Transcripts
1. Intro to the Exhale: Hi guys, I'm Madeline, heartbeat and
welcome to maximize your breath part to the exhale. Have you ever sung? Maybe in a performance or in
a lesson and found yourself getting the feedback
that you need to sing with more breadth support. Maybe you heard, you need to sing from your diaphragm more, or you need to sing with
more breath support. Maybe you thought to
yourself, That sounds great. How, how do I do that? We're gonna get into
that in today's lesson. We're going to go deep into
your body and tap into your body's natural
breathing process. So I just want to say that if you have not gone through and watched maximize your breadth
part one, the inhale. I couldn't stress
strongly enough that you do that before moving on
to part two, the exhale. A lot of our progress and understanding that
we're going to adapt today completely depends on what we've learned in
part one with the inhale. But if you have and
you're ready to jump in, I'm really glad
that you're here. Just want to encourage
you a little bit, doesn't matter if you're a complete beginner or an
industry professional, I want you to keep coming
back to these exercises. You'll find that you'll get
something different and get something new every single time. The ultimate goal
is that you feel empowered and grounded and
connected to your breath. So keep returning
to these exercises until that feels
like muscle memory. You ready to get started? Here we go.
2. The Diaphragm: You know, that almost all bad habits in singing
stem from one place. That's serious, isn't it? One place. And it is centered
around airflow. And it is either lack of
airflow or too much airflow. So our objective with today's
lesson is to understand, again, the sensation
of breath support. What does it actually feel
like to embody support? Now, simply because I
don t know where you, where you stand on the spectrum of too little breath support, meaning the breadth
is not free flowing out or too much breadth support. And thus it's like
a cannon fire. We're going to build it
slowly and incrementally. And I want to
encourage you to stay calm and just enjoy
the unfolding. You may mentally know a
lot about the diaphragm, but does your body embody
that understanding? So that's what we
want to do today. From the first lesson where
we talked about the inhale. We already know that
the diaphragm is a mucusy sheet of muscle
that rests under the lungs. As the lungs fill, the diaphragm lowers and is pushed down by the
lungs themselves. And that's why the
belly comes out. That's why we need our apps
to be nice and relaxed. And then as we exhale, there is a very slow, consistent contraction from
the muscles of the torso. That's important. Slow and consistent contraction. The ad muscles that gently
lifts the diaphragm back up. So what often happens
with singers, especially singers that
fancy themselves belt hers, is that cannon fire exhale. The exhale is treated like a
cannon and it's pushed out, pushed out way too quickly. Now that is force. We do not want to generate
force with our exhale. We want to generate power. And we're gonna feel
that difference. And we're gonna
go nice and slow. First thing I want you to do. Because oftentimes, our bodies are so
riddled with tension, especially in our torsos, that we need to help the
body explore and calm down and be relaxed as we work with this
breathing process. What was our mantra? From the inhale lesson? Open in, open out, open in, open out. So as we play with the exhale and you have a nice sense of
openness and your exhale, you will notice and incredibly
beautiful full body sound. And I know that that's going to excite you and get
you really excited. But I want to encourage
you to move nice and slow. It's very important
that you embody this so that you can demonstrate it
consistently to yourself. Okay, so having said all that, Take your feet about
shoulder width apart. I want to encourage you to
see how my back is sway. What? I want to encourage you
to tuck your hips all the way in like a little
old lady on a walker. Like it's going to feel very, very, very, very weird. And then stand up
but keep your hips right where you are,
right where they are. Now, relax your belly. Good. Let it just like a bag of water. Solid. I'll give you a couple of
seconds to feel that sensation of hips tucked in, chest lifted. Now barely bag of water. Now what we're gonna do is
we're just going to observe. Observe. Do not
control your inhale. Exhale. Inhale, exhale. So take your hands, placed
them on your belly, allow your belly to
relax into your hands. There's no stress here, there's no pressure here. There's no distraction
from the sound. It's just you and breadth. So take a few moments, just a couple of
