When you sing, there are many things that you must focus on. In fact, it can be overwhelming trying to drop your jaw, expand your rib cage, raise your soft palette, put it in your mix, add more diction, squeeze your diaphragm and watch your intonation all while trying to stylize a piece. It is a mental and physical challenge that tests you in several ways. However, whether you are a beginner or a professional singer, it can be easy to lose sight of the basic technique behind singing. Acknowledging the physicality behind the art form can certainly help you succeed but, if the most important aspects are ignored, one may never achieve their desired sound. I have found through personal experience (many years of being a vocal student, observing teachers, and a couple years of teaching others) that there are two important features of singing: breathing and placement. Now these are very broad terms. Everyone understands the meaning of generic breathing. But vocal-breathing is much more specific and localized. Placement may seem vague but it is perhaps the greatest tool a singer can use. These two characteristics are essential to technique and development.

BREATHING

As for vocal breathing, there is one specific part of the body that must always be engaged: the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a combination of tendons and a “thin skeletal muscle that sits at the base of the chest and separates the abdomen from the chest. It contracts and flattens when you inhale. This creates a vacuum effect that pulls air into the lungs. When you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and the air is pushed out of lungs” (Santos-Longhurst 1). Without getting too deep into the anatomy and function of the diaphragm, it is located under the ribs and can be found by gently pressing into the abdomen below your ribcage. When you take a deep breath, the muscle is engaged in order to force air from the lungs into or through the voice. Once you develop a relationship with this area of your body, you can easily feel from where and when you are breathing. 

Concentrating on diaphragmatic breathing is something I ensure my students practice on from the beginning of lessons. It is important to have a low “belly breath” rather than lift/puff out your chest. This kind of breath is unsustainable. Now technically, we cannot direct our diaphragm to do anything because it is an involuntary muscle. Telling a singer to use their diaphragm is the equivalent of telling a runner to pump their heart. It is impossible. When instructors or singers engage the diaphragm, it means they are using the muscles surrounding the diaphragm and their core in its entirety to breath. It is also noteworthy to mention that when you breath from your lungs, you are not selectively breathing from your chest or the front of your body. Your lungs reside in your chest cavity, which extends towards the front AND back. Therefore, expanding your ribcage from all angles will provide you with an even more full and sustainable breath. Breathing fuels your vocal energy, the high and low notes, your phrasing, your stamina, and your placement. If you do not support your voice with proper breathing, you simply cannot give proper attention to other goals or areas of need. Although breathing is a common activity, singers control the length of their exhalation and inhalation in order to sustain phrases. 

Breathing exercises are crucial to strengthening the muscles around the diaphragm and understanding how it feels and works in your body. Some of my favorites include standing against a wall with your knees slightly apart and bent, your spine curved so your upper back and bottom are leaning against the wall but your heels are several inches away from the wall. As you feel your weight center over your knees, as if you are skiing or ready to squat, inhale from the lower belly and expand your ribcage, and allow your breath to move up through your back and chest. Something else you can try several times a day is letting out all of your air, taking in a slow breath over ten seconds and then releasing your air slowly for fifteen seconds. You can work yourself up to inhaling for fifteen seconds and releasing for twenty seconds. You can also lay on the floor with a light object over your stomach so that when you inhale deeply, you can see the object rise, therefore visualizing the expansion of your lower abdomen during your breath. However, when performing this exercise, make sure to engage the back muscles as well.