Breathing 101 Good breath flow and control is one of the most important things in singing. Taking a proper breath and learning how to use it correctly will help your voice to work at its best and protect it from damage.

Babies are born breathing naturally correct. How can they scream for hours and not hurt their vocal cords? As we grow older we often think we need to work harder at singing and in the end the shoulders raise and we get very tense – in fact we only take a shallow breath, using a small percentage of our lung capacity.

What happens when we breathe in and out?

1. The lungs rest on your abdomen, (lower tummy) which is like a sheet of muscle.

2. The diaphragm is attached to the spinal column, lower ribs and breastbone. It helps you inhale and exhale air.

3. When you breathe in the muscle lowers a few inches allowing your lungs to fill with air. You will see the tummy extend or move outwards slightly as you breathe in as a result of the movement.

4. When you breathe out, the diaphragm relaxes back into position, this squeezes the air out of the lungs. By controling how quickly or slowly you let your breath out, a singer learns to use this muscle system to control the breath so that the sound is smooth and not shaky.

5. A singer doesn't need to 'push' or 'force' the breath to produce a strong sound. Over-pushing creates too much pressure on the vocal cords and prevents them working properly.

6. The singer needs to control or slow down the rate of airflow so that they can hold notes longer and sing through phrases. The tummy area should move inwards towards the end of the breath – 'holding the notes' and keeping the breath moving. You don't need to 'suck-in' the muscles as this will just create tension and produce a strained note.

BREATHING EXERCISES

• Lie on the floor. Put hands on your tummy and just gently breathe in and out so that you can feel what happens.

• Sit on a chair, leaning forward slightly with elbows on knees. Breathe in imagining that your breath is heavy and feel how even when you breathe, your back muscles also let go and expand.

• Take a breath and imagine that you are trying to tell something to be quiet “ssh”. Put your finger in front of your mouth and very gently say “ssh” as slowly and quietly as you can. You must try to get your breath as smoothly as possible, let the tummy work naturally – no need to deliberately pull in - what happens?

• Take a breath. Imagine you have a row of 4 birthday candles in front of you. Gently blow out one, stop the breath and wthout taking a new breath try and blow the next. The tummy should move in with each blow but not pull in too much.

• Imagine you are a snake “sss” put your tongue against the bottom teeth, let the smallest amount of air out through the teeth. Make the breath last as long as possible.