seconds and observe. And keep sending the message for your torso muscles to relax. Couple of more, exhale. Very good. Now since we know that all that magic happens
on the exhale, we have a tendency to get
really excited and push, push with the ab
muscles on our exhale. We don't we don't want
to do that today. We don't wanna do that today. When we apply voice, we're gonna do so fully with the understanding
that our attention is on that exhale process. Can we exhale evenly
creating an IV and tone? Are we relaxed as we
generate that exhale? You're going to
feel contraction. An open. If inhale was open and let go, then exhale is contraction and open because we
want to make sure the body remains
open on her exhale. Before we get into that, I'm going to offer
you a little sway back and forth. We'll sway. So we're going to plant
our hips like literally plant them. They don't move. But the spine above It's like
one of those wacky waving, flexible arm flailing to people. Pawn shops, gas stations,
car dealerships. Yeah. We're gonna be that but we're
not going to play on them. Just scrub wiggle,
a little wiggle. And what this does is it keeps the spine and the muscles
around the spine busy. Busy with that movement. Is he busy? Busy. Busy and it doesn't have to be wild. It could be
just very gentle. And as you work this
movement and your Sway, you're just going
to exhale a sound. So let's bring it
into like middle C. Shall we plant your hips, tuck those hips and old lady on a walker
feel pelvic belt. Let pelvic bone all the
way down to the ground, lift, Keep those
hips tuck in. Relax. Bag of water. Sway, wiggle. Just a gentle little wiggle. When you're ready. Only when you ready Do
not let me push you. What any force you to go
if you're not ready to go, you're just going to can you exhale? You will exhale. And your own. We
don't want to go. You don't want to
push those muscles to push the diaphragm. We're not going to generating
force in our body today. Today we're interested in
restoring that breath to that nice reflexive,
supportive pattern. So we don't see wiggle, wiggle when you're ready. Feels nice. It feels nice to
just be so relief. And that's, in fact, that's what you're
teaching your body to do. Your teaching your
body to interpret the exhale as something that feels like it's
a gentle release. Rather than exhale. Stay, stay wiggling,
keep your hips planted, keep those hips tucked in. If we sway the back like that, then we can't we
really can't relax. The abs were cut
off from the abs. So although it feels weird, it used to tucking
your hips all the way in and then stand
up really tall. Then feel the belly is water and then
wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. You ready to put
this in an exercise?
3. Sway Exercise: Okay guys, we're
going to call this the sway exercise or wiggle. Whichever one fits your fancy. We're gonna start
here down on the F. If that is too low for you, just weigh and joined back in when it feels
more comfortable. Remember, your voice is not what you're
observing right now. Only how much can I relax? Can I relax as I gently keeping my ad muscles as relaxed
as I possibly can manage. They will not be
fully relaxed because there's doing that slow and
steady lift, lift, lift, lift with the diaphragm, which is looking to take away
any unnecessary pushing. Okay. So one page at a time, until those hips
lift the body up. Good bag of water.
Anchor the hips. Now wiggle your time
when you're ready. Uh, uh, Good reminder to maybe see your tone just keeps an exhale. Keep exhale. Yes. Let your body feel as if singing in exhaling or something they can relax
into it feels like relief. Very, very end if it helps. And you need to just
sway a little bit in Harlem without the piano. In your daily life. Just feel what that feels like. Take a few seconds
before you sing and let your body know that
it doesn't need to trust. It doesn't need to push so hard. You will return to
a natural sense of support as long as
you stay relaxed, ready to try this by yourself.
4. Sway Practice: Alright, here we go. Feet, hip-width apart. Tuck those hips and feel
that talk all the way. Now. Lift the shoulders. Belly full of water, bath water. When you're ready, just gently sway back and forth or wiggle. Close your eyes if you want to. I'm going to offer
you your first page. Think more about how it feels
and rather how it sounds. It's nice to be embodied. Liquid with your spouse. Just feel like
you're letting go. You're going to make anything. The liquid spine,
liquids, liquid belly. Excellent job. Excellent job. Now just a reminder, if you felt that you had
to effort at any of that, you may have been forcing a
little bit more from here. So if it helps,
take your dynamic, your volume just down
a little bit until it feels nice and even nice,
imbalanced. Great job.
