Diaphragm Essentials

Proper breath support and posture is essential for a singer to get a solid soft OR powerful, and consistent voice delivery. Proper breaths taken from the diaphragm, along with a relaxed jaw, mouth, tongue and muscles in your airway passage, can really take your voice soaring further than you every could have imagined it could! With regular practicing certain diaphