In the last installment I said I would provide some breathing exercises you can do to help isolate and understand how it feels to breathe correctly and to properly identify the diaphragm and put it to work in a conscious manner. Here they are: Warning – these exercises can make you light headed when you first do them. Please make sure you are safely near a chair, couch or bed when you do them.
Lay flat on the floor on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent. In this position, it is impossible to breathe wrong. Place one hand on your chest, the other on your tummy. Notice the difference in the way the two move. Your tummy goes up and down, your chest remains largely still—and laying down you can’t raise your shoulders. Now stand up and duplicate how you felt breathing while laying down. Take your shirt off and watch yourself breathe in front of a mirror. Watch how your body moves while standing up straight, shoulders back and taking in a slow deep breath. For the most part, your abdomen should be the only thing moving. When you breathe in, your abdomen should go out and the opposite when you exhale.
Next, pant like a dog. Let your tongue hang out and concentrate on how the breath feels entering and exiting your body. Again, be careful, you might become light-headed.
Next, purse your lips and do 3 or 4 quick, short exhalations through your mouth and feel what’s happening in your abdomen.
Do Drill Sargent “Huts”. Make a quick paroxysm of your lungs expelling the air through your mouth.
These are beginning exercises that help you to isolate and understand your diaphragm and how it works. Developing the diaphragm is fundamental to producing the proper airflow in support of your singing voice. From here there are vocal exercises to strengthen and stretch your usable vocal range. These exercises are called vocalese and are the scales you hear singers use as warm-ups prior to singing. You can buy recordings of vocalese you can use to practice with. But I recommend taking voice lessons from a trained vocal coach to truly get the basics down right.
Enjoy!
