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Hi everybody.
My name is Justin Stoney and I'm the founder of
New York Vocal Coaching here in New York City.
Welcome to episode 92 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where we want to help you as singers
by answering your questions from all over.
And I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week comes from
Ivo F. in Espinho, Portugal.
And Ivo writes, "Dear Justin what is the appoggio breathing technique,
and is it as helpful as everyone says?"
Well yes Ivo, yes, I think the appoggio is pretty great.
And that's what we're going to be exploring today.
In fact appoggio breathing is the gold standard
of all breathing techniques.
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Awesome!
So what makes the appoggio the gold standard
and what is this appoggio anyway?
Well "appoggio", the word, comes from the Italian word "appoggiare"
which means "to lean".
So it's the lean of the body.
With the appoggio we're making sure that
our body doesn't just collapse when we breathe.
But it sits, leans down, on the breathing system that we create.
We inhale and then we maintain the position of that inhale.
We do this with a combination of rib and belly breathing.
If you remember back to episode 1 of our show
we talked about the primary breathing types.
Well appoggio breathing combines the belly and the rib breathing
into one dual system for your optimal and gold standard breathing technique.
Yes, it will give you the best breath support.
But let's remind ourselves, what is breath support?
Breath support is a term that can really confuse a lot of singers
because it's tossed around all the time in the world of voice
but we don't always know what it means.
You can't hit that high note?
You should have given it more support.
Tone of your voice not sounding quite right?
Well looks like you got to work on your breath support, my friend.
Went to see a concert the other night really didn't like that singer too well.
Seemed like they could have used more support.
Problem is, if we don't know what that means
we're tempted to use more air.
And actually, more breath support equals less air.
Because breath support is the physical resistance of the exhale.
Any old civilian can just exhale.
But a singer needs to resist that exhale breath.
Maybe a better term for "breath support" might be "breath management".
But if you use "breath support" as a term
make sure you know it means less air
and physically resisted air.
And guess what?
The appoggio breathing technique allows us to have
optimal efficiency with that exhale.
So how do we do this a appoggio breathing technique?
Just because the appoggio is the gold standard of breathing technique
doesn't mean it has to be that hard to do.
In fact, it's quite simple.
I'm going to show it to you right now.
Step one, lift the sternum.
Now you're not going to do something crazy like this.
Just lift it up!
That looks great.
This is so we don't collapse and we can lean the body.
Now step two, expand the ribs.
Inhale, that's right, don't lift the chest just expand the ribs.
And, exhale keep them open.
That is right.
Step three, open the belly with an inhale.
Don't force it out, just allow it to open.
Exhale, don't squeeze, keep it open.
Now step four, the most important step.
Ribs and belly together, open them up and exhale keeping them open.
No collapsing, no squeezing.
That's right, that creates that slow steady stream of breath
that only the appoggio can do with such efficiency.
Now we're going to do another exercise later
but you need to know that the appoggio is really good at
fixing the common breathing problems that singers have.
So here they are, the top five common breathing problems
and how the appoggio can help.
The first common breathing problem that singers face
is taking the wrong amount of air.
Most singers have the problem of taking too much breath
and that's where we get these kind of clavicular breaths
where we're crowding the lungs.
What comes up must come down
and we don't want that much air.
But other singers complain about not having enough
That's where the appoggio has the dual breathing of ribs and belly.
Now that should be enough for you
if it's not you can recruit the low ribcage and the low back
as well for a sort of 360 breath
but from there that should be plenty.
Remember you do not need maximum air to sing
that makes it harder and not easier.
Second common problem is pushing that air.
It's so, so common when a note is too high or too difficult
what do we start to do?
We start to push the air and push the volume.
Even though that's about the worst vocal technique
we could possibly have.
Well appoggio to the rescue because the ways that we push
are usually dropping the sternum, collapsing the ribs,
and pushing the belly in.
The appoggio helps us to do none of those things.
Sternum tall, ribs that stay expansive,
and belly that does not squeeze inward.
Problem solved!
Now the third one is running out of breath too quickly.
