In the past week this topic has come up in two different contexts for clients. One example is what you might expect, a professional speaker who noticed that he could hear his breaths during a TED talk. The other, perhaps less obvious, is someone who has been doing a lot of job interviews and noticed that she can hear herself gasp for air when answering questions.
Different settings, same problem: tension causing audible inhales.
What is gasping for air?
What I mean by that phrase in this context is simply an audible inhale. When you can hear someone suck in air, and it sounds like a gasp of surprise.
We typically do not hear people inhale, especially if they are not using a microphone. And a subtle noise on the inhale that would go unnoticed in normal life is, well, amplified by a mic.
Why does it matter?
There are two main reasons why you might not want to hear your inhales. First, in a recording (presentation, voiceover, keynote, narration, etc), it’s just aesthetically unpleasing and distracting. For audio work, someone will likely have to go in and manually edit out a lot of that breath noise (and if you do VO from home, that someone is probably you!)
The second reason is that when we hear someone not in control of their breath, it gives an impression of lack of confidence and power. People who are relaxed and in control aren’t gasping for air. This is as important in a job interview as it is in a speech.
What causes audible inhalations?
The short answer is tension in the throat. There is turbulence in the airstream caused by constriction of the throat muscles. Think of a wind tunnel, when wind blows through a narrowed opening and we can hear it. Well, the same is true inside the body.
When we inhale, the air moves through the mouth (or nose) and throat as it enters the trachea to head to the lungs. We have more control over the shape of that passageway than we think. If we accidentally close it off, we hear the inhale.
How to stop hearing your breaths
The first thing to try is opening your throat. Like a yawn. Or an opera singer. Try this experiment:
Take in a quick breath, and deliberately gasp for air – make it sound like you were just surprised by something.
Now think of opening your throat like a yawn, and take in the same amount of air just as quickly. If you really do create an open space, the breath will be silent (or at least quieter).
Now, this might be easier said than done, in which case you might need some guidance finding all those little throat muscles and learning to adjust them.
What if it still feels like the timing of breathing is off?
This issue often accompanies the audile inhale. Tension in the whole breathing system is possible. This can result in either over- or under-breathing. Taking in too much or too little air causes a disruption in the flow, and this leads to tension in the whole system.
So in addition to the throat, looking at the breath in general might be needed. For more info on this I direct you to my post “Talking fro the diaphragm” is BS.
If you feel you would benefit from some personalized guidance to accomplish these goals, reach out for a session.
