Breathing

One cool thing about being a vocalist, is that we build our instruments as we learn how to use them. In other words, my voice could sound totally different in just a couple months than it did before. Vocalists use a lot of muscles when they breathe correctly.

As a freshman in college, I learned the importance of muscles and keeping my body in shape to sing, the hard way. My first semester, I only took one music class, and it didn't require singing at all. Part of the reason I didn't have voice lessons, was that I had no idea what kind of classes I should be taking in college. So, I didn't sing very much. I sang about once a week when my roommates were gone, but other than that I didn't sing much at all. By the time I came home from college and had a voice lesson with my old teacher, I knew that the muscles were not working for me anymore when I sang. It was hard to make my old sound, and at the end of the lesson I got a huge lecture on how much work I had ahead of me. I worked hard that break off from school and finally gained back what I had lost by the time school started again and I was able to recieve voice lessons. That awful experiance has helped me practice throughout college, and I know I am ten times better than I was then.

Breathing is a hard skill to fully accomplish as a vocalist. Even the best of singers have to consistantly work on building the muscles they use when breathing. People who don't know about breathing as a singer or instumentalist, breathe shallowly. You can notice shallow breathing by the chest moving up and down. A singer breathes from below. As a singer, it is best to breathe deep into your stomach, expanding your ribs and allowing your epigastrium to bulge out. The epigastrium lies right on top of the diaphragm. As we breathe, the diaphragm should drop down (this creates more space), causing the epigastrium to bulge out. Most dancers have a hard time with this concept of letting the epigastrium bulge because they are used to being told that they should never let anything stick out, because it looks ugly. Most people don't notice this when you are singing.

Knowing how to breathe correctly when singing, will help you get through phrases, and to have more tone or support on your notes. It's important to note, that letting out too much air will cause a breathy sound. As a singer, you will want to let out as little air as possible while singing, creating a nice tone. so after breathing, don't let all the air escape all at once. Try letting it out little by little, keeping yourself expanded all around as you release. This will of course take practice. If you are not used to this kind of breathing, you may feel tired after singing. It's a work out. Yet, over time you will gain a great habit and will be able to build a magnificant instrument. Singing will get easier, and more fun!