5 breathing tips for singers

Breathing for singing.
Is there a more controversial topic in the world of voice teachers?
Probs not.
Is that going to stop me from writing about it?
No flipping way.

My own journey with exploring breath has been interesting and frustrating.
That said, I think that (for the most part) I keep things flexible these days.

With that being said, there are still some things I feel strongly about.

One of the most counterintuitive things singers can do when it comes to working on their popular music (or CCM/CPM) technique is over-breathing.

Yup. OVER-breathing.
(I’m not even joking and was truly stunned the first time I heard this was a thing.)

Not only does this take too long with super-fast songs with zero time to breathe, but also?
It can create too much pressure below the vocal folds which then leads to an unplanned breathy tone (because we are leaking all that air, friend) and/or we feel like we're running out of air…
Because we can’t breathe in comfortably…
Because we still have too much air left.

So, to help you, here are five tips to try out when you're practising that will help you breathe for the task at hand:

• try breathing in through your nose to slow things down

• focus on more of a rib-swinging breath than a fuller low abdominal release for the breath in

• exhale half of your breath before you start singing the phrase (and repeat before each phrase)

• speak the phrase, speak the phrase at pitch, the sing the phrase (breathing the same way each time without pausing in between)

• start at the end of the phrase and work backwards to help retrain your brain into knowing how it feels to not run out of breath at the end of the line

Want to dive deeper or get personal support with your own singing?
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