Voice Exercises and Breathing Tips for Singing

Posted on January 5, 2011 by voiceexercises Proper breathing is a foundational skill for very good singing. When you sing, you are carrying tones applying the flow of air in your breath. If you possess better control over your airflow, you will develop improved control over your vocal tone. It helps to imagine a kite flying in the air. With a potent coursing air current, the kite flies smoothly and progressively in the sky. If there is an irregular flow of air, the kite dips and bobs uncontrollably. Your singing voice is just like the flying kite. With a powerful constant flow of air, your voice will swiftly stream to our ears. However, if the airflow in your lungs is not managed well, your singing will quiver and break. Nonetheless, prior to testing these exercises, kindly make note that sucking in more oxygen than what your body is familiar with can induce wooziness. You should always be careful and hang out close to a support in case you feel lightheaded. Always speak with your Doctor before commencing a new workout program. The Four Count Respiration Workout Ideal breathing during singing engages the diaphragm. Rehearse the routine outlined below to strengthen good breathing patterns. * Breathe in deeply, then let out your breath fully * Take a breath and let out your breath * Inhale once again, only this time, breathe in for four seconds. Maintain your breath for 4 seconds, then let out your breath for four seconds and wait four seconds prior to breathing in yet again * Replicate the four second breathing exercise 3 times repeatedly Inhale 2 3 4, Maintain 2 3 4 Breathe out 2 3 4 and Wait 2 3 Once again. Breathe in 2 3 4, Maintain 2 3 4 Breathe out 2 3 4 and Hold 2 3 Last Time. Breathe in 2 3 4, Maintain 2 3 4 Breathe out 2 3 4 and Hold 2 3 4. You can perform this training just about every day. Creating greater respiratory habits is about consistency. The more you rehearse deep breathing with your diaphragm, the more potent the behavior will develop into, and the better management you will have over your voice. As you grow to be more skilled, improve the time period between breathing periods. Take in air for 8, 12, or even 16 seconds. Consider varying the time in between breathing in and breathing out. Singing makes use of countless unique phrase lengths, so you should certainly practice controlling various patterns of airflow. Bend Over Breathing Exercise

* Stand with your legs about shoulders width apart * Bend over at the waistline, so that your hands are almost reaching the floor. Unwind your head and shoulders fully * From this stance, begin to breathe in * Permit your core to rise a little with the intake of the breath * Enable your body to slump down again as you exhale * Get a second breath, enabling your body to elevate as you inhale, and drop as you exhale * On your third breath, steadily straighten your upper body to the vertical position, and slowly lift your arms above your head. The aim is to lift your rib cage higher. Be certain that you proceed to inhale slowly throughout this activity. * Let your body to slump down again as you exhale * Repeat this exercise three more times. And finally, if youre interested in learning additional voice exercises, please check out My Voice Exercises at www.myvoiceexercises.com.

7 Tips How to Improve Singing Voice By gempurpasla - Last updated: Saturday, September 29, 2012 - Save & Share - 6 Comments

Hundreds of people are searching for effective methods to help how to improve singing voice and these tips for improving your singing voice are sure to get you singing and sounding much better. Tip 1: Consider about breathing. You arent using your voice to its full potential, without proper breathing. To find out if youre breathing correctly for singing, place your hand on your stomach and inhale. Your hand should move outyour stomach should be expanding, not your ribcage and chest. Thats because you need to support your breath with your diaphragmthe muscle underneath the lungs that inflates them. The diaphragm is activated by abdominal muscles, and its much stronger than the muscles between your ribsthe muscles youre using if your chest, not your stomach, expands with your breath.

Youll need to have strong breath to give your voice adequate support for singing. To do this, youll need to use your stomach and lower abdominal muscles to support

your breath. Ab crunches and sit-ups can help you build up strength in this area that you can use to project your voice. Tip 2: Focus on posture. Your breath travels from your lungs straight up through your mouth. If its passage is twisted, kinked, or blocked in any way, it wont be able to get out efficiently. How you stand has a big effect on how you sound. You should be standing with your legs about shoulder-width apart. Your chest should be lifted to give your lungs plenty of room to expand. Your shoulders should be back and relaxed. Tip 3: Relax. If theres tension anywhere from your abdomen to your head, itll affect your sound. Your facial muscles, tongue and throat muscles, vocal cords, jaw and shoulders should all be as relaxed as possible. There are plenty of jaw and facial exercises as well as warm-up activities that will help you relax the muscles in your shoulders, face, and vocal cords. Tip 4: Know where to put your tongue and soft palate. The soft palate should be raisedthis will give more space for your voice to resonate. The tip of your tongue should be placed at the back of your teeth. This will keep it from blocking your throat if its positioned too far back. Tip 5: Watch what you eat. Theres nothing better for your voice than water. Period. If you have a performance coming up, avoid dairy and thick drinks for at least three days beforehand. Drink only water the day of the performance. Tip 6: Dont strain. Pay attention to your body. If something hurts when you sing, youre either at the limit of your range or youre doing something wrong. You should be able to sing at a strong, healthy volume if youre maintaining proper breath control; if something hurts because youre singing too loudly, youre probably not supporting your voice well with your breaththe vocal cords are doing all the work. If you hurt when trying to hit certain high or low notes, however, it may be that youre trying for a note thats outside of your range. Its true that good breath control can expand your range, but the size of your vocal cords determines the pitches you can reach. You may not be able to hit certain notes no matter how well you support your voice. Its important to choose songs you can sing comfortably. Above all, dont try to sing if you have

