Breath control

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From the course by University of Washington

Introduction to Public Speaking

385 ratings

University of Washington

Introduction to Public Speaking

385 ratings

Course 1 of 4 in the Specialization Dynamic Public Speaking

This course gives you a reliable model for preparing and delivering effective presentations. In business, in school, and in public life, we are often called upon to “make a few comments.” Often, people tasked with such speeches become flummoxed. They might not know what to talk about, or ramble without making a point, or simply be confusing to listen to. This course is designed to help you shine where others falter. We’ll learn how organize talks clearly, write them memorably, and deliver them confidently. By the end of the course, you should be able to significantly reduce your fear of public speaking, use rehearsal techniques to develop a strong, vibrant speaking voice, and perform speeches with dynamic movement and gestures. The speech model that we’ll practice is useful for briefings, elevator talks, interviews, and even as a structure for hour-long presentations. If you’re a beginner, this course will help you quickly master the fundamentals of speaking. If you’re a seasoned speaker, this course will help you better understand public speaking and push you to the next level.

From the lesson

Week 4: Overcoming your fear of public speaking and developing great delivery

This week, we'll discuss speech apprehension and delivery. I know the fear of public speaking is a pressing topic for many. Why didn’t we start the course with this? Because I think many delivery concerns go away if the invention and arrangement are good. However, invention and arrangement are just part of the equation - now we can supercharge our delivery. By the end of this week, you’ll have some techniques for combating those butterflies and speaking confidently. If you want some feedback, you’ll be able to upload a practice key point speech for peer review.

Breath control6:34

Meet the Instructors

Dr. Matt McGarrity
Principal Lecturer
UW Department of Communication

Right now, you're breathing.

I hope you're breathing.

If not, seek out medical attention.

But you were breathing and

you weren't even thinking about it until I mentioned it.

That's good, right?

But in this video, we're going to talk about how we breathe and

the problems we run into with breath control and speaking.

And then finally we'll talk about how to breathe properly for good volume and

projection.

So to begin with, what's going on here when we breathe?

The obvious bits are we have lungs that take in oxygen and

they send it to our blood, but the lungs just don't push the rib cage around.

We got two really important sets of muscles here.

We have the diaphragm, and this is a thin muscle that separates the chest and

abdominal cavities, and then we've got the intercostal muscles,

these are the muscles in the spaces between your ribs.

So when we inhale, the intercostal muscles pull up and the diaphragm pulls down.

And this creates more space in the thoracic cavity, the chest cavity, and

then the lungs can fill with air.

And that's all pretty automatic.

So why do people run out of breath when they give a talk?

Well people run out of breath for a couple of different reasons.

One you might be nervous, so

your breathing might increase with your heart rate or your breathing faster.

Your chest and your neck muscles might tighten up a little bit and

that makes it harder to breathe deeply.

But more than that, breathing in a speech or in singing for

that matter is kind of different.

So if you're sitting around watching TV, you inhale and

exhale for about the same amount of time.

But in speaking, we inhale for less time and we exhale for longer.

We're just doing more stuff with that air.

And this often resulted in a couple of pretty predictable problems.

So first, shallow breathing.

This is where you inhale a lot but the diaphragm isn't actually moving that much.

And so it limits how much oxygen you can actually draw in.

So you take in a couple of breaths or two.

Or, [SOUND].

You're panting.

You're just getting a lot of air in there.

But it's not really activating that muscle much.

You do that too much you black out, right?

Our second problem is not exhaling fully.

So there you're sort of retaining air.

So here the problem is you're not pushing the air out when you speak.

So you might take a breath in, push out a little bit,

and then you go for that second breath and you can't take

in a bunch of fresh oxygen because your lungs are already kind of full.

And the problem is without good breath control, speakers can speak too softly.

In some cases, a lack of good deliberate breathing

can make your voice sound what I would call wavy like you're about to cry.

You're not pushing enough air across the vocal folds so you're like

I just want to thank everyone for coming today, that nervous sounding voice.

So we don't want that.

What do we want to be doing for good breath control?

Well, we want to inhale a good volume of air and

exhale it deliberately and we talk about this as diaphragmatic breathing.

Diaphragmatic breathing is popular with actors and opera singers,

so Like an opera, they have to do really big vocal projection with sustained notes,

and you need diaphragmatic breathing for that.

Diaphragmatic breathing is also pretty popular with yoga and

meditation because it can help with relaxation.

So what is this thing?

Well, to begin with, you are not actually breathing from your diaphragm,

that's impossible.

It's not your lungs, but in diaphragmatic breathing we are trying to be very

deliberate about moving the diaphragm down, and intercostal muscles out.

So, try this.

This is a way of getting the physical sensation of deep breathing.

Stand and put your hand on your stomach, or you lie down on the floor and

put a book on your stomach.

The goal is to expand the stomach while you breathe.

What's happening is you're pulling the air in,

and that triggers the diaphragm to activate.

This is sometimes why diaphragmatic breathing is called belly breathing,

because your belly is moving in and out.

And I will usually do diaphragmatic breathing exercises as warm-ups

before I give a speech.

But we can do that right now.

So go ahead and stand up, if you can, and push your hand on your stomach.

And what we're going to do is we're going to take a deep breath in, and

your hand should go out.

Maybe not that much, but your hand should go out.

Your shoulders shouldn't move too much, we don't want shallow breathing.

We want good deliberate breathing and then once you have that air in,

you're going to push the air out forcefully.

We're going to do in for five, hold for five, out for five.

So take a deep breath, in for hive.

[SOUND] Hold for five.

And this should be comfortable.

And then push out.

[SOUND] So you're squeezing that air out,

don't let it just sort of vomit out, okay.

Let's do it again.

In for five.

[SOUND] Hold for five.

And out for five.

[SOUND] So that's an exercise.

Obviously you don't do that in the middle of your speech.

You're not like so my research focuses on three key insights.

[SOUND] So first, right, you're not doing that but that activity

gives you the general sensation you should have as you're speaking.

So if the goal is to inhale this good volume of air and use it efficiently,

you need to be standing properly.

So try this, stand up again, if you've sat down, and standing up, really slouch.

Just aw, you're just awful, life has no meaning, so sad, all right, and

while slouching, try to take a deep breath in.

[SOUND] Okay, it's harder, right?

Because you're preventing your chest cavity from fully expanding.

And you're probably also not really activating that diaphragm.

So stand up straight.

Your mom was right the whole time.

You slouch too much, okay?

But stand up straight and when you speak you take in a quick breath of air and

then you use that air deliberately.

So when I'm speaking and pushing that air out,

I often feel some tension, not like an uncomfortable amount.

But some tension in my trunk as I'm speaking to large audiences.

That means I'm just really pushing that air out when I speak.

So in conclusion, good airflow is vital to speaking.

Breathe in deeply, activating that diaphragm, and

then push the air out deliberately to give your voice more energy and projection.

[MUSIC]

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