Your Singing Depends on Your Inhale

In my vocal practice I’m always searching for another muscle to release, how to create more space and ease of connection. I test out the discovery and when it works really well, I pass it on to you through my teaching, blogs, and YouTube videos.

My private students have taken quantum leaps forward with this latest inhale practice so I must pass it on to you as well.

All these vocal assets are directly effected by your inhale:

• Effortlessness of singing
• Freedom
• Power
• Tone quality
• Depth of tone
• Resonance / projection
• Clarity
• Range – up and down

Obviously, an opening inhale is the most important step of your vocal technique.

This latest revelation of opening the body with the inhale came from a meditation* that I’m doing every day. This guided mediation asks you several times to become aware of the base of the throat.

My experience with opening the base of my throat is that the opening allows the larynx and jaw to release as well. Opening the base of the throat I find connects strongly to opening the ribcage and all the way to the lowest back. It’s so powerful and freeing!

So I started using the thought of opening the base of my throat in my singing. I like to think of a line going from the crown of my head down to where the base of the throat meets the spine, then all the way down the spine to the tailbone. As you do this you will feel the ribcage open and engage as well as the efficient and powerful low abs.

Another beauty of focusing on opening the base of the throat is that the throat muscles – which are not efficient for speaking/singing – disengage and the very powerful low abdominal, core and back muscles – which are natural to vocal production – are activated.

Do this slowly and mindfully at first. Once you have practiced being aware of the opening, you will become faster and more efficient so you can use this opening inhale while singing a gig.

Follow this step-by-step process for best results:

• Make sure your body, your instrument, is aligned
• Head on top of the body, earlobes over shoulders
• Picture a line that begins at the crown of your head
• See the line connecting down to the base of the throat
• Feel where the base of the throat touches the spine
• Open the base of the throat
• See the line continue from the base of the throat all the way to your lowest back muscles
• Open and engage the lower back, core and abdominal muscles

Feel the power and freedom as you sing!

Remember, do this step-by-step process slowly and mindfully at first. Practice, practice, practice being aware of the opening, then the opening becomes more efficient. Let me know how it works for you on your next gig!

I’ve also made a YouTube video of this opening inhale so you can have a deeper understanding. #singlikeyouspeak

BIO
Sally Morgan, NYC voice teacher, wrote the book on contemporary vocal technique — literally. Sing Like You Speak™ is specifically designed to restore the effortless vocal production that is natural to the human instrument making your singing powerful, joyful and free. Singing so simple it feels like talking to your best friend without sounding trained. Sally has been successfully teaching people how to sing for more than 35 years.

Sally has helped her clients heal vocal damage, expand vocal range, land a Broadway show, record their original music and tour internationally without vocal fatigue or strain. Besides teaching workshops Sally teaches private voice lessons and has developed online singing lessons – Sing Like You Speak™ Academy.

You can see and hear some of Sally’s clients on Broadway stages, Off-Broadway, in Musical Theater – Regional, on Major Label Recordings, the Conan O’Brian show, A Prairie Home Companion and in Federal Courts, the PA House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate.

Sally teaches singing voice lessons in NYC and worldwide on ZOOM as well as online voice lessons on the Sing Like You Speak Academy