Proper breathing is essential to being a good singer. Here's a basic guide to help demystify singing breathing for new students of voice.
“Sing from your diaphragm. Sing from your diaphragm!” Have you ever heard this before?
Ugh! What does that even mean? It seems to be a common direction when people talk about proper singing technique (although the person who used to tell me this is a horrible singer).
I have had three voice teachers over my time of study (all with legitimate music degrees in vocal performance), and not a single one of them talked about the diaphragm. That doesn’t mean there isn’t physiological merit in mentioning the diaphragm, it’s just hard for a new singer to visualize and work on.
Yes, it is true that breathing is a fundamental element of singing well. When you’re singing, there are a lot of things going on mentally and physically, and that distracts from what you really need to be doing: breathing naturally.
Here are a few tips I’ve learned along the way that can help you get started on proper singing breathing (without all the useless and confusing physiology that seems to get thrown around):
These are the techniques that helped me crack the mystery that is singing breathing. The vast majority of voice teachers and learning methods will provide specific exercises that focus on developing breath. Eventually it will come naturally, so the best advice I can give is don’t try to force anything.
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