a sore throatyou may make it worse. Tip 7: Warm up before singing. Dont go straight into a song without a good warm-up first. A good warm-up routine should concentrate on relaxing your body and getting your breath ready, and should start with simple deep breaths. It should progress to light humming from there, and then some scale work once you feel ready. Its important not to strain too hard during the warmup processdont reach for notes that arent comfortable, and dont sing at the top of your volume.

Its a shame that so many people think they cant singand wouldnt be caught dead singing in public. In truth, singing is something anyone can learn to do. Follow these tips and practice, and youll have a singing voice youll be proud to show off.

There are many good voice techniques available which claim to help you achieve the voice you always wanted however if there is no mention of breath to support this voice, then these techniques are not worthy of your time. Diaphragmatic Breathing, Resonance, Volume/Projection, Prosody

Diaphragmatic Breathing
Breath support is the basis of many phonation and fluency disorders. Having efficient breath control and support is paramount in changing your speech pattern (rate, fluency, inflection) as well as the quality of your voice (pitch, nasality, and volume). For singers, using good breath support is key to maintain a healthy voice, as well as achieving the tones and registers they desire. Our diaphragm acts as the body's built in regulator, which responds to the changing needs to the vocal cords. For the singer who wants to maintain a even vibrato (spin in the sound) the diaphragm respond in order to allow the breath to speed up or slow down. Whether there is a neurogenic component to your disordered speech, or no pathology whatsoever (you are healthy), engagement of your diaphragm can have a great impact on your speech pattern and voice output. A strong core, good posture, spinal alignment, and an overall awareness of your where your body is in space, is a key in being able to produce a strong voice. During this act of inhalation, in which you breathe in through your mouth, you want to maintain good posture (shoulders in line with your ears, hips, ankles) be mindful as to not arch your back, as this will take you out of alignment. Also, your shoulders do not move up and instead stay level. Below are some photos that might help you to become more aware of how the diaphragm moves when you inhale (Figure 1) through your mouth (for maximum lung capacity). See how your diaphragm moves in unison with your pelvic floor. Your rib cage moves up and out making room for your lungs to fill with air. Your diaphragm moves down and out (Figure 2).

Figure 1 Source: Conable, B. (2000). What every musician needs to know about the body. Portland, OR: Andover Press

Figure 2 Source: Conable, B. (2000). What every musician needs to know about the body. Portland, OR: Andover Press These next two photos show the difference in lung capacity in accordance with engagement of your diaphragm. Note that the middle photo shows how the shoulders move up.

Source: Daniels, N. (2006). The Voice Dynamic Approach. Note the difference in lung capacity from the middle photo to the third photo.

Source: Daniels, N. (2006). The Voice Dynamic Approach.

Resonance
Exercises in resonance take a considerable degree of mind-body connection. I suggest first meeting for one-on-one personal sessions before trying these exercises on your own so that you have a better understanding of what you need to concentrate on. You ultimately want most of the resonance to occur in your chest cavity. This will give you a rich, round, confident voice. Voice can also resonate in your laryngeal cavity (vocal cords), pharynx (back of throat), oral cavity, and nasal cavity. Too much resonance in your nasal cavity will cause you to sound 'nasal'. However, there are times where you do want to play around with the other resonators. This is when you want to add inflection, emotion or color to your voice. Also, a singer may want to play around and go from lower, middle, and upper registers, which would then affect how or where the sound is resonated.

Volume/Projection
We are all familiar with the saying "screaming from the top of your lungs" and this well known saying originated by doing just that. Screaming does nothing in terms of gaining volume. Screaming makes you loud, and loud is annoying. Loudness does not gain attention; loudness makes the listener turn away. To achieve true volume is to engage your diaphragm and have the sound resonate in your chest cavity; this is very different than using shallow breathing and the voice coming from the upper chest cavity or more often so, your larynx. In order to project your voice, it needs to come from your diaphragm and you need to be speaking at your optimum pitch.

Prosody
Adding prosody or color to your voice is not as easy as you may think. As speakers of English, it is quite natural for us to add differing tones, and inflections in our speech pattern. I mentioned this earlier when referring to finding the different registers and moving from one to the next. Not only does this allow for different resonators, but it also allows for the shortening and lengthening of the vocal cords to allow for pitch changes. These changes occur within your optimum range. Your optimum pitch is in the center of that range. If you speak outside of your optimum pitch range, then you will lose that richness in your voice.