0528 – On-Mic Breathing

2022.06.12 – 0528 – On-Mic Breathing

Take a breath before opening the mic, so the first thing a listener hears is a word not a gasp. Also beware of lip-smacks when you take subsequent breaths when you are on air at the start of a new story or paragraph. This is the sound that occurs when you take a breath and utter a habitual ‘wet kiss’ sound (or ‘tsk’) as you open your mouth. It can be an unconscious habit and once spotted, very annoying to listeners. It can also be interpreted as a single ‘tutting sound’, as though you are judging what you or someone else has just said.

Gasped-in breaths during a read can be caused by nerves: people perhaps worried that they’ll run out of air and want to take a big lungful - what you’d do in a ‘freeze situation, or if you were about to run away.

As we have seen before, a big breath will:

·        Cause tension in the neck and throat and shoulders

·        Causes big pressure in your throat, all that air ready to rush out.

So, relax! Remember you don’t need to suck air in, it’s done naturally to even out the pressure lost once you have let it out. You don’t need to think about it at all – after all you do it naturally most of the day, and certainly all of the night when you are asleep.

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