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Author: Marvin J Markus

Breathing For Better Singing

The way you breath can greatly effect the way you sing. In fact, when working on improving your voice the first thing you should concentrate on is improving your breathing. In this article I will tell you how you can use a three step process to develop a more natural tension free way of breathing.

A big problem that often arises is that singers have been told that they need to breath deeply in order to sing well so they take overly large breaths that actually build unneeded tension in the body. This tension effects the vocals in a negative way. It's better to breath naturally rather than to force big tension building breaths.

You should allow yourself to breath, rather than to force yourself to breath. There's an important difference there that is the true key to natural breathing. Unfortunately many people have heard so much bad information about breathing for singing they have a lot of stuff to unlearn so that they can breath naturally again.

To get your breathing back on the right track, follow the these three simple steps.

Step One: Improve Your Posture

How you hold your body when you are standing is the starting point for natural breathing. You want to create an unobstructed pathway for air to travel to the lungs.

The first thing you should do is to stand up straight with your feet shoulder width apart. You should then roll your head around to ease all tension in your neck. Hold your head level, be sure your chin is not tipped up or down.

You should let your shoulder blades "slide" toward the center of your back so that they are back and down. Don't "bunch up" your shoulders. You need to have a strong but relaxed stance.

When your shoulder blades are towards the center of your back in this way it helps to open up your chest which makes breathing deeply easier.

You should let your knees bend slightly. Remember you want to feel loose and natural, not stiff.

Step Two: Learning To Inhale Properly

First of all remember to keep your body in the strong but loose position you just learned about. Each step for more natural breathing for better singing builds upon the step before it.

When you are breathing in you should put your hand on your stomach with your middle finger on your belly button. You should know that all of the "action" for breathing in should take place between the bottom of your ribs and right below your belly button.

Slowly fill your stomach with air. Do this without lifting your shoulders or puffing out your chest. When you do those things you add tension to your breathing and you actually make it so you cannot hold as much air. Your breathing is perfect when it's natural, you don't need to force air into your body.

Remember that you are letting this breath come into your belly. Don't force the air in. Don't extend your belly using your muscles. Let it happen, don't make it happen!

Step Three: Learning To Exhale

Like with the other steps, exhaling properly means to let the air come out of your body rather than to force it out. Exhaling is relaxation, it should not be a forceful thing.

Of course when you are singing, you are exhaling. Don't concentrate on forcing the air out of your body when you are singing. When you do that you are only building pressure and unneeded tension.

The key to exhaling properly is to not allow your muscles to become tight. You can practice by breathing in and breathing out and keeping your hand on your stomach and making sure there is no tension in your abdominal muscles. You should also try this when you are singing. Remember, muscle tension is bad. You want relaxation, not tension.

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