Breath keeps every singer busy. ‘How can I make my breath last longer?’ is one of the most asked questions in my coaching practice. Singers of all levels can come to me for advice on breathing and breath support. Once you dare to release the breath, the link connecting all the other elements of singing, then singing just happens.

Any singer has to deal with breath, and with the relationship between the flow of the breath and good posture, inhalation, resonance and the text, as well as with breath support.

This book addresses these issues. It goes a step further: the breath is not only a part of singing, it is the initiator. The breath guides the body, with the sound as the result. It is singing the same way you laugh; and I call it ‘singing from the flow of breath’.

‘Sing the way you laugh’ takes the form of 25 questions, providing exercises where possible to make it clear what I mean so that you can get to work yourself.

Do you need to inhale in a special way to sing? What is good use of breath support? How can you take a new breath quickly? Does the breath affect vibrato? These are some of the questions. The book is enriched with dozens of practical tips and 67 concrete exercises that can help you understand the answers.

The questions are divided into six themes: singing from the flow of breath, the right conditions for good singing, breath support and the flowing breath, on resonance and register transitions, breath and text, breath and emotion.

I hope that it makes people enthusiastic about singing, even those who have lost the sense of enjoyment. Ultimately the craft of singing serves what it really is about: in singing we express who we are, and that is what moves people.

Read some excerpts from SING THE WAY YOU LAUGH>>

The Dutch mezzo-soprano Hetty Gehring studied singing at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague and the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. She completed her studies with the Dutch soprano and vocal coach Margreet Honig. She also took lessons with the Israeli contralto Mira Zakai and the Dutch baritone Maarten Koningsberger.

Hetty Gehring sung in several opera productions and concerts. She ended her professional singing career some years ago to concentrate on teaching, working with a method she has developed, based on ‘the flowing breath’. Margreet Honig and the German posture and breath teacher Regine Herbig provided the basic tools.

Singing on the Flow of Breath

Biography

Sing The Way You Laugh

You can order the book (€12,95 + shipping costs) by sending me an e-mail:

hettygehring@zangatelier.nl

The book is also available at music store Broekmans & Van Poppel in Utrecht.