Stackapella Open the app

Unit 1 · One easy breath

Keep the ribs wide

Hands on your lower ribs, breathe in so they widen with your shoulders down, then let them close slowly as you sing: what singers call appoggio. Free to try.

Sing this lesson

Free in the app: sing one lesson of each course with no account; a free account opens the course unit by unit.

More in One easy breath

What it teaches

Good support keeps your ribs from closing too fast. Singers call it appoggio: leaning.

Hands on your lower ribs. At your sides, thumbs to the back

Breathe in. Feel the ribs widen; shoulders stay down

Close them slowly. As you sing, don't let them drop all at once

Breathe normally for three easy breaths. No countdown: go on when you're ready.

Breathe normally. In and out, easy

Shoulders down. Let them drop

When you're ready. Go on

What you sing

  1. Try a big breath (not your biggest) and start the note at once, without holding it. Stop while it's easy.
  2. Now a normal breath, hands on your lower ribs. Hold "vv" to your goal, keeping the ribs wide. Did your shoulders stay down? Was it easier than the big breath?

Singing safely

Don't lock your stomach. Stop if you feel dizzy, wheezy or tight, and sit for long holds. With asthma, another lung or heart condition, or if pregnant, keep holds short and easy. Skip it when hoarse or ill.

Free tools by Stackapella

All of these are free, and so is every course.

Stackapella teaches you to sing harmony one part at a time, right in your browser.

Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up.
  • A guide sings your partHear your line over the others, slow it down, then take your turn.
  • Your notes light upEach note shows where you landed, and a hint when to go up or down.
  • Record every part yourselfStack your takes in time until you're the whole choir.
Start the beginner course Open the app How Stackapella works

More free tools

No account, no ads. Each one keeps working offline once you've opened it.

See all 17 tools