Breathing Exercises for Singing

Controlled breathing is essential when you have to sing for hours together. Professional singers often stress on the importance of undergoing basic breathing drills in order to have a strong command over your voice. These exercises will not only help you to sing well but will also aid in calming your nerves. Let's get to know some techniques that will help you sing flawlessly.

Inhalation: Singing songs requires taking frequent deep breaths because you have to match your vocals with musical instruments. For this, feel that the air is really heavy as you take it in. Feel that it falls lower than your belly button. Inhale as much as you can.

 The idea behind these actions is that you visualize the air to be heavy but falling quickly into your body. This sensation of filling the lungs with air fast is how you are supposed to inhale for singing. You may find yourself yawning a lot.

Actually, this comes naturally as your body gets confused with the varying levels of air that is taken in during such an exercise.

Exhalation: This exercise will help you to sing high notes and long slow phrases well. Here, the task is to blow a feather around a room. Try to blow it high up in the air. While trying to keep the feather away from the ground, notice which part of your body moves. You will feel that your abdomen has slowly come back to normal and your chest has stayed in the same position. At the end of it, you will feel the need to immediately take deep and quick breaths.

Posture Maintenance: Keeping your body too rigid and your diaphragm locked leads you to breathe incorrectly. Thus, you should try to be in a proper posture while singing. For this, lie down on the floor with a heavy book on your abdomen. Inhale and see the book rising up. Exhale and notice it coming back to the original level.

Warming up: Lip rolls is one of the best breathing exercises for a warm up. To begin, place your lips together. Exhale such that air passes between the lips and causes them to flap. Breath normally and perform this drill for about 3-4 minutes with each set lasting for about 30 seconds.