Breathing Ideas and Exercises!

          Being a Vocal Athlete is not an impossible task!  Most people don’t understand why this is a necessity and it’s not, unless you’re very serious about singing and want to improve your breathing, your phrasing, your tone, your pitch, and your endurance…so improve pretty much EVERY aspect of your singing.  If you heard that an athlete was training several hours a day for their sport, you wouldn’t think it was odd, or even if an instrumentalist was practicing hours a day.  However, strangely, most people think of singing as so “natural” that they spend little to NO time at all on a daily basis, practicing exercises, skills, exercising aerobically, or looking for songs, let along writing songs.  This kind of lackadaisical approach to singing will yield exactly as much effort as you invest.  If you take a voice lesson once a week and do no additional practice during the week, it will be a miracle if you progress at all.  Vocal lessons are a guide, a platform; they are not a magic button for singing proficiency.  Plus, who wants to be merely “proficient” at singing?  Singing needs to be a passion, the most excellent way to convey your emotions, artistry, and thoughts.  If you treat it like a “hobby”, that’s all it will ever be.
            The absolute most important ingredient for good singing is breath.  You all breathe.  I have yet to meet a student who presented as blue and lifeless.  When you are moving about, speaking, even just sitting around, you are breathing.  However, when you try to sing with only that minimum of shallow breath required for “sitting around”, the resulting vocals will be choppy, out of tune, colorless, and pretty uncomfortable to sing or listen to.  Accessing deeper inhalations and being able to utilize the additional breath for controlling exhalation will strongly improve phrasing and pitch, as well as presentation, and even add a glow to your skin from the extra Oxygen.  Breath is life!  Breathing occurs from a major muscle called the Diaphragm, NOT the Lungs.  The Lungs are not a muscle; they cannot breathe without the diaphragm contracting and relaxing to pull air in and push the leftover Carbon Dioxide back out.
            What are some exercises and techniques I can use to strengthen breathing for singing and overall health? 
·      Lie on your back on a flat surface with your knees bent up to avoid lower back pressure, and your head down flat as well.  Place a heavy book on your “belly” with one hand atop the book and the other atop your chest.  Speak or sing for several minutes in this position.  You should NOT feel the hand on your chest move but the hand on the book should rise and fall with each inhalation.  After several minutes, move the book off and sit up or stand.  You should continue to “feel” the presence of the book.  This is called muscle memory and helps you know if you are naturally breathing correctly or if you need move practice with this exercise.
·      Sit up with legs straight ahead of you on the floor.  Place your hands under your chin with your elbows on your knees.  Breathe deeply.  You should feel your mid-section move out/expand with each breath.  If you do not, go back to exercise above and work with the book.
·      Yawning, yes, yawning.  Normally this is an involuntary response when the body needs more Oxygen but you CAN yawn as a VOLUNTARY muscular response.  Practice yawning at the beginning or end of every day to train your body to breathe more deeply for singing.  Yawn, at least, 4 or 5 times in a row.
·      Done from a standing position, inhale for a count of five and then exhale for a count of five.  If you feel or see ANY tension during this exercise, lower the number of counts for the inhale and exhale.  This should be a very natural, easy, effortless breathing exercise.  Once you can easily and effortlessly inhale and exhale to a count of four, increase the count by one to two but always go back should any tension or pressure develop in your throat, shoulders, or even your stomach area.  This is not an exercise that can be rushed.  If you have not previously been doing much aerobically, it will take time for your lungs to build up to higher lengths of time.  The point is not to rush this process but to work to strengthen your lungs gradually.  Hopefully, none of you smoke because this is a terrible enemy of breath and health.  If you want to sing, you really should NOT smoke!
·      Also do this exercise standing and/or moving around a room.  Inhale for a count of FIVE and on the exhale on “Ah” for FIVE.  Increase this exercise up to as much as a count of TEN and “Ah” on the exhale.  Repeat this exercise up to ten times.
·      This exercise is also performed standing.  It is exactly like the exercise above except after the inhale to a count of FIVE to TEN, sing “Sssssss” on the exhale.  Repeat this exercise up to ten times.
·      This exercise is exactly like the exercise just above but this time rather than SUSTAINING the “Sssss” on the exhale, you sing “Sss-Sss-Sss-Sss-Sss”, depending on the number of counts you are working on.  You use the same FIVE to TEN count inhale with the “Sss” singing on the exhale and repeat up to 10 times.
·      This exercise is also a version of the “Ssss” exercise, two above.  This time, again using the FIVE to TEN count inhale, do the same “Ssssss” exhale but when singing the “Ssssss” loudly, pushing more air, sustain the “Ssssss” in a loud volume.  This can also be practiced using a very soft volume, which requires even more air.  This is a more advanced exercise, so don’t try it right away.
·      Stand, holding a chair in each arm (to weigh down your shoulders).  WARNING!  This exercise does require a bit of upper body strength, so proceed with caution.  The good thing about this exercise is that holding the chairs up by your shoulders makes it pretty impossible for your shoulders to lift during breathing.  Once again, breathe in to a count of FIVE to TEN and exhale on “Ohhhhhhh”.
·      If the chair-lifting exercise is too strenuous, try doing the exercise with your arms outstretched at the shoulders, parallel to the floor.  From this position, try to find a position that does not stress your shoulders and neck.  From this position, maintaining the level of the arms, inhale to a count of FIVE to TEN, and then, as you exhale, sing “Ohhhh”.
·      Laughing!  This is a great way to build breathing; it is the closest thing to singing.  WHEN you laugh, phonate a vowel sound, such as ah, eh, ee, oh, or oo.  Choose one vowel at a time and phonate it each time you laugh, such as h-ah, h-ah, h-ah, h-ah, h-ah.  We will remove the “H” sound eventually but this is a great way to strengthen your overall breath control.  Laughing is a fun way to strengthen your diaphragm without feeling too much like work.  You should practice this exercise several times, each time lasting, at least, FIVE seconds, up to a maximum of TWENTY seconds.  Once again, you must have NO tension or pressure in your throat, shoulders, neck, or really anywhere.  If you push yourself, adding stress and/or tension, you are defeating the purpose of the exercise.  Be patient!  Be patient!  Don't try to laugh longer than you can comfortably.  It won't help in the long run.  Build slowly!
·      RUN IN PLACE!  RUN IN PLACE!  I know this may sound absurd but running outside or running in place is THE BEST thing for you.  You really do eventually need to be a Vocal Athlete.  The better control you have over your breathing, the better your singing will be.  You don’t have to run fast or long.  Just running in place is enough to raise your heart rate enough to give you great benefit!  Run in place and sing whatever you are working on.  Sing “Happy Birthday” or a song from church or your favorite rock song.  WHAT you sing is not important, THAT you sing should be your focus.
·      Run outside or run on a portable trampoline or run on a treadmill!  When you run, your brain tells your lungs to breathe more deeply.  When you exercise aerobically, your body learns to process Oxygen more efficiently.  THIS is a magic key to becoming a GREAT singer!

I will post more breathing exercises soon but these are great for a start.  The more aerobic activity you can do, the better results you will get with your singing.  Here are a couple of other websites you can check out to get more ideas.  Contact me or write below with comments and/or questions.  My website is www.SingitForward.net.  Sing it Forward!

 http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/breathing-basics-for-singing.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sing/learning/breathing.shtml


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