5. Vocal Cords: So far, what we've really been about in this
lesson is balanced. We want to bring some
loving awareness to our own tendencies. We will find that as a singer, we will fall along this exhale spectrum of too
little to little airflow, meaning the voice
starts wobbling and shaking or too much force. And then that feels
like a punch. So the exhale is
borderline dangerous. Matter of fact, this This
exhale process is in fact what makes most bad habits with the voice when we
have too little breath. And we noticed that fluctuation. We may squeeze to overcompensate
and control the voice. That's called hyper phonation. It means I'm trying to control what's happening
to the voice here, rather than relying on generating a nice
consistent flow here. That sounds like this. Kinda hear how I'm
making everything happened here as opposed to I'm just generating flow and I'm relaxing
into that flow. Now, if I'm over
here and I've got this cannon fire force
producing, exhale. The voice is actually
going to collapse. This sensation feels very, very similar to a cough. So if i we may, we may feel like all the, all the interior muscles of the larynx literally
tents and they stiffen because they know
that that punch is coming. That's really dangerous
to the voice. That sounds like this. I'm pushing way too much air. Now it seems silly when
I play it out this way. But you'd be
surprised at just how often both of these really
come into play with singing, especially if we're singing
along part of our voice that's relatively weak,
but more on that later. So since we took a
minute and we felt what this Sway exercise could do to really keep that diaphragm lifting
nice and naturally, I said easygoing so that the exhale felt like
a nice flow outward. Now we want to
draw our attention to the vocal cords themselves. We want to sync the diaphragm
and the vocal cords. What we learned in the
first lesson, part one, The inhale is that the vocal
cords open and the air gets pulled through them like a
visual aid, like a vacuum. Just like that. So that's why
we want a nice open throat. The courts open.
That air comes in. Now they close and that's what keeps the
air in the lungs. Did you know that that's
pretty cool, isn't it? So let's feel what that
feels like right now. It's just kind of
relax for a second. Now we're going to breathe
and hold our breath gently. Feel those vocal cords close, keeping the the air in the
lungs. Go ahead and try again. And if you want you can
add a little sound. Good. That's the
vocal cords closing. So we want to generate a loving partnership between
diaphragm and the courts. So that when that
diaphragm lifts and the air gets
compressed in the lungs, that air can now flow
through relaxed chords. We do not want the courts to stiffen and we don't
want them too, overly squeeze to try to control everything
we want from now. The course is staying nice
and relaxed so that they just filter that nice even, even flow of air so that we
can generate an even tone. So here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna say the
word, hi. That's it. That's it. So, but we're gonna be very mindful as
we say this word. Hi. Want you to take
your fingers and put them on your larynx
and observe your inhale. Didn't say the word
hi, Nice and slow. Slow motion. Yes. Feel the moment that
that diaphragm lifts those courts closed
generated a nice, even relaxed, consistent
tone. Let's try that again. Good, very good. Here's what's really neat about sustains is that once
the courts are closed, As long as you keep that
diaphragm, lifting, lifting, your sound
will keep going. It will just keep going until
we lose the pressure in the lungs or until you open the courts to
take another breath. So I'm going to demonstrate, I'm so sorry if this is annoying, but it's a
good demonstration. So if I go right here, good. Now I didn't stop the sound. I didn't go. Then open it. I just was ready for the inhale. And I just opened my
throat and the cord. Pull that breadth and just like, just like that vacuum
that we're talking about. So our objective here, and I want this to
get in your head, is opening, open out but easy? Does it easy? Does it feel that gentle
touch of the breath? Touching the vocal cord? So nice, gentle, relaxed touch. Okay. So we're going to start, we're just gonna do a couple
and then we'll put it into the exercise
on the next track. So let's actually start
district handful right here. I want you to feel
the cords open. Good. And if you want, you don't have to make a big deal out of it. Just feel that touch.
That's what it's all about. Restoring the relationship
of the diaphragm and the vocal chords to
let's try it again. Oh, oh. And don't you work any harder
than that right there? That's pretty pretty
good. Pretty good. So let's just try it
three times the next one. Don't effort, just ask. If you feel that your breath
is starting to wobble. Weibo, just remind yourself,
continue to exhale, exhale, exhale as best you
can but keep everything here. This is so good, good One more. Our objective is balanced. So if it feels like you have to distort or contoured
or do something, get involved in any way? You probably have a tendency of squeezing because
there's not enough air. If that's the case, just concentrate
on exhale. Exhale. Exhale. You do not have
to hold this out forever. You do not have to
hold it for a counts. Just be diligent about exhaling
with as much integrity, as much balance as
you can manage. This is okay. It's okay. It takes a
minute and you will find, you will find that as you
move up in these pitches, you're going to expose
an interior, something. I call them gaps
in coordination. And that gap is only there. Let's say your voice does this. That gap on that note is only there because your
muscles have either learned to squeeze or collapsed. So we don't want to
get louder as we go higher and we don't
want to squeeze, we want to keep the breath
flowing nice and consistently. That's what creates
that even tell. And we want to keep the
chords just kissing. It's like the friends
air and vocal cord. We're keeping it at
a mid-level dynamic. Now let's practice this
exercise together.
