Truth and Lies about singing...

Recently I read something that said Truth and Lies about singing… I found several things that I will probably respond to, but this is one I get asked about quite often. There are definitely two schools of thinking regarding breathing for singers. They posted that:

Lie - You will need special instruction to learn how to breathe correctly for singing.

Truth - You were born breathing correctly. You’ve continued to breathe. You breathe in, and speak easily on a regular basis. YOU KNOW HOW TO BREATHE ALREADY!

I believe:

How we should breathe…

Well, I do agree that we are all born breathing correctly. However, we do not all continue to breathe correctly or naturally. The movement of a good natural breath should come from the diaphragm, abdomen rib cage, back and lungs. And although the diaphragm is an involuntary muscle, which does initiate the breath, in most people, the secondary muscles take over and the natural breath is inhibited by a lack of focus or training or just habitual learned behavior. During inhalation, the diaphragm moves downward and should open the abdomen, chest, rib cage, back, and lungs. During exhalation, the diaphragm moves upward pressing up on the lungs and expelling the air. In addition, natural breathing should begin through the nose. Breathing in thru the nose not only naturally filters environmental allergens, warms, and moisturizes the air, but it also helps to prevent the release of carbon dioxide too quickly. When we inhale through the mouth we almost always inhale and exhale air too quickly and in too large of volumes. I have read that some researchers believe mouth breathing and the associated hyperventilation it can cause may result in asthma, high blood pressure, heart disease, and many other medical problems. I can also tell you that in my years of teaching since 1991, I have never run into a student was already breathing thru their nose while singing unless they had already studied or were practicing yoga or something like it. This just isn’t the way most people breathe as they age.


So, then why don’t we keep breathing this way…

The diaphragmatic breath is not the normal breath in our society. As we grow up in this fast paced, competitive culture we do not continue to breathe naturally. In part because of constant pressures, the stress placed on us, (some from external sources and a lot we place on ourselves) we learn to breathe incorrectly, shallow and from the chest. It not only affects your singing but it affects your health and you life. This shallow breath I believe is also a way that people cut themselves off from uncomfortable feelings and sensations. By breathing less, I think we feel less. And just an aside, when you’re really singing, you need to tap into real emotions that hopefully you can still tap into and aren’t blocking by too much stress in the body, it’s important that you actually have them available.

We are for the most part a culture of upper chest breathers. Have you ever felt like you’ve taken a big breath… can you feel it in your chest… well if you can you are a chest breather and you are using the muscles in your upper body to lift the ribs off of the lungs so you can take in a breath. Unfortunately, breathing like this not only creates tension in the body (especially the upper body, neck and shoulders which is terrible for singers) it also causes us to breathe faster than we should. Breathing too fast may bring about what some call a chronic state of hyperventilation. That’s when we inhale by taking quick, shallow breaths from the top of our chest.

These quick, shallow breaths dramatically reduce the level of carbon dioxide in the blood. What’s wrong with that you may ask…. Well, those reduced levels of carbon dioxide in you blood cause your arteries to constrict and that reduces the blood flow throughout your body. When this happens, no matter how much air you are trying to get in, you brain and body will experience a lack of oxygen. When breathing like this, some may even experience themselves holding their breath. Any prolonged breathing in this way will trigger your nervous system into the “fight or flight response” and will make you tense, and anxious. It will also reduce your ability to handle any complicating stressful situations so you will become irritable and you will stop thinking clearly.

Another contributing factor that I mention quite frequently is the growing lack of daily exercise in our society. With so many people sitting at desks for many hours each day or in front of video games instead of actually moving by actually playing a game or sport, this has gradually conditioned our breathing to a very shallow range of movement. We don’t even get a chance to exercise the lungs during vigorous exercise because many of us live very sedentary lives.

Like I said not only will this affect you singing and your performance, it will affect how well you sleep, how much energy or lack of energy you have, how well you handle stress, danger and fear. If you’re not breathing well and you are compromised because of it… you won’t perform as well, practice as well or sing as well for as long… and I don’t know about you but I love singing and want to be at my absolute best all the time and for a long, long time…

So in my opinion breathing is not something that most of us continue to do naturally and as we get older, we may need to unlearn those bad habits life has taught us and re-learn the natural breath. The natural breath we were born breathing.

I believe as a vocal teacher and fitness coach that we all need to get up, get moving and get breathing…. Deeply...