About breathing or support

Hi, I've finished several basic lessons. But I can't get the concept of singing with breath or support.

It's ok to do the practice, however, I can't apply it to singing.

If I sing with the sensation I felt in the practice, it seems like I am holding my breath and my voice sounds like there's tension.

Could you provide some suggestions or details about how to feel the sensation of breathing low (or expansion) or singing with support (leaning to breath/support) ?

Thanks a lot ~

Hi, Will!

Great question. I think the best suggestion I can give is to feel the amount of gentle support that naturally occurs when you sing a relaxed lip trill; then see if you can engage your low abs in that same gentle manner on something open like a HEY or WOAH. Let me know how that goes! It sounds like you're potentially using too much of abdominal pressure, if you're getting a tense sound and sensation!

Thanks for the reply and suggestion~

I did the lip trill and wanna make sure if I got the point :).

When doing lip trill, I can feel my abs engaged, which  I felt sligter compared to the sensation or pressure I mentioned in my original question.

Does that mean I have to sing with the same (or similar) "power" or "sansation" as what I felt when doing lip trill? ( I found that when I sing , I use more power than doing lip trill to engage my abs.)

If so, maybe I already have my abs engaged when singing, which I didn't know.

Then I mistakenly tried to add more power or pressure since I thought I lacked of support.

And it leads to a locked or tense result because I added unnessary pressure on what I did correctly originally?

I think that's correct! I can't say for sure without hearing/seeing you, but you can and should use the level of gentle engagement you naturally have on the lip trill as your guideline. Sometimes you may need more "breath support" or "air resistance" (for high pitches in chest voice, for example), but certainly not all the time. And you're correct that pushing or locking the abdomen can result in a pushed, strained sound.