832 – Passive and Active Breathing

2023.04.12 – 0832 – Passive and Active Breathing

A 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 Breathing

Passive 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 Breathing

This 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”). 

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