Do you stutter when you sing? I don’t. And neither do most people who stutter. For me, singing was the one thing I could do with confidence when I stuttered heavily. Frankly, singing was a wonderful escape for me. So, when I was trying to relearn to speak, I kept wondering, “Why am I able to sing without stuttering?
It finally occurred to me: When I sing, I breathe correctly. Maybe if I could breathe effectively it would help me with my stuttering? And wow, did it ever!
Looking for a game-changer for your speech? I’ve got one: breathe effectively. It’s the first step in my Breathe, Emphasize, Phrase (BEP) strategy I developed in my effort to relearn to speak.
In fact, the single most important strategy I developed to improve my speech was to breathe effectively. It got my breath going so I could start sentences smoothly, without the exhausting stuttering that used to plague me.
How Singing Taught Me to Breathe Effectively
As I mentioned in a recent post that introduced the Breathe, Emphasize, Phrase strategy (BEP), the idea to breathe effectively originated with a comment from a yoga teacher, who said, “You don’t breathe right. You’re taking little half breaths, so you never really clear your lungs. You need to expel all that air, so you can take a fresh breath.” That started my focus on breathing.
From there, I began to think about singing and realized that I never stuttered when I sing. In fact, I am totally confident. Why is that? I think there are two main reasons:
1) The breath is part of the song, you don’t even think about it. You start singing with a breath and begin each musical phrase with a breath.
2) Musical phrases always have intonation, they have at least one word that is emphasized to bring out the meaning in a song. Emphasizing a word causes you to use up your breath, end the musical phrase, and take another breath to begin the next musical phrase. But if you don’t breathe right, no amount of emphasizing words is going to help you with your stuttering. You’ve got to breathe effectively.
The Emphasize part of the BEP strategy is discussed in the next major blog post.
How Breathing Helps You Start Sentences
It’s easy for people who don’t stutter to start a new sentence. They simply take a breath and talk. Easy peasy, nothing to it. For them, it’s automatic, they don’t even have to think about it.
For you and I, however, starting a new sentence can be difficult. We can sing, no problem.
But get engaged in a conversation, and things change. Something changes between singing and conversation, and I think a big part of it is how we breathe.
To breathe effectively, just do the same inhale, then speak on the exhale cycle as when you sing. Practice it so much that it becomes automatic. Do it all the time, not just when you fear trouble is coming. If you don’t do it all the time, it’s never going to become automatic, and it’s never going to be there for you when you really need it.
Breathe like a professional singer, from your diaphragm, down in your belly — not from your chest. You breathed from your belly when you were a baby; it’s natural and much more effective. If you’re not sure how to do this, place your hand on your belly and feel it go up and down with each breath. Your belly moves, not your chest.
Breathe and Feel the Rhythm
I find it helpful to picture the words in each phrase flowing with the breath. I love waterfalls, so I would picture my words flowing out of my mouth on a waterfall. Start a new phrase, start a new waterfall. Feel how smoothly the words flow with your breath. Relish how relaxed you feel.
As you breathe in and out, you may find yourself developing a rhythm, just like singing. That’s good, you want to be in rhythm.
As the rhythm takes hold, picture yourself getting more and more relaxed with each phrase. The feeling is almost intoxicating. This mind game I played with myself was really powerful and led to significant improvement in my speech.
But you can’t get that intoxicating feeling without doing BEP right; there are no shortcuts. Strong emphasis leads to effective breathing, which leads to clean phrasing, which leads to the rhythm and relaxation that feels so good. It’s a virtuous cycle.
In Breathe, Emphasize, Phrase, each part of the strategy is based on breathing effectively.
It’s a cycle. A rhythm. And it’s all built on the first step: to breathe effectively.
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