6. Gentle Touch Exercise: Right? So we're gonna go here. If it's too low. How about I can, when it feels a little
bit more comfortable? Only thing I want you
to think about is the touch between the air
and the vocal chords. Really concentrate. That is your keep
your exhale nice. And even we will do each
13 times. Here we go. Ah, ah, a ah, Tune effort. We just want to encourage
you to keep your dynamic nice and consistent. Do not go louder
as you go higher. This is sure-fire
cannon, fire exhale. Let me see. Here we go. Good. No, I said no. But I kind of want to
go higher because I want you guys to have something
that you can grow into. Because we started
here, one note, one full step over
a full octave. And I'd like to take this a little bit higher
if you don't mind. I'd like you to
feel what it feels like to just exhale normal here. Don't try to force
anything to happen, but take all your
concentration and just feel it on
that gentle touch. So an, a flat inhale. Good, You're not
rescue the sound. You come up against a wobble
or a gap in coronation. Don't rescue this out. Don't try to don't try
to do any of that. Just concentrate on
air, keeping the core. Nice and even don't go there. Do your best to keep exhaling. These nodes require a
little bit more pressure. Don't want you to
think about it. Your body already knows that. Do your best to keep exhale. Ready to try this by yourself.
7. Gentle Touch Practice: Okay guys, you're ready to try this on your own just
to reminder that this emphasis of the exercise is the balance between the
diaphragm and the vocal cords. So keep your mind's eye
focused on that gentle touch. Keep your dynamic nice and soft, but still connected,
connected, inconsistent. This is going to be a
strengthening exercise not only for your lungs and your
diaphragmatic muscles, but for the courts themselves. So it's very, very simple. I'm going to count
each note eight. So I'll go, we'll
play it three times. You'll see my lips move. But I do not want you to stress if you can't make
it the full eight. No worries. No worries. I want you to manage
what you can manage. Do not default back to squeezing or pushing to
just get through this line. I want you to see what
you can do with very consistent but very focused,
even gentle exhale. Ready for your ear? Keep focusing on your exhale. Good. Yeah.
8. Quick Twitch Exercise: We have been so committed
to being consistent, gentle, and even
with our exhale, we're retraining the
body to interpret that exhale is something that is balanced and it's gentle. The more you work with these gentle elements
of the exhale, the more you'll be able to incorporate strength
and power into them. We understand we've been going for nice consistent balance, but we also understand that the demands for the voice
and music are quite dynamic. So we will need
to rely on speed. This is called
diaphragmatic dexterity. Just basically means
that when you observe leaps or jumps or
agility or dynamics, we will have to be able
to control the diaphragm, or better said, utilize a quick twitch
from the diaphragm. Now in keeping with
today's lesson, as we work with
that quicker twitch of the diaphragmatic response, we do not want to
generate too much force. So as we work with
this exercise, we're going to kind of
go a little softer, just a little software,
it will help us. So we're gonna play with
this kind of hey, man, idea. Feet, shoulder width
apart, evenly. See if you can balance
your weight on all four corners of
your feet. Good. That way you're not too
far back, too far forward. Tilt that pelvis under. Always the case we
need these bottom abs. Lift. Relax, good. Check in with your body
every now and again, make sure you're still
standing that way. Good. Now. As if through here, like your shoulders, pretend
that that's a hanger. Okay. And then shoulders down pretend that your body is a
sweater hanging on a hanger. So if you were to wiggle, the hanger would
wiggle on the sweater, would wiggle the dance. We just want to return the body to the influence of gravity. And plus, it feels,
it really feels nice. Good, Very good, Very good. We've got to make sure
we've got to make sure that these muscles that control the breathing process are
not too involved there big, which means they're slow. They're slow and the herky jerky, they're
really herky-jerky. So we've got to keep
telling them to relax. He telling them to relax, feel the weight of your body. If they relaxed,
then you can isolate your sensation to inside of your body, which
is where we're going. So, hey man, Good. Now you're going to
use an F consonant. And you're gonna
go slow with this. I know you can do it fast,
