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your ribs move, you can visualize the side-to-side opening near the bottom of your ribs to get the most air into your body quickly. And if you’re a dancer, you want to know how to quickly open the upper ribs and your back when you’re dancing across the stage.

      You may be asked to sing and dance at the same time. Because dancers have to keep their body moving while singing, they can’t always let their abdominal muscles release. But dancers can allow the ribs to open when breathing. If a dancer allows their ribs to open upon inhalation and slowly lets them close upon exhalation, they don’t have to worry so much about letting the abdominal muscles be loose. When you understand the way the body was designed to breathe, take it a step further and practice working with your ribs for dancing while singing.

      Move your arms in the following exercise so that you can feel the opening of your chest and ribs:

      1 Raise your arms over your head.

      2 Take a breath and feel your ribs open.Keep your chest stable. You don’t need to raise your chest; merely let it open. Repeat several times to feel the movement of your ribs.

      3 Put your arms down and place your hands on your ribs.Place your palms against your lower ribs with your thumb facing forward and fingers pointing to your back. To feel the movement higher in your rib cage, turn your hand the same way with the thumb facing forward, or cross your arms so that your right hand is on your left ribs and your left hand is on your right ribs.

      4 With your hands on your ribs, open the ribs slowly to feel the stretch of the intercostals — the muscles between the ribs.Repeat several times.

      5 Send air to your ribs or flex open your ribs as you inhale.

      6 As you exhale, allow your ribs to gradually move back in.

      If raising your arms over your head isn’t comfortable, you can lie on your side. Putting your arms above your head is ideal, but you can get the same sense of movement in the ribs with your arm bent at the elbow or extended in front of you. Other positions you can try are standing with your arms extended straight out on each side. Position the arms just slightly behind your body so your chest is open. In this position, you may especially feel the opening of the upper ribs. When your arms tire, you can put your hands on your hips and continue exploring the opening of the ribs. You can practice with your hands just above your hips to remind you to open your sides and ribs. When the opening is familiar, you can put your arms down by your side and find the same opening.

If you’re really confused right now or feel short of breath, that’s okay. Feeling short of breath when you begin working through these exercises is normal. Be patient, and you’ll begin breathing efficiently. Creating a new habit in your body takes a while, and breathing for singing is definitely new. Your inhalation was perfect when you were a baby. If you watch infants breathe, you can see that they know exactly what to do. As people age, they start to carry unnecessary tension in various parts of the body, which can prevent efficient breathing. The body gets stressed out. But not in this book — stress busters are on the way!

      Stretching the sides

      Another area of the body that you can open for inhalation is your sides. For now, think of your ribs and your sides as separate. The sides are the love handle area — the area right below your rib cage and above your hips — the oblique muscles. This area may automatically open when you open the ribs, but you want to be sure.

      Place your hands on your hips and then move them up a couple of inches so that you feel the indentation just above the top of the hipbone.

      Pretend that your lungs are just above your hip bones. To help open that area, exhale, and then inhale allowing the area under your hands to expand. You may need to provide a little resistance with your hands so you can figure out how to open those muscles.

      Your sides are a great place to notice exertion in the body. When you cough, you may feel your abs move in and your sides expand. The movement for singing is similar but happens more slowly. The sides also engage when you sing loudly. For now, be aware of how your sides move; later, you can move your sides when you need an exertion of energy to sing loudly.

      Singing with a clear tone doesn’t use as much air as singing with a breathy tone. See Chapter 6 for more information on singing with clear tone. You can sing with a breathy tone on purpose, but it requires a lot more air, and it’s more difficult for a microphone to amplify a fuzzy tone.

      Releasing the abs

      Many singing teachers feel strongly about the movement of the abdominal muscles (abs) and singing. You may have been told to control your abs to control your exhalation. That idea is a good one, but you also want to control the other muscles in your torso, because the abs aren’t the only muscles that control exhalation.

To feel the release of the abs with inhalation, get down on your hands and knees (on all fours). You can get something soft to put under your knees if this isn’t the most comfortable position for you. Exhale and notice the movement of your abs. You probably feel them moving in, and that’s great. Notice how they move when you inhale. If you feel them dropping down with gravity, you’re on the right track. If you don’t feel them drop, you may be trying too hard to move your chest to breathe. Allow your chest to remain steady and try again.

      

Taking in too much air is called overbreathing, which can cause adverse tension in the body. When you get used to breathing for singing, you can judge how much air you need to take in for each phrase.

      The following exercise enables you the opportunity to let breath fall into your body, releasing the abs.

      1 Exhale.As you exhale, your abs move in.

      2 Hold your breath and silently count to ten.Don’t inhale while you’re counting to ten.

      3 After counting to ten, inhale.Most likely, you need the breath so badly that it just falls right into your body, and your abs release and drop.

      4 Notice the movement of your body as the air comes rushing in.Your throat opens and your abs release so the air can drop in.

      After expelling all your air on a long musical phrase, let the air that you need just drop into your lungs by opening your body.

      Breathing, slow and steady

      The goal for inhalation is to open the body quickly so the air drops in quietly. If your muscles don’t know how to open quickly, you can slow down with this exercise and find how to open the muscles.

      When you were a kid, your mom probably told you not to suck air through your straw, right? It makes that horrible slurping noise after all the liquid is drained from your glass. Now you need a dry straw that doesn’t have any leftover milkshake stuck inside. Breathing through a straw helps the air that you breathe drop into your body, making it easy to feel your body expand as you breathe. You also can’t gasp or suck in air too quickly with a straw.

Just follow these steps to slow down your breathing:

      1 Find a straw and cut it down to 3 inches.

      2 Insert one end of the straw into your mouth.

      3 Breathe through the straw, making sure that you don’t raise your chest or shoulders, and notice how your body opens as the air drops into your lungs.

      4 Inhale for three slow counts and exhale for three slow counts.Repeat this step five times. Remember to keep your alignment. Chapter 3 has tips for great alignment.

      5 Inhale for four slow counts and exhale for four slow counts.As you inhale,

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