Stagger. Breathe. Repeat.

In choir we’re taught to stagger our breathing during particularly grueling periods of sustained notes or crescendo.

The skill teaches us that if we all take a collective breath at once in the middle of a powerful moment, we will break the hypnotic building power of our music.

There is no need to gasp for a panicked breath quickly and try to minimize your individual break. There is no need to stop all together when you’re out of breath. There is no need to leave the stage. There is no need to time your breath with others, or give them notice of your own. There is no need to push yourself to the point of collapse, insisting you don’t need an intake of breath at all.

A choir is a collective. Staggered breathing is the art of gently phasing out your voice, taking your slow, deep breath, and easing back into the note while being carried by the others. Maintaining the illusion of full participation.

The audience remains awed, none the wiser that you ever took a pause, because the group carries on, undisturbed by a single, subtle breath. Happening in small pockets across the wider scope.

Find your breaths. Come back to the song.

And the crescendo grows.