The most crucial aspect of good singing is proper breathing. If you want to develop a good vocal range, improve your stamina it is essential to follow proper breathing techniques. Here are a few exercises that will help you to improve singing.
If you want to increase your vocal range and improve your breath control and stamina following a proper breathing technique is essential. People who breathe through their chest cannot get the really high notes and their voice lacks the floating quality. Most of us are prone to faulty breathing habits which we follow since we are children. The incorrect breathing habits inhibit our singing.
If you find your chest and shoulders moving when you inhale you are not breathing properly. Most people will not follow deep abdominal breathing for fear of looking fat. But you cannot sing powerfully or get the really high tones unless you use deep abdominal breathing.
It is not uncommon to hear people saying that loud breathing is the correct form of deep breathing. Noisy breathing means that the air passage is being blocked causing incorrect and improper breathing. The correct way of breathing is to breathe deeply yet silently.
When you inhale it should be done in one smooth fluid motion and not in short gasps. When you breathe deeply your stomach should expand outwards. The following exercises will help you to develop the habit of correct breathing.
Inhalation Exercises:
Start by lying flat on your back. Next take a deep breath and feel your hest expand then your abdomen as the air travels from your mouth to the bottom of your lungs. If while breathing your shoulders move upwards you are not doing it right, your chest and abdomen should expand if you breathe correctly. Make sure that when you are breathing deeply your stomach muscles are loose so that the diaphragm and lungs can expand letting the air flow through the respiratory system.
Repeat the exercise once more start by inhaling deeply but make sure that your shoulders do not move the only movement should be the outwards expansion of the chest and the stomach. The expansion should be outwards and not upwards. Ideally, the chest, the stomach and the diaphragm should expand. Feel the muscles at the sides of rib cage expand. This is the correct way of breathing for a singer.
Exhalation Exercise:
To start this exercise place a lighted candle a little over 7 inches from your face.
Inhale deeply as you have learnt in the previous exercise expanding your chest and abdomen with no movement of the shoulders.
Exhale letting out the air in the direction of the flame, bending it in the process not flickering it.
You will need to breathe out in a steady stream and not in gasps in you want to bend the flame. It is also important to keep a track of the number of minutes for which you can keep the flame bent.
These exercises will help you to achieve the breath control needed to sing a long phrase or to keep up the high note for a long time. Try to increase the amount of time of steady exhalation each time you try this exercise.
For more information about all aspects of learning to sing have a look at - How To Improve Singing
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