singing in the forum below. And always you can
reach out to me with any direct
questions that you have. Thank you so much for
including NINR vocal journey. I'm so happy to be
here for you guys and I will see you again for
part two, the exhale.