Now we had an entire episode on this,
episode 62 that you can go back and watch.
It's a very common complaint, singers running out of breath too quickly.
The appoggio can help us though
because the belly and the rib expansion
helps the diaphragm to descend.
and then by not bringing them in too quickly
it helps the slow ascent of the diaphragm.
This will allow your breath to last the longest
of any of our breathing systems.
Now the fourth is having tension in the breath.
Obviously singers struggle with tension quite a lot.
But the question is, where is that tension?
Sometimes it can be in the breathing system.
Particularly in the solar plexus, the upper abdominal region.
Now we have a whole episode on that, "The Shiny Solar Plexus".
We really want to keep this area open and absent of that squeeze.
But the appoggio opens here and opens here.
And the flow of breath over a long duration never asks
for any of that squeezing or gripping to happen.
And man alive does it feel relaxed.
Now, last, poor posture.
Bad posture can certainly place a limitation on the singing voice.
Squeezed abs, limited ribcage mobility,
neck tension, larynx tension,
but in one shot with the appoggio's lifted sternum
I get sternum, chest, shoulders, neck, and head,
everything in a good spot just from that one gesture.
Now you go ahead and try it.
Slump down, and I want to see the sternum lift up to fix all.
And I mean, you look successful,
I mean you look so confident,
I mean you're successful, you got the appoggio breathing technique.
And I'm sitting here running this crummy singing lessons joint
and you you look like you should go out there on stage
and get all dolled up you look so good.
And so, now that you look so good
I think we're ready to do another appoggio breathing exercise.
The exercise we're going to do for developing
the appoggio is the farinelli exercise.
The fari who?
Farinelli!
One of the most famous singers from the 1700s.
And the Italian school is where we historically
get a lot of our vocal pedagogy ideas.
Maybe in 300 years we'll have the Bruno Mars breathing,
or the Adele agility, or the Lady Gaga larynx control.
But for now we have farinelli.
And so here it is the farinelli exercise.
So let's go ahead and try the farinelli exercise.
You're going to inhale into ribs and belly
with that tall sternum then you're going to hold.
Then you're going to exhale on an SH.
Shhhhh.
And then you're going to hold.
When you hold your breath don't squeeze your cords,
don't squeeze your larynx, stay very open so that it's
all done with your breathing system and not with your throat.
Now here we go, belly and ribs, inhale.
Two three four five.
Hold, don't squeeze, three four five.
SH, shhhhh.
Three four five.
Hold, don't squeeze, three four five.
Inhale, two three four five six seven.
Hold, two three four five.
Now exhale, shhhhh.
Three four five six seven.
Hold, don't squeeze, three four five.
Inhale, two three four five six seven eight nine ten.
Hold, don't squeeze, two three four five.
Exhale, SH, shhhhh four five six seven eight nine ten.
Hold don't squeeze, three four five.
Inhale, two three four, this will be a long one - here we go
eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen.
Hold don't squeeze, three four five.
Now SH, shhhhhh, four five six seven eight nine ten
all the way, thirteen fourteen fifteen.
You're done!
And that's the farinelli exercise.
Try that breathing exercise before you go into
some other vocalizes that you might do,
try it before you do some of your song work,
and I'm sure you're going to see a difference in how long you can last
and how efficiently your voice works using the appoggio breathing technique.
So Ivo and all, I hope that's been helpful for you guys today as singers.
If you have questions that you'd like to see us answer on the show
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
And you know I encourage you to stay gold.
Don't lose that joy, don't lose that passion,
don't you dare let people tell you that you can't sing.
You and I both know, that's not true.
Get with a great voice teacher near you
or if you're in New York, or you'd like to Skype with one of our staff
you can visit us at NewYorkVocalCoaching.com.
If you'd like a vocal course you can do in the comfort of your own home
check out the Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course. [♪]
A twelve part course that takes you on a singing journey [♪]
from beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
You can find that at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
Or if you'd like free daily vocal tips sent to your email every day [♪]
you can sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
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Ribs? And Belly?
What a delicious combination!