Hi,
I'm Josh.
I'd like to invite you to relax with me for the next five minutes or so while we work on some breathing and singing concepts.
I'd like for you to be able to bring these singing concepts into your next yoga class or kirtan and feel comfortable raising your voice in song.
So let's start with a little bit of the ujjayi breath.
So let's exhale.
Now inhale.
And out.
Nice.
Let's just breathe normally for a second.
In and out through the nose or mouth,
It doesn't matter.
And we're gonna sing this low oum.
So when we breathe in,
I want to practice a silent breath on the way in.
So this is different than the ujjayi breath.
I call it the singer's silent breath.
I'd like you to imagine it in the shape of an O.
The top of your soft palate is the top of the big O.
And not stressing the back of the tongue,
But just feel kind of where the back of the tongue goes into the throat.
And that O shape is where we're gonna breathe in.
So let's exhale and breathe in silent O.
Nice.
You might recognize your rib cage expanding.
Maybe your shoulders were raised as you breathed in.
Those are all good things.
Let's try that one more time.
And I want you to recognize the belly just relaxing,
Kind of coming out as you breathe in on the O shape.
So let's exhale one more time.
Breathe in silent O.
Relax the belly.
And just hold and sustain that breath and let it stay in your lungs.
And recognize the rib cage expanding.
The sternum is raised.
Just exhale when you want to.
Now I'm playing this drone on a,
This pitch is an A.
And we're gonna sing an O and let the O resonate where you breathed in that O space.
So think about it as you are about to breathe in and let's exhale and breathe in on that O area.
And we're gonna sing home.
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Let's exhale.
Nice easy inhale breath on O.
And sing home.
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh At the end of your O.
Just let the air leaving your lungs,
Leaving your throat,
Leaving the vocal cords,
Be the end of the sound rather than a close of the glottis.
Let's try that again on an O.
Exhale.
Inhale O.
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Just easy breath.
And exhale.
Now I'd like you to go from an O to an A.
And keep a lot of the O in the A.
Might sound silly.
Let me give you an example.
Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Did you hear how the octave popped in there?
It's very similar to throat singing in different cultures of the world.
It's very satisfying.
It's a rumble in the chest,
An opening in the body.
So let's try that together.
I'm going to go from an O to an A and just stay relaxed.
So let's exhale.
Breathe in O.
Sing O.
O.
O.
Nice.
Let's close out this little breathing meditation with some Ujjayi breathing.
So let's inhale.
Let the sternum continue to rise.
Relax the shoulders,
Relax the belly,
And exhale.
Keep the rib cage free.
Ah.
Feel the stomach pulling in below the belly button,
The navel pull in and up.
Let's try that again.
Inhale.
Relax the belly as you breathe in.
Let the sternum gently rise.
Relax the shoulders.
And exhale.
Keep the structure of your rib cage.
Let the stomach come in and up.
I hope this brings a little bit of peace to your day and a refill of oxygen to your brain.
Some nice energy.
Thanks for listening.
So
