Singing with a Low Diaphragm

Voice lessons address lots of issues, but most ultimately go back to one topic: breathing.  If there is one thing most voice teachers will agree on, it is that a singer needs to take a low, deep breath with their diaphragm descending and pushing against your stomach.  Most people assume this sort of breathing is necessary to have more air to sing with and complete long musical phrases.  And while that is certainly a benefit, it is not the chief benefit of a lowered diaphragm.

Your diaphragm is actually connected to your larynx by the vagus nerve.  As you know, your larynx is your instrument, producing all your tones via the vibration of your vocal folds.  Singing with a low diaphragm does more than just increasing your breath capacity; it actually changes the tone and allows enables you to sing high pitches.  Here's how:

When you sing, your larynx tends to jump around a lot; if you sing high, it moves up, when you sing low, it moves down.  This is quite problematic for singing because if you attempt to sing a very high pitch, your larynx will ascend too high to produce a pitch.  This is where the diaphragm helps out.  When you breath deeply, your diaphragm descends, and via the vagus nerve, actually encourages your larynx to descend and stay in a stable position.  When you go for a high pitch with a lowered diaphragm, your larynx is able to stay in a relatively low position, allowing the high note to occur.

The other vocal benefit from a lowered diaphragm comes in the form of tone quality.  While we can debate over which singers have the better tone, there is no denying the enhanced resonance provided by a lowered diaphragm.  By lowering the larynx, a deeper and more resonant tone is created because there is more space for the sound to reverberate in.  While this lowered larynx sound is most often used in opera, most singers find the benefits of lowering their larynx to help in whatever genre of music they pursue.  And everyone likes hitting high notes!

A nice health side-benefit of a lowered diaphragm is that it lowers your heart rate, reducing stress and may ultimately improve your health.  Doctors have noticed that singers tend to have lowered heart rates when they sing, and this type of breathing is very helpful in ordinary life.  When one gets angry or stressed, a simple breathing exercise in which you take deep breaths and monitor your exhalation does wonders for your daily life!

And finally, yes, a lowered diaphragm does indeed give you more breath capacity.  When it descends, it creates a vacuum in your body that must be filled (nature abhors a vacuum...).  Air rushes in and fills your lungs to take up the extra space.  More air means you can sing for a longer period of time. 

So if you can tell from this post, I'm a big fan of the diaphragm!

DWS