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It is crucial to develop a strong awareness of your breathing. The aim is to achieve a
steady stream of air, consciously controlled by your muscles. This takes a lot of practice,
so it is important to start every singing session with breathing exercises. Correct
breathing will round your tone, make your voice fuller, allow you to project the sound
better and extend your range. It will also protect your vocal health by ensuring the
correct amount of pressure is placed on your larynx and vocal folds. The following
exercises are designed to deepen your breathing and engage all the muscles you should
be using. Before you start singing, always make sure that you are standing straight. Keep
your shoulders down and relaxed, with your ribs lifted off your waist. Stand with your
feet apart, toes turned slightly outwards. Stay flexible in this position, and be careful not
to lift your shoulders up or puff out your chest as you breathe in.
Singing
The ins and outs of breathing
It's the most instinctive thing we do, so relearning how to breathe
can be tough, but it will make all the difference, says Beatrice
Unsworth
Beatrice Unsworth
The Observer, Sunday 10 May 2009
1. First, lie on the ground with your hands at your sides, palms facing the ceiling, eyes
closed, and breathe naturally. Once you feel a lowering of the breath - which happens
automatically when you lie down - place the palm of one hand on your stomach with
your little finger over your navel and your thumb reaching towards your sternum. Feel
the natural rise and fall of your upper abdomen.
2. Next, stand up and pretend you're a Shakespearean actor projecting your voice to the
back of the room. Put your hand over your navel as before and say the word "Hi". As you
do this, pull your stomach sharply inwards, so the sound comes out quickly and loudly.
When you exhale, release the muscles so the next breath occurs naturally. Your stomach
should move outwards as you're breathing in. This exercise allows you to access the low
breath that you will use when singing.
3. Now we're going to activate the intercostal muscles, demonstrating the importance of
the slow outward breath. Put your hands on the bottom of your ribcage, with your
elbows out. Take a deep breath in through your nose and feel your ribs moving out and
up. Once you've taken the breath in, let it out through your mouth in a long stream.
Always keep the outward breath steady, don't let it splutter.
4. Try the exercise above using letters. Say the letter "f" as you breathe out, then the
letter "s", so that you hiss like a snake, then "sh", as if you're shushing someone. Breathe
out until all the air is gone, making the outward breath last as long as possible, so that
you can practise singing long phrases.
5. Now focus on gaining control of your lower abdominal muscles. Put your palm over
your navel, as before, then use your mouth to make three short puffs and one long puff
out. Squeeze the abdominal muscles toward your spine as you're doing this last puff,
keeping your shoulders still. After you've breathed out fully, release your muscles and
your body will breathe in naturally. For a quick intake of breath, give an "ah" as if in
surprise. You need to get a feeling of expansion as you're breathing in to create more
space in the lower abdomen.
6. To introduce tone, select any pitch and hum that note to let all the air out of your
body. Again, make sure the sound is steady. Introduce more tone by adding a vowel
between the humming. Start with a hum, then move into an "ah" on the same note, then
go back into a hum again to stop yourself getting too tense. Try to make your breath last
to a count of five on one note, then gradually increase this to a count of 10 or more. This
will expand your lung capacity and the elasticity of the intercostals, helping you sing
longer phrases.
How your voice works
The power behind your voice
Think of your lungs as bellows controlled by your diaphragm and abdominal muscles
("support"). You breathe by lowering your diaphragm, which pushes your stomach
downwards and forward and the ribs outward, drawing air into the lungs. Good
breathing in requires a relaxed abdominal wall (allow your tummy to get slightly fatter
as you breathe). When you sing, this system goes into reverse, with the support muscles
controlling the outflow of air through the larynx (your voice box).
Where sound is made
Your larynx contains a pair of vocal folds (or cords). When you bring them together on
the out-breath, they beat together hundreds of times per second, creating sound. To
make a higher note, your vocal cords are stretched, making them beat faster (think of
stretching a rubber band). When you sing louder, the cords become thicker. The basis
for all good singing is to make sound efficiently using as little air as possible.
From sound into song
Slightly lowering the larynx produces a more classical tone; pop and other commercial
styles use a neutral or even raised larynx. Tilting the larynx forward makes the sound
warmer. The soft palate (from which your uvula dangles in your mouth) is a valve that
diverts air either through the nose or mouth. Nasality must be avoided when singing
vowels. Try pinching your nose while singing an "ah": if there's a difference in sound,
you're letting air escape through your nose. In combination with the lips and jaw, the
tongue creates the vowels and consonants. A relaxed jaw and tongue are crucial for a
good sound, because any tension can give an unpleasant tone.
Stuart Barr
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