Lesson 1 - Level 1 Respiration

Today in our lesson, Marcus started with a lot of posture-development exercises. I told him that we would do four different sets of stretches so that he could pick the one that he liked the most. First, he did the Spinal Stretch by reaching for the sky, reaching forward, and reaching for the floor with his fingers interlocked and his palms facing out. I reminded him to move slowly during all of the stretches. Second, he held his arms forward like catching a basketball and then rolled his shoulders backward three times and then forward three times. He shook out his arms and hands, and then we moved to the third exercise, rolling the head from one side to the other. Finally, he flexed his legs so that his knees were locked, and then alternated legs relaxing and flexing while letting one arm at a time slowly float towards the ceiling.
The second set started with a side stretch to the right and to the left with his hands on his hips. Next, he lifted his shoulders in a shrug position and held them for a couple of seconds before dropping them back to their relaxed position. He also alternated shoulders. Third, he slowly nodded his head all the way up and down when I said "yes" and slowly shook his head from side to side when I said "no." Finally, he wiggled his toes inside his shoes to relax his feet and legs, which helped because he had been standing all day.
During the third set, I explained a little bit about the vertebrae in the spine. He hunched over and held his fists out in front of him, stacked on top of each other. His fists didn't touch because there is a little disk between each vertebra, and I explained that when we stand tall, we want to separate our vertebrae as much as possible. Then I counted to ten while he used his fists to demonstrate and slowly stacked his vertebrae on top of each other to stand up tall. For the second exercise, he touched one ear to his shoulder and touched the other ear with his hand, and repeated on the other side. Third, he lowered his head like a submarine periscope and then raised it and looked from side to side. Finally, he moved his feet in place by raising each heel while keeping his toes on the floor.
For the fourth set, he started with a torso twist with his fists touching together and elbows out, and kept his feet flat on the floor. Next, he flexed his shoulders forward and then backward several times. After that, he stretched his chin up and forward, and then down and backward, then relaxed and lifted his head from the back and lowered his chin slightly. I explained that this was the proper position for singing, and then we finished the third exercise with a head roll. Finally, I asked him to do a lunge with one leg forward and then alternate legs. After doing all of these exercises, I asked which ones he liked the best, and he mentioned the periscope, the twist, and the vertebrae stacking. I agreed and said that I also liked the shoulder shrug, and the other spinal stretches.

When we had finished the posture exercises, we moved on to breathing-motion exercises. First, Marcus laid on his back on the floor, and I put a music book on his stomach. I asked him to take a deep breath so that it lifted the book. Then I took the book off and had him place his hands on his stomach and take the same type of breath so that his hands lifted. I had him stand up slowly with his hands on his stomach and he took a few breaths while standing that made his hands move forward slightly. Next, I brought out a balloon and Marcus watched as I blew into it. We discussed how the balloon expanded, and then applied that same concept to expanding at the midriff when breathing. I showed him what happened when I clenched the bottom half of the balloon and could only fill up the top part. I related the lungs to a ball and explained that an under-inflated ball does not bounce well and that under-inflated lungs do not sing well! Finally, I had him use his arms and body to imitate a balloon. He breathed out and hunched over, and then expanded as he took a deep breath. In the final breathing exercise, Marcus sipped in air as if through a straw.

The final part of the lesson focused on breath management. First, Marcus learned to flex his stomach muscles without breathing, making a firm and flat belly. Then he relaxed his stomach muscles forward, still without breathing, and repeated the motion several times. I noted to him that the stomach muscles can work independently of breathing. Secondly, I had him contract his stomach muscles and then exhale quickly, followed by complete relaxation which filled his lungs automatically. Third and finally, he practiced the breathing motion cycle by placing his hands on his stomach, flattening his belly as he breathed out, and then relaxing it forward as he breathed in. He practiced this several times until he was able to do it easily.

At the end of his lesson, I explained to Marcus that he needed to practice these three things - posture, breathing-motion, and breathing-management - whenever he sang throughout the week, whether he was at school, at home, at church, or anywhere else. When he asked why we didn't sing at all today, I explained to him that learning about posture and breath was more important than learning new songs, and that he should practice these things with songs that he already knows. I told him that if he wanted to be a good singer, it was going to take lots of patience and effort. Nobody becomes a singer overnight. I promised him that if he practiced the three things that he learned today, we would start singing the following week.