hi it's Elissa Weinzimmer founder of Voice Body Connection and it is time for
another How to Warm Up video
How to Warm Up
in today's video we're going to talk
about why it can be really valuable to breathe in and out through your mouth
when you're warming up for voice singing and speech now for those following along
at home this is a whole series of how to warm up videos that help you put
together your own full comprehensive warm-up and obviously this exercise
falls in the category of breath but if you want to understand all of that
better just go back and visit the How to Warm Up intro video okay so why would we
want to breathe in and out through our mouth well before I answer that question
for you I actually want you to have an experience of it so we're gonna do a
little exercise which you can use any time during your warmup and then we'll
talk about why this is valuable sit up nice and tall and close your eyes and
we're gonna start by breathing in and out through our nose so you can let your
lips be closed now and as you breathe in and out through your nose notice if this
feels comfortable or uncomfortable to you and also notice if breathing in and
out through your nose reminds you of anything does it bring up any
associations any ideas of your past
take a moment to breathe like this in and out
through your nose and press pause on this video if you want to take some
longer time with it and then when you're done with that exploration breathing in
and out through your nose we're gonna try a different pattern so shake it out
for a moment just so you don't get stuck in that pattern and then we will breathe
in through our nose out through our mouth okay
so I will give you a little hint right now you have to let your lips part in
order to let the breath out through your mouth okay so in through your nose
out through your mouth and fine to make a little bit of noise that's okay in
through your nose out through your mouth and same thing as you explore this
breathing pattern do you notice anything that feels comfortable or uncomfortable
to you and does any sort of reminder or association come up with it in through
the nose out through the mouth take as long as you need with this one too and
then we'll switch and shake it out and we're going to practice breathing in
through the mouth out through the nose okay so we're reversing the pattern we
just did so in through the mouth out through the nose in through the mouth
out through your nose in through your mouth
out through your nose and of course same thing as you're doing this pattern does
it feel comfortable or uncomfortable to you and does it remind you of anything
when you're done with this pattern go ahead and let it go for the last time
shake it out maybe this time blow through your lips and then let's go
ahead and breathe in and out through the mouth so this time you're just gonna
leave your lips open in through the mouth and out through the mouth let your
jaw be loose in through the mouth out through the mouth in through the mouth
out through the mouth and as you breathe in and out through your mouth does it
feel comfortable or uncomfortable and does it remind you of anything
spend as long as you need with that pattern too and when you're done let's
talk about this
so I'm gonna share with you different people's experience doing
this exercise because I've done it with a lot of people of course I don't know
your experience and it may not fall within this realm but here's how it
often breaks down people tend to feel more comfortable when the nose is
involved breathing in and out than the mouth now why might that be well to
be totally honest the nose is a smaller opening and so the air comes in and out
slower through there so it actually this is a little bit of an oversimplification
but it's kind of a little bit more about control when you involve your nose and a
little bit more about release when you allow yourself to involve the mouth
breathing now some people say that breathing in and out through the nose is
really natural to them that it feels like yoga it feels calm it feels like
meditation breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth people say
reminds them of exercising and is often the way that a lot of people breathe
throughout the day breathing in through the mouth and out through the nose a lot
of people find really uncomfortable even though here's a fun thing when you're
swimming you actually breathe that way right right so it's actually pretty
common plus if you're about to say something to someone and you stop
yourself you go like this so that can happen then too - and then breathing in and
out through the mouth often happens when we're sick or when we're panting or when
we're fatigued when we're a little bit out of control
now that out-of-control feeling is actually really valuable to us because
it's kind of the truth of what's happening when I'm speaking to you
impromptu in an authentic way
let me explain what I mean so when I'm speaking
to you right now my sound is actually coming out through my mouth mostly there
are a couple little sounds M, N, and NG you may remember them from the nasals
video which are coming out through the nose but otherwise it's all coming out
through my mouth and then if I want to continue talking to you I'm gonna take
the easiest fastest breath I can and that's gonna be in through my mouth so
I'm actually breathing in and out through my mouth right now while I'm
talking to you and if I were to switch and breathe in through my nose it would
be something like this which would be a little awkward in terms of the rhythm
of what I'm trying to convey so as you can tell we don't speak that way we do not
breathe in through our nose very often when we're speaking in an impromptu way
so now let's say you memorize some text or a song in that moment where
you go before you start to speak to be totally honest the audience's bullshit
meter goes off wah wah I don't believe you and that is because the moment of
inspiration and when I say inspiration I mean both ding and also breath in how
cool that that word means both things the moment of inspiration comes in
through the mouth whoa
when I first understood this stuff my brain went
because it was so profoundly useful to me
so I share it with you because now you can do all your other warm-ups breathing
in and out through your mouth especially try the do what feels good impulse
exercise or the tense and release but backwards breathing exercise which is a
really good one as well and practice doing them in and out through your mouth
it's a really nice way to set yourself up for speaking in a natural authentic
way and of course you can always revisit the exercise in this video too and
remind yourself what it even feels like to breathe in and out through your mouth
enjoy let me know how this goes and if it's big for you I would love to hear
about it
How to Warm Up