The best breathing exercises for singers

Breathing in singing has always been a big misunderstanding. Different terms like “Breath support”, “Breath control” or “Breathing from your diaphragm” circulating in the vocal world can lead to misconceptions about how to properly work on the airflow.

At least that’s what it did to me.

What’s even worse…

Taking a search on the internet, you will easily get confused by hundreds of “important” breathing exercises. Hm, now where do you start?

I like to keep things simple. That’s why I want to share 3 of my all-time favorite breathing exercises that I have learned over the last 15 years.

What’s all the fuss about?

First off, lemme clear your mind and give you the right concept of breathing in singing.
Without any doubt, proper breathing is fundamental to your singing.

As already described in various of my blog articles, an ideal singing technique comes from a place of singing freely, with primarily using the air to produce the sound. Check out “Bernoulli principle” and you’ll discover that this is the physics behind singing. In short: Air passes the vocal cords, vocal cords close and sounds are being produced.

So the goal of any singing technique can only be to relax everything else in your throat, let the air pass and making the singing for you.

And that’s good news, because…

All YOU have to learn is how to develop a constant flow of air, that you can sustain over a whole phrase.
If you’ve got the right exercises, it won’t take too long, before you see a huge progress and improvement in your breathing as well as in your singing.

Abdominal breathing

Before we even start to think about the first exercise, you have to check out, how you normally breathe. I don’t mean in singing, just now.

Take a look in the mirror and see if your chest expands when inhaling or your belly does. What do you see? Rule number one is, always belly breathe. It will not only help you with singing better, but will do so much more for your health.

If you realize that abdominal breathing doesn’t come naturally to you, you have to practice that first. Lay down, put your hands on your belly and concentrate on softly breathing into your belly. You should feel your belly uplifts under your hands. Don’t force it, don’t push it, just concentrate on it and it will happen. When you got this, recheck during the day. Once you’ve internalized it, your body won’t go back to chest breathing anymore.

Time for the real deal

As you’re perfectly prepared and abdominal breathing is already yours, we will get right into the best exercises for singing – at least I know.

Exercise #One: Lip rolls
This is for sure the best exercise to start with. When we were kids, we all have done this accidentally, because it just makes funny sounds. In fact, lip rolls are perfect to work on your air flow.
How to do it:
– Inhale
– Press your lips softly together
– Exhale, so that your lips quickly open up and close again, open up and close again. It will sound like an engine.
(Consider letting your lips loose to make this happen. If you press them together too tightly, they will stick together and nothing’s gonna happen).
– Now add a pitch to it.
– If you’ve mastered a constant engine sound on one pitch, you can try to lip roll a melody.
– You will find, that lower pitched notes are much harder to maintain than higher notes. That’s because we need to use more air here. If you practice, your body will figure out how to deal with different pitches and finally keep a constant airflow through a lipped roll song.

Exercise #Two: Diaphragmatic breathing
Now we work on your diaphragmatic breathing and air retention.
How to do it:
– Lay down on the floor and put your hands on your belly
– Inhale through the nose
– You can feel your belly uplifts by moving your hands
– Stop inhaling and try to hold this belly position for 5–10 seconds
– Exhale through your mouth
– Repeat it 5–10 times

Exercise #Three: Diaphragmatic breathing
The goal of this exercise is to compress the air and release it slowly over an extended time period.
How to do it:
– Stand up and bring your hands to your hips
– Take a deep breath through your nose until you feel your abdomen expands sideways.
– Bring your tongue to your teeth
– Very slowly release the air through your teeth
– If you do it correctly, you will hear a hiss
– Aim to prolong the hiss for at least 10 seconds
– Repeat 5 times

If you almost faint in your first attempt, you’ve done it right 🙂 After some days, you will constantly increase the hiss time. If you can make it to around 30 seconds, that’s more than you will ever need in a song.
Remember, this is the way your breathing will work in a song and enables you to always keeping you connected with the air flow.

Bonus Exercise – Walk the Walk

In my early years, I was always eager to practice as often as possible.
So, I was very glad when my teacher introduced me to this breathing exercise, I could use, when I was walking.

How to do it:
– While walking moderately, inhale slowly through your nose as long as possible.
– Count your steps while breathing in. You should at least be able to make 4 steps.
– Then breathe out slowly through your mouth.
– Count your steps while breathing out. You should at least be able to extend to 4 steps.

Conclusion

While proper breathing is a prerequisite for a skilled singer, it shouldn’t be overwhelmingly complicating and confusing.
From my experience, a good diaphragmatic breathing technique can be developed in 3 simple steps.
Once you’ve learned and mastered them, you will be able to make it smoothly through a song with perfect connection to your airflow.
Tell me, what’s your favorite breathing exercise?