Your Voice's Fuel ⛽- The Lungs
Your breath is the fuel for your speech. You need gas to get places like you need breath to continue speaking.
Over the next few articles I write, I'll be reviewing each of the relevant components to speech and communication. Understanding each component will highlight beginner and advanced considerations for each component to elevate your communication skills. We'll start with the lungs first.
So Why The Lungs?
Well, breath is important for speaking for 2 reasons.
You need to live to speak. Even before you think about speaking, you need breath to live, so your body will automatically force you to breathe, even if you want to keep speaking instead.
Your ability to speak is dependent on your breath support. Even if you move your lips, mouth, tongue in the correct way, airflow is needed for English speech sounds. Some sounds in other languages do not require airflow from the lungs and are called non-pulmonic sounds including clicks, ejectives and implosives but for English, the lungs are vital.
Lung Function 🫁
Air goes in. Air goes out. Pretty simple.
But, you can breathe in different ways which can impact how much air you can use.
When you hyperventilate or are crying profusely, you engage in shallow breathing and your breath can be shallow and be seen in your chest or shoulders.
When you take a deep breath in, your belly should expand. This is because your diaphragm contracts, making room for your lungs to expand. When you breath out, the diaphragm relaxes and air is pushed out of the lungs.
Ever heard of diaphragmatic breathing, speaking from your diaphgram, or having a projecting voice?
Being able to engage in diaphragmatic breathing is harnessing effective breath support. There are lots of videos explaining how to diaphragmatic breathing here. Benefits of diaphragmatic breathing include:
✅ relaxed breathing
✅ improved posture
✅ reduced vocal strain
✅ optimal breath support for speech
So first step, pay attention to HOW you breath. Does it change when you are stressed? What about when you are giving a presentation or in a high-stress situation?
Knowing how to control your breath when you are speaking is a critical part in communication.
So Why Is Breath Support For Speech?
Speech is the productive use of the air that is pushed out of the lungs when breathing out. Instead of letting the air quietly escape from your mouth or nose or loudly escape with a sigh or yawn, you are making different mouth shapes to shape the resonating air vibrations into meaningful sounds. Language is the agreed-upon system whereby a specific sequence of shaped sounds comes out and both the speaker and listener connect that sequence of shaped sounds to an abstract idea.
It is only because English speakers all agree that the sequences of sounds in "D-O-G" means "dog" that this system works.
Communication - The Next Step
Now, communication is more than just individual words. It is a sequence of words that requires you to string along multiple breaths in order to accomplish this feat. You have to productively and strategically use your breath to get your whole message out.
Think of breath as the fuel you need for communication - your metaphorical car.
Without enough fuel, you ain't making a sound.
So, it is important to recognize then that it is important to plan you speech out.
Similar to planning a road trip, it is not smart to speak until you are out of breath. You can't keep driving until you run out of gas.
Just like running out of gas at an inopportune time can leave you stranded, if you don't plan out your speech, it can lead to inopportune times to stop to catch your breath.
Like in the middle of a sentence.
Like in the middle of an important word or sentence.
Like in the middle of a word.
Imagine the following iconic phrases and what might happen if they are not produced well.
"One small step for.....................<breath>..................... man, one big.....................<breath>..................... leap for mankind"
"May.....................<breath>.....................the force be with you."
"You can't.....................<breath>.....................handle the truth"
"Are you not.....................<breath>.....................entertained?"
Native English speakers have unspoken guidelines on WHEN to take a breath. They aren't rules and there are always exceptions but it is important to recognize and be aware that there are guidelines - social norms.
Typically, breaths are taken at key points.
Periods, commas, and punctuation points.
Intentional pauses for emphasis (like the video below)
If you are not sure WHEN you take a pause or not sure WHY you are taking a breath when you do, it may be a sign you are not intentionally commanding attention or emphasizing certain words when you speak.
A good starting point is knowing roughly how many words you can say before you run out of air. Then, pay attention to when you naturally take breaths when talking. Practice intentionally stopping to take a breath at punctuation marks (if your speech had subtitles for listeners).
When you become skilled in breath control, you can create dynamic pace & tension, command attention because you slow down or speed up, and have enough breath to support loud, clear speech.
Let me know down below whether you knew all these tidbits of information? What did I miss?
