Breathing 101 For Singers

Most singers understand that you need to be good at breathing to be a strong singer, and many have even heard the advice "breathe from your diaphragm!"  In voice lessons, I often have to clear up misconceptions about breathing, so here's a very basic anatomy of how you breathe as a singer.

First, it's very important to understand that your lungs are PASSIVE organs.  They don't suck in the air or somehow contribute to getting air inside your body.  What causes your lungs to fill up is when your brain tells your rib cage to expand outward and your diaphragm to move downward.  This movement creates a vacuum in your body, and the old saying that "nature abhors a vacuum" is quite true in this context.  Air rushes into your body and expands your lungs in order to fill the vacuum generated by the movement by your rib cage and diaphragm.

"Breathe from your diaphragm" is a very useful cliche for teaching but is not actually what occurs on an anatomical level.  Your diaphragm doesn't take in any air but its movement pushes many other organs outward (your stomach and intestines).  This is a great way to feel a good breath because your lower belly button should move outward every time you take a breath.  If that area is sucked in or tight when you breathe, you will have difficulties singing long phrases or high notes.

All the above is about getting a good breath.  The second is how you MANAGE IT.  When you sing, your vocal folds control how pressurized the air is when you release it for a pitch.  Very loose vocal folds result in a breathy sound; the opposite creates a strident tone or harsh onset.  The goal, then, is a balance, like a guitar strings are taut without snapping.  This isn't something you can control physically; just try telling your vocal folds to relax!  But through a variety of vocal exercises I use with my singers, I can train my students to understand when the vocal tone produced is balanced and manages their airflow well.  It is a VERY tricky and long process, but understanding how to manage your air is critical to effective singing.

Finally, effective breathing for singing isn't just about sustaining a long phrase or creating a pretty tone.  Effective breathing also determines your vocal range.  A singer with strong breathing technique will be able to sing much higher than a singer with poor breathing technique due to how the diaphragm is connected to your larynx. When your diaphragm descends for breathing, it has the wonderful side-effect of lowering and stabilizing your larynx, which enables you to sing high notes.  A diaphragm that does not descend fully will prevent you from singing to the extremes of your vocal range.

DWS