"What brings success? Vision, initiative and perseverance. Let the desire to sing command your energies. Let your singing educate and discipline your muscles.
~ Giovanni Battista Lamperti
~ Giovanni Battista Lamperti
Breath Exercise: Locating the Breath Support Muscles
A good starting point towards developing your diaphragm and abdominal muscles is by doing breath exercises. Why? Because if these muscles are strong and controlled, they'll be able to squeeze a small portion of air out of the lungs, providing plenty of air to sing any phrase.
A small amount of air under pressure from the lower breathing muscles and controlled by the diaphragm and lower ribs goes a long way towards smoothing out and strengthening the voice enabling you to hit those high notes with ease.
This exercise will help show you instantly where breath support comes from. It will take out all the guess work of trying to understand What is Breath Support! And you will need to use it to assist your singing you have to be able to feel it right!
Try this...
Take a medium sized comfortable breath through your mouth down into the diaphragm, filling your lungs from the bottom up. Do NOT let your shoulders or chest rise when you take a breath. Feel the stretch happening in the lower abdomen. Note your lower back and ribs expanding as you inhale while keeping your chest relaxed. Begin to immediately exhale. While you exhale make a 'ssss' noise by placing your tongue behind your upper front teeth and squeeze air through a tiny opening between your pursed lips.
Emit the 'ssss' sound fairly intensely, if you are making this noise correctly it will sound what you'd imagine a loud air leak in a tyre would. Continue making this 'ssss' sound as long as you possibly can. Squeeze out the last drop of air. As you are doing this notice which muscles which muscles are working to press the air up to the cords. What you are feeling is the compression of the support muscles around your lower abdomen at work. If you are doing this correctly you will feel it in and around the belt level just below your navel.
This is the sensation that you want and need to feel support when you are singing. It won't be as intense a feeling as it is in this exercise as for when it is singing however this will exercise will make you aware of what muscles tuse and how to.
I hope you found this blog helpful. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask.
Have a great day.
Sarah Morrison
A small amount of air under pressure from the lower breathing muscles and controlled by the diaphragm and lower ribs goes a long way towards smoothing out and strengthening the voice enabling you to hit those high notes with ease.
This exercise will help show you instantly where breath support comes from. It will take out all the guess work of trying to understand What is Breath Support! And you will need to use it to assist your singing you have to be able to feel it right!
Try this...
Take a medium sized comfortable breath through your mouth down into the diaphragm, filling your lungs from the bottom up. Do NOT let your shoulders or chest rise when you take a breath. Feel the stretch happening in the lower abdomen. Note your lower back and ribs expanding as you inhale while keeping your chest relaxed. Begin to immediately exhale. While you exhale make a 'ssss' noise by placing your tongue behind your upper front teeth and squeeze air through a tiny opening between your pursed lips.
Emit the 'ssss' sound fairly intensely, if you are making this noise correctly it will sound what you'd imagine a loud air leak in a tyre would. Continue making this 'ssss' sound as long as you possibly can. Squeeze out the last drop of air. As you are doing this notice which muscles which muscles are working to press the air up to the cords. What you are feeling is the compression of the support muscles around your lower abdomen at work. If you are doing this correctly you will feel it in and around the belt level just below your navel.
This is the sensation that you want and need to feel support when you are singing. It won't be as intense a feeling as it is in this exercise as for when it is singing however this will exercise will make you aware of what muscles tuse and how to.
I hope you found this blog helpful. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to ask.
Have a great day.
Sarah Morrison
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