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Hi again I can’t believe that it is September already. I know one thing that it has been so hot here in Nashville that I am looking forward to fall and a little temperature relief. This month I turn one year older, and I am thankful for every year that God has given me. I want to serve Him with all my Heart, Soul and Strength forever, because He is a Great God. I am so thankful to Him for all He has given me during my life. I want to pursue Him in every way I can. One way to pursue Him , I think, is to do everything I am able to do to enhance the gifts that He has given me. That is why I write this column. In pursuit of the Lord, you and I should do everything we can, to use the talents and abilities that he has bestowed upon us, to honor Him and to inspire others to honor Him. That is where singing His praises in Gospel Music comes in.

The more we prepare ourselves to do the very best possible, that we can, for Him the better we will be able to do just that. An athlete exercises in every way he knows how to improve his abilities to bring honor to the team that he is a part of, to make it a winning team. He hones his skills constantly. Some great professional basketball players may practice shooting free throws for hours at a time and shoot 100's of them in one day. They also will spend time in running to build up their stamina, and shooting shots from all over the court for hours and hours at a time.
I heard the story about one athlete that was asked how he did such great things, his response was, “Practice, Practice, Practice. I want to encourage you to build up your singing stamina so that you can bring honor to the Lord’s team. The better we can build up our God Given abilities,
the more we will be able to accomplish for Him. Isn’t that our mission?

Enough preaching for now, let’s get to the singing part of ministry. I want to talk some more this month about breathing technique. Last month I mentioned that I would address the topics of “The Normal Breath” and “The Catch Breath”. Here goes:

The Normal Breath- The normal breath is used in medium to slow tempo songs mostly. Sometimes the normal breath can used in faster songs for many phrases, however a particularly fast song that is very wordy will probably require some catch breaths in some parts of the song.

The normal breath should be a deep breath with slow exhalation controlled by the diaphragm for the release of more air for large full tones, and the release of lighter amounts of air for lighter tones. This change in exhalation is one of the main reasons for having the diaphragm developed to its fullest capacity. You should be able to complete a full phrase on a normal breath, especially a phase in a slow to medium tempo song. In Southern Gospel Music, however, sometimes when we get to the end of a slow or medium tempo song, the last word is, many times, sung as loud, high, and long as it can possibly be held by taking a normal breath just before the last word. This has become a signature of our kind of music. However, we must adapt our breathing to this situation, because if we take a breath at the beginning of the last phrase, and try to hold the note at the end of the song, no matter how much air we got at the beginning of the phrase, it never seems to be enough for our long drawn out endings. Therefore we must improvise a way to have enough air at the end of the song.

How do you do that? Over the years groups have done these last notes in different ways. Some have developed a mutual breathing break just before the last word, by phrasing the last phrase differently than it was written in the original music to allow a breath just before the last word, so everyone could hold the last word until they are blue in the face. That’s one way to do it. Others have used the person in the group who could hold onto the air longer than anyone else in the group to sing the last word, while the rest of the group comes in randomly, causing no one to be together on the last word until they all stop at the same time. It usually is the highest voice that has to hold the last note while all of the others just meander in when they want to and they all stop abruptly at some point. I have never noticed any music being written to accommodate that kind of free for all, and many high brow musicians would probably make fun of it, but I get a blessing from it because it makes our Southern Gospel Music unique, and takes advantage of some wonderful voices that we have in our business.

The point that I am trying to make here is that however your group does the last part of a slow or medium tempo song you must be able to breath to accommodate that. Therefore, in the last phrase ,the group needs to find a way to make the breathing comfortable for all who are singing, so that it has some similarity to normalcy. To address our topic of normal breathing in these unique cases, each of us need to practice our deep breathing techniques constantly , and do diaphragm exercises every day in order to regulate the amount of air which escapes our lungs on every phrase. The better regulated this air flow is, the more you will be able to have plenty of air on the different types of endings to slow and medium tempo songs.

What about the catch breath? This a short breath just prior to a word or short phrase which enables you to complete that word or short phrase with plenty of air left at the end. Any breath that you take in a song should be an enabling factor in your completion of a word or a phrase so that when you finish that word or phrase, that the word or the last word of the phrase has the same clarity ,all the way to the end of it, as the first of the word did, or the first word of the phrase did. In order to accomplish this in upbeat or fast tempo songs, sometimes you need a catch breath. It is a quick breath and usually it cannot be as deep as a normal breath. A catch breath is almost like a gasp for air. It must be done occasionally on fast, wordy songs. When first singing a fast wordy song, if you are uncomfortable with the way you are breathing, stop and ask yourself first am I breathing deep enough during my normal breaths? Is my diaphragm supporting my air release properly? If the answer to these two questions is yes, then ask is there a place that I need a catch breath. Analyze your own breathing during the song, then if there is a place where you need a catch breath, work on doing it. It will feel about like you are breathing quickly and not deeply, make sure that it does not interrupt the tempo of the song and it is not so obvious that the people in the audience think you are gasping for air. A catch breath will be a quick breath, that is breathed through the nose and mouth at the same time, most often it should come where there is a punctuation mark in the text of the song, and it helps you finish one more word or a very short phrase.

That seems to be about all I can put in here for this month. I will continue writing about breathing next month. Everybody have a great time at the Quartet Convention. Remember that
God is on your side. Psalm 118:6 says so.

In His Service
Bill Baize
The Prophets Quartet
http://www.prophetsquartet.com

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