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.
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