832 – Passive and Active Breathing

2023.04.12 – 0832 – Passive and Active BreathingA quick reminder that air is what fuels and carries your voice and that you invariably speak on the outbreath, when your stomach is coming in, a bit like an accordion.[1] Breathe through the nose where you can (but don’t sniff) to warm and filter the air, although when talking, short sound-less snatches are taken instead.Keep topping up your air supply as you talk, rather than speaking until you’ve used every last drop of air … like a waiter in a top restaurant keeps topping up your wine.Passive BreathingPassive breathing is what you do naturally when still, and about 24,000 times a day. An in-breath and an out-breath are about the same length, we don’t control them and literally do it in our sleep.Active BreathingThis is controlled and we do it when we’re talking. The in-breath is shorter and the out-breath is longer as it needs to power the words with the vocal folds interrupting the airflow. You use a bit more air if you are highlighting or emphasising a word and some consonants use more air (like “ssssh” or “aahhhhh” and “ffff”). Other consonants like ‘b’ and ‘t’ interrupt the flow of air for a split second, so we have to be really adaptable in our breathing system. [1] Humans can speak while inhaling, but we don't do it naturally, very often in English. Having said that, ingressive sounds occur in many languages (often Scandinavian) and dialects (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingressive_sound ). The nearest we get to it in English is when we do rapid counting to maintain a steady airflow, when surprised (the gasping "huh!" sound) or when expressing empathy (the inward hiss "Sss”).  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.