The Importance Of Breathing For Singing

Breathing for singing

Breathing is the foundation of singing. The way in which breath is managed determines how the vocal folds vibrate and this consequently influences the quality of sound produced.

Illustration 1: Respiratory system

Why proper breath technique is important ?

It helps to create the breath pressure necessary to sing high notes properly. It helps to handle long passages with ease.

Controlled breath pressure helps to better control dynamic levels.

It helps to avoid a strained sound by not using the muscles surrounding the vocal tract tosqueeze the air.

It relaxes the breathing muscles between the phrases, reduces tension and helps in producing a freer more pleasing sound.

Posture is fundamental in breathing. William

Perhaps the best way to gain control of the exhalation process is to try to maintain the expansion around the middle of the body – in the upper abdomen, the lower ribs and the back- while the diaphragm slowly begins to release its tension.”

Here we can understand that upper chest breathing or clavicular breathing does not help singers. Clavicular breathing is done by heaving the chest up and down to pull the air in and force it out. It is an automatic response that our body uses especially when we are running out of breath from physical activity. It helps in getting the air in and out very quickly but it causes laryngeal tension and it has little control over exhalation. So, it is not good for singing.

Exercising the abdominals is good for breath support. Exercises like yoga, pilates, sit-ups and pelvic tilt are really good to strengthen the abdominals. As singers age they tend to fail in maintaining core strength. This leads to poor breath support and wavering voice.

It is not difficult to learn proper breathing. It is however difficult for singers to apply proper breathing every time they sing. Regular and repeated practice over a period of time will definitely help in attaining good breathing

To do this take a deep inhalation and exhale saying 's' ie. hissing through the teeth over an extended period of time. While inhaling the abdominal muscles and the ribs expand. So, while exhaling with the hissing sound we need to make sure that we hold to this expanded position to the maximum duration possible. This restricts airflow and also helps in improving control over the muscles.

Lip trills and tongue trills are also wonderful warm up exercises which has a lot of benefits. Lip trill is the 'bbrr' sound made by fluttering the lips during sustained voicing like a running -motor. The tongue trill can be done by just saying the word butter and sustaining the end rrrrrrrr. The saralivarisas can be sung in this manner. Once they can be sung comfortable try singing the varisas from the mandra sthayi panchamam to tara sthayi panchamam. Though both these exercises seem simple and funny they have a lot of positive effects. Trills are particularly good for the development of breathing skills as they create high resistance to airflow. They also help in developing a uniform tone of the voice in all the registers and also in singing in the higher pitches with ease and with less