When to Breathe
When you are singing a song, you will have to find places in the music where you can take a breath. A good place to breathe is at the end of a phrase (group of notes), at the end of a bar or at the end of a long note.
Breathing takes up some of the time value of the note, but sometimes this is inevitable. In time you will instinctively find places to breathe which cause the least disruption to the flow of the music. Remember to breathe from the diaphragm and be careful not to lose your timing when you breathe. Counting mentally and tapping your foot on the beat as you sing will help you become more confident with this.
The Whole Note
This is a whole note.
It lasts for four beats.
There is one whole note in one bar of * time.
This example is four bars long and contains whole notes in bars 2 and 4. A good place to breathe here would be at the end of each whole note.
Music in * time can use any combination of note values which add up to the equivalent of four quarter notes per bar. Notice the two dots before the double bar at the end of the following example. This repeat sign indicates that the piece of music is to be played again from the beginning. On the recording, this melody is played on guitar. It is important to be able to learn melodies played by instruments, particularly if you wish to improvise. You will learn more about this in Lesson 21.
* is the most common time signature and is sometimes represented by the common time symbol.
