Posts Tagged breath

Breath in the Pelvic Bowl

Posted by earmstro in Voice, Warm-ups, advanced on April 21st, 2009

In this step, we'll use imagery to focus on the breath in the abdomen, right down into the pelvis. We want to encourage the sensations in the lower part of the body, so we'll use imagery, connected with the feeling of breath action pushing into the pelvis to anchor breath as low in the torso as we can go.

Please note that the air we breathe cannot go any lower in the body than the bottom of the lungs. However, the sensation of downward pressure caused by the breath displacing your guts in a downward action can go as low as the bottom of the pelvis, and press into the muscles of the pelvic floor.

For this exercise, I'd like you to imagine that your pelvis, which is, in many ways, shaped like a bowl, has been replaced with an actual bowl, like the one in the image at the beginning of this post. Imagine a terra cotta bowl, rough on the outside, and dark and encrusted with years of dirt on the inside.

[Though you can do this warm-up step either standing or lying down, it's important to visualize the "bowl" oriented correctly regardless of how you are positioned. I've doctored a photo to show you an image of a skeleton with the pelvis replaced with a bowl, so you see what I mean. You'll use this image in this exercise and the next step in the warm-up, so it's really important to get this image clear and strong in your mind's eye.]

Once you have an idea what I mean for this bowl image, close your eyes and try to imagine that your boney bowl of your pelvis is a ceramic bowl. Touch your actual hip crests, and feel the way around to the back, imagining that you’re feeling around the rim of a big bowl. With each breath, allow your breath to press down into the bowl, so that you can connect the image with the sensation of breath action in your lower body.

Imagine that the inside of your bowl is encrusted with loose dirt that you can begin to brush out of your bowl with the action of your breath. With each breath inward, swirl the brush-like action of the breath around the inside of your bowl, and then with each exhalation, breathe the dirt out along with the air. Draw in clear air to brush the inside of the bowl, and blow out dirty air to clean the rough, flaky dry dirt off the inside of your bowl.

As you clear the bowl, let the air begin to act like a little tornado or whirlwind inside you, curling its way around the bowl, getting all of the inside surfaces of the bowl, pressing into all the nooks and crannies of your pelvis. As you exhale the dirt, experiment with letting the swirling air go in the opposite direction. As you get full of air, the swirling will slow down and eventually stop, let the air change direction, speed up and pour out of you.

At this point, imagine that you can now see the surface of the inside of your bowl. Though it is a rough, terra cotta bowl on the outside, the inside of this bowl, of your special bowl, is lined with tarnished silver. Imagine that the inside of the bowl is black with tarnish, but that you can see glimpses of the potential for this bowl to shine coming through the blackness.

Our next step, "Voice in the Pelvic Bowl," will take you further with this image, as we polish the tarnish away and then let the bowl ring out with open sound. For now, brushing the inside of the bowl, and getting that image very strong, is enough.

 

Next Step: Voice in the Pelvic Bowl

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Sustaining Breath

Posted by earmstro in Voice, Warm-ups, intermediate on April 21st, 2009

Be sure to begin with some physical warming up, whether it be some yoga stretches, a light jog around the room, some pliés, what have you, to get your body going. You should also start with some Roll-downs, if you haven't already.

We'll include a few roll-downs in this step of the warm-up, so be sure to learn how to do a roll-down before we start.

Begin by Noticing

Stand in alignment, with your feet, ankles and knees balanced one above the other, your knees unlocked, your shoulders wide across the back and front, your neck lengthening up, your jaw relaxed so you can easily breathe through your mouth. You can work with eyes open or closed on this one; closed eyes often allow people to check in with their inner life, while open eyes forces you to deal with your inner life and the real world at the same time (which is what you have to do an actor most of the time anyway…).

Notice your breath, what it wants to do. Don't do anything about it, just let it be. Feel how breath enters your mouth, floats over your tongue, turns the corner, and heads down into your body. Do all you can to avoid planning your breath. Let your breath take you, so that you follow your body's impulse to breathe, rather than making it do something else. You may notice that when you notice your breath, it is changed somewhat. There mere suggestion of thinking about your breath may cause it do change in response to that thought. If at all possible, explore the idea of not choosing to breathe, but allow breath to be entirely impulsive. In this way, conscious breathing becomes a process of getting out of the way of breath, rather than planning, or choosing to breathe. Give over to the breath impulse, and see where it takes you.

Resistance Isn't FFFutile

Once you're into this impulsive breath mode, on the next exhalation, bring your lower lip up to meet your upper teeth, so you end up making an /f/ sound. As you inhale, release the contact between lip and teeth to let the air in, and then on the outward flow of breath, reconnect to the /f/ posture of lip and teeth. The /f/ friction will give some resistance to the outward going breath, so that your breath will naturally begin to last a bit longer. As you do this, it's important not to force your breath into a rhythm. Continue to follow your impulse for breath. Expect there to be a short pause between the exhalation /f/ and the next breath-impulse .