but you're going to go slow. And you're just going to
feel nice, even exhale. As you exhale, the
demands of the consonant, allow for more engagement
from the diaphragm. Lift a little bit more,
a little bit more. And my teeth are singing. Good. That's that kind of
diagrammatic response. But what we're gonna do is
we're going to read it like an engine or better
said, like a sheet. That's just sort of
being blown gently in the wind or look away
gently rocking the boat. Yeah, I like that one. So
where there's no voice here, we're just gonna go, Hey, man. Good. Feel that there's
increases in that flow rate. Almost like a wave
gently rocking the boat. But there's no gaps
in your area darker. It's not herky-jerky. It's nice and lifted. And what's this? This is a crest and a fall, but even in the fall
they're still flow. Let's try it together. Relax those muscles. I love this. I just
loved this, don't you? The f is doing all the work. The f is doing all the work. And all you have to
do is stay relaxed. I relax. Let's try it again. Good notice diaphragm lifts, good set air going and then it lifts and falls and
lifts and false. But even in the fall, they're still consistent
flow. One more time. Q space ever, huh? Yeah, No. Good. Our attitude
is just kinda watching, just feeling the body is
just hanging on a hanger. Completely relaxed as
the diaphragm lifts. When it lifts, it increases
the pressure and it falls. It decreases the pressure
but there's still flow rate. Okay. Alright, so we're gonna put
this into an exercise now. And we're not going to go loud because as we increase pressure, there's more of a
tendency to push. So we're not going to do that. We're going to say instead of F, we're going to do it's voiced
equivalent, which is be. So feel a very like a hummed v. That's all his hope. You're relaxed. Keeping these exterior
muscles nice and relaxed so that
diaphragm can live. Live. Look at lift the diaphragm. Gets you to the higher
note and back to her. Keep it quiet. Good. Do not care. We're using that lifted the diaphragm to take
us to that higher note. If you don't get there. It's okay. I'd rather
you feel that rocking of the bulb deep on the
inside of your body. Let's try that again. And let's go ahead and modify
the amount of roles we do. Two instead of three, which takes a lot
of air pressure. Let's just do two. Good. One thing about V is it's not going to really
let you hold onto match. So it's really only
your air pressure that's keeping your tongue
nice and consistent. So if you notice
that your voice said what mine just did. No worries. No worries, but do not seek
to control it right there. Just try it again. It comes from the
diaphragm. Good. Very good. You may notice the deep desire to keep that pelvic
floor tucked in. You need this so much. So if you're sore at any
point in this exercise, she's kinda feel it around
the apps right through here and the back,
that back pressure. Notice how when your
hips are tucked in, you have more accessibility to be able to generate dynamic. So remember, keep it
nice, nice and soft. We're actually going
to take this one back down because it's
such a good exercise. So V soft. Sure. Oh my oh my, my abs feel it. They definitely feel it. You ready to try this
exercise on your own?
9. Quick Twitch Practice: Okay guys, you're on your own. Keep those hips tucked in. Keep feeling that
beautiful influence of gravity stays
relaxed as possible. We're going to start here. The diaphragm. Twice. Good.
10. Summary: There you have it guys. You have just finished maximize your breath part to the exhale. Simple exercises. That does not mean
they are easy. So I encourage you really, really strongly recommend stay with the simplicity
of the sensations. You will build
your voice around. Sensation of the firm belief that what you can do
slowly and gently, you can speed up to do more
quickly and more dynamically. So remember, doesn't
matter if you're a complete beginner or if you're an industry
professional, you will get something
different from this, this class every time you do it. And I encourage you to
take at least a week and isolate yourself
and your practice to the specific sensations. If you have any questions, please utilize me as
a resource for you. Reach out to me on the forum. I'm here for you guys to answer any questions
that you might have. Thank you so much for joining me in this two-part
lesson series. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I've enjoyed
making it for you. Thank you so much for spending your valuable time with me. And I can't wait to hear
you saying sometimes.
Madeleine Harvey, Vocal Coach
