Properly using your diaphragm

Over all the years of teaching singing at Vocicercise, we have heard many people express their funny ideas about breath control.

Where did the idea of breath control come from?

The first consideration people had about breath control came from vocal training that was created by priests and monks over 300 years ago, before the science existed. The concepts about what the diaphragm could or could not do was very fleeting. Fast forward 300 years, we now have MRIs and CAT scans of what our body actually does when we breathe.

Here is what we know about the diaphragm

Your diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle located underneath your lungs, and it is always working. Whether you are a good singer or a bad singer, you’re using your diaphragm. You are always using it when you’re singing, because it is the muscle that makes you breathe, and if you stopped breathing all of a sudden, singing would be the last of your concerns.

When you breathe in, your diaphragm moves downwards, and as you breathe out, your diaphragm moves upwards. This happens about a million times a day for every single person that exists on this planet.

When you put more emotion into something, you’re using your diaphragm even more. For instance, if you’ve ever gotten angry at somebody and yelled and screamed at them for hours, you know this to be true, because you can be angry for as long as you want to and never run out of breath and never run out of voice. You can be excited for as long as you want to and never run out of breath or voice. Those emotions tell your diaphragm to be strong.

If you start feeling nervous or anxious about the way that something is going to sound when you sing, you’re going to start hyperventilating, which makes you use your diaphragm ineffectively.

This is really the biggest issue that you’re having when you’re nervous and can’t seem to sing how you want to. You’re not using your diaphragm properly in the right moments. On the flip side, if you are really confident about what’s happening, your breath control is most likely well controlled.

The goal here is to use your diaphragm more and not less.

There are a couple of things that you can do to “fake it till you make it” in those moments where you feel a little nervous. Let’s go through some tips on using your diaphragm as a singer.

First you have to figure out exactly where to breathe in the song. And to do this, you have to get really good at a technique called Catch breaths. Catch breaths are the ability to take a breath, while singing, in a spot that doesn’t seem like it can be there. Singers do this all the time. I suggest that you look at a video of a professional singer that you adore, singing live and singing something that’s difficult. Notice how much they breathe. It is actually every other word, sometimes or every two words. That type of music, Pop, R&B or Gospel, is very different from classical or opera music. If you are classically trained and you’re applying that methodology into the way of singing Pop or R&B music, that probably is part of your problem too. Classical and opera singing requires a completely different technique.

Now let’s learn how to do a catch breath.

Put your hand on your diaphragm, under your rib cage and make a quick breathy “HA” sound. When you do that, you’ll feel your diaphragm hit your hand from inside of your body.

Next you want to do some counting. The counting is going to allow you to properly place those catch breaths. Take your diaphragm and your back and tighten them together as if you’re standing up right now and you’re doing a plank.

Hold it together and count to 20. I want you to count out loud and notice where you’re placing your breath. We do not have a goal for you to count all the way to 20 without breathing. That is 100% not what we’re doing here.

What we’re trying to do is put catch breaths into the way that we’re doing this exercise. Diaphragm tightened, belly button to back tightened.

How many breaths do you feel like you did? There should be three or four within that 20 count.

This is the way that you should be implementing breathing when you’re singing. Using your diaphragm and getting in your catch breaths. If singing is something that’s simple for you, and you already think of it like the way you communicate. This concept makes it a lot easier and less scary to sing because it is a communication now.

Now let’s practice a diaphragmatic breath.

Breathe in so deeply that your diaphragm and your belly button hit each other. Breathe in until you physically can’t breathe any further and notice your diaphragm. Put your attention on the bottom of your stomach, and not the top, because remember that your diaphragm moves further down in your body. The more you breathe in, you will feel pressure in your lungs. Your lungs are expanding, but you can’t control that as well, because your lungs and your diaphragm are in two different areas. Hold in this breath for just a second, and then breathe all the way out.

At some point on your inhale there will be a physical stop in your body. That is where your diaphragm is. That’s where your diaphragm can’t go any further past. And then when you breathe all the way out, there’ll also be a tug at the top of your rib cage. That’s also where your diaphragm can’t go past. By doing that, it’s going to be helpful for contrast.

When you are not sure of yourself, nervous or anxious it’s going to be difficult to use your diaphragm properly. Doing an exercise like that teaches you just how much space you have. This is what you’re capable of. You have to rewire your brain and your neural pathways to breathe this way when you are in nervous situations.