In the course of my teaching I work with a wide-ranging clientel, from those who are advanced students of singing, aspiring to a professional career in performing, to those who simply want to sing better. I have taught children as young as 7 and adults who are well into their 70’s. I have taught in classrooms and on courses and run workshops. It actually does not matter who your students are. They have one thing in common.

Breath is literally the life of their music. Finding ways to manage breath are not just as simple as putting a breath-mark in the score and breathing at that point. The way you approach that inspiration (and I use the word in more than one sense) is totally key to the success of the next phrase. If your previous phrase has finshed with your breathing out-of-control and in a panic, this affects the ability to move forward. Conversely if you are still holding breath at the end of the last phrase, just topping up can mean that you create tension in the voice and also are unable to control much of the air you have taken in.

One of my friends and colleagues over the years has been Paul Esswood, the counter-tenor. We once discussed the breath issues surrounding the alto aria ‘Esurientis’ from Bach’s Magnificat, which has an impossibly long instrumental-type phrase where breathing seems wrong. He attributed his ability to sing this phrase in one breath to preparation, at least a couple of breaths before the breath on which it is sung.

In addition to the mechanism of breathing-in, there is the emotional and communicative element of the music to add into the mix. Then, in performance, there are possible nerves, and other issues demanding our concentration. It is no wonder that almost all of us singers find difficulty with breathing at some point.

A wise singing-teacher once told me that the most control one has in singing is when one is not in control. In my humble opinion, she was right. The more you trust in the simple physical process and the emotional connections to your breath, the easier breathing, and singing becomes. If you have to ‘think’ too hard and there is a delay in the action, this causes a lack of fluency, adds inappropriate tension and control is lost.

To arrive at this simple state however, is a more difficult process! It requires one to re-train lazy abdominal muscles to support the breath-pressure one needs and also then relax to allow full breath replenishment, align posture, release tension in the throat and facial muscles and understand the massive importance that the exhalation has to the next breath and therefore the resulting sound that it is then possible to produce.

Phonation tubes can have an impact on teaching students about how to release breath consistently and in a controlled manner. Because it is possible to see that breath being released in the form of bubbles, and, at this point, sound is of a secondary concern to that release, this feedback is invaluable. Some students have remarked that they can feel what they should be doing with their diaphragms in a real way for the first time, because until you know what you are doing, it feels hit-and-miss. The back-pressure provided by blowing the bubbles into water makes this magic happen. There is no sound to be desperately concerned about ( even the most gorgeous voice sounds like a gurgling baby’s) so it helps direct attention to what is happening within the body, which means that undesirable shoulder movements, chest-caving, protruding heads and other destructive tensions are clearer and therefore more easily rectified.