As you become comfortable with the easy /f/ breath, begin to lengthen the /f/ sound with each breath. Let the change in length from one /f/ to the next be very slight. You want a very gradual shift, slowly letting the exhalation sustain further and further. By lengthening the /f/, your need for breath will become stronger over time, so that you will find your body craving more air on the inhalation (so you'll fill up more), and emptying yourself out as your exhale. As the /fffff/ gets longer and longer, the pause between exhalation and inhalation may begin to shorten as well. Don't make that happen, but if you notice it happening, that's ok. What's important here is to increase your need for air, while continuing to follow your impulse for breath.

Say Something

Acting is about communication. Anytime you make a sound in an exercise, whether it be a simple sigh, or a puff of air on /f/, or a articulation drill, be sure to communicate something to your someone. If you're alone, imagine someone. Or you could talk to the furniture. The one thing you mustn't do is talk to a mirror. This only helps to make your self-conscious, and aware of your outside appearance, and we care about your inner life. So be sure to connect with your thoughs, feelings and impulses as you make these sustained /fffff/ sounds.

At this point you might try "fuffing" your breath on several pulses per breath, as if you were speaking, with one pulse of air for every syllable. This is similar to what we did with the Taking-it-to-Text step of the Basic Warm-up Series, except that you're improvising what you're saying, not speaking a text.

Fuff'n'Roll

The last step of the process is to bring your body into the mix by doing a roll-down as you fuff. Start by taking 3 or 4 fuffing breaths to roll down, and then another 3 or 4 to come up. Gradually speed up the roll-down process until you're rolling down on one /f/, letting breath fill into your belly, and rolling back up on a second /f/. You can even try rolling down and up quickly on /f/. Here, let breath fill down into your belly and then drop your head and begin to /f/ simultaneously as your roll quickly through your spine, coming back up as you run out of air.

Next Step: Dabs of Sound

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Breath Basics

Posted by earmstro in Voice, Warm-ups, basic on April 20th, 2009

Voice work always begins with breath. It’s at the heart of everything that voice trainers do, and it’s the core of every successfully trained actor out there. Even actors who don’t ever think about voice work, generally have effective breathing worked out. In this warm-up step, you’ll ground yourself and tune into your breath.

To begin a warm-up, our first goal is to be Centered. Centering is a process of quieting your mind and beginning to listen to your body, so that you can be present as an actor, in the here-and-now. Other goals are to attend to your body’s natural rhythms, so that you aren’t imposing upon your breath, but rather attuning yourself to your needs: the physical need for breath, the emotional need of what you want from your acting partner, for what you need to say in order to get what you want.

START WITH THE BODY

To begin, stand, sit or lie on the floor in a balanced position. (For tips on how to do this, see “Body Alignment.”) Take a moment to feel your full body, from the tips of your toes, to the top of your head. Scan the bones of your body, visualizing the bones of your feet, ankles, shins, knees, (…) thighs, hips, pelvis, (…) lower spine, (…) midspine, ribs, (…) shoulder blades, collar bones, shoulder joint, (…) upper arms, elbows, forearms, wrists, hands, (…) neck, skull and jaw bone.

At this point, it’s worth suggesting that you DROP YOUR JAW, and let your mouth hang open for the remainder of this exercise. (By the way, I’m not recommending you let your jaw hang open all the time, just for this exercise.)

TUNE INTO BREATH

Take a moment now to feel your body do its own thing. Let your body demand the next breath, without TAKING a breath, or imposing a rhythm or style of breathing. Just let it come “naturally,” or at very least, based upon your habitual, unplanned manner of breathing at this moment. If you weren’t paying attention, how would your body breath? Listen to your breath, as if you were a outside observer. Be sure to allow lots of time.

You should notice a pattern: inhalation, exhalation, wait.

Inhalation, exhalation, wait.

On the inhalation, feel the air enter your body. You want to feel the air passing over your lips, tongue and the back of your mouth, down your throat, and into your chest. You should feel breath-action into your whole body, including your chest and belly.

Inhalation, exhalation, wait.

On the exhalation, feel the air leave your body. If you’re relaxed, and simply ALLOW the breath to go on its own accord, this should be a simple and rather quick outward breath. The muscles used to draw the air in will relax and drop with gravity, while the pressure built up in your chest and belly will release. It might feel like the tiniest of sighs.

Inhalation, exhalation, wait.

In the waiting phase between breaths, you should feel relaxed, physically aware of yourself in space, and simply attend to your body’s need for air. When the impulse for breath arises, just let yourself breathe. Allow the next breath, and repeat the cycle: inhalation, exhalation, wait.

If you’ve closed your eyes in order to tune into your body, be sure to take a moment to open them, and see whether you can do this “tuning in” process while still engaged in the outside world. If you did the whole process of noticing breath with your eye open, take a turn with your eyes shut in order to feel the sensations more accutely without the visual sense distracting you.

At this point you might want to go on to expand your breath beyond your relaxed awareness, or you could go on with the Basic Voice Warm-up Series, and begin to focus your breath through voiced sounds.

Next Step: Getting on Voice

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