# Appogio, how to breathe when you sing



## greg panten (Sep 2, 2015)

Hi there, I'm Greg from central California, USA. I teach voice and really believe I can help you understand this. The posts I've read include "dynamic balance" etc. very confusing stuff. 
Here we go. 
Stand up. Feet shoulder width apart. You could stand with your back to a wall. Eyes straight ahead. Jaw to neck at a right angle. Tongue flat, slightly touching lower teeth. Exhale out. Breathe in, shoulders do not move up, they stay relaxed, arms at your sides. Your gut expands outward. Imagine you are pushing the gut downward as it expands outward. Ok, hold it when you are full of air. Feel the fullness of your gut with your hands. Exhale out BUT, keep that gut tension that you felt when you were full of air. keep that muscular tension as you exhale. All out? Breathe in holding the gut tension as you refill. To help with this feeling of outward expansion and muscular tension in the gut, put a book edge on your belly button and hold the other end of the book on wall, post etc. Hold the book in position when you breathe in and out. You can use your hands to steady the book and eventually the exercise becomes easier and you don't need your hands. Any questions? Feel free to contact me at: [email protected]. 
I can really help you with this. Happy singing. Greg.


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## 19thCSoul (Feb 2, 2017)

Advertorial "overtones" aside, (sorry, couldn't resist) this post mentions some interesting things about the mechanics of breathing for singers. Anyone care to weigh in on this topic?

If I remember correctly, Richard Miller describes three main types of breathing:

1. "Natural" (as used during ordinary speech, which he seems to associate with the french school), 
2. The outward belly position or Bauchaussenstütze of the German school (which Greg seems to allude to) 
3. The Italian concept of appoggio, which (if I remember correctly) Miller describes as the muscular action of keeping the breathing apparatus in the position of inhalation (again, something Greg mentions above).

Personally, I was first taught to take a deep breath, hold everything in place with lower abdominal support and push down while singing. Subsequent teachers tried to modify this, advising an upward or inward pull when approaching higher notes, while my vocal coach simplified it by asking me to create energy in the breath without using the throat.

To this day, I'm not sure which approach is best! Maybe the energizing of the breath imagery was better than all those overly-technical platitudes about pulling in, out, down, sideways and upside down, or maybe it was just a good prompt to help me do all of the above without thinking too much?

I'd love to hear from others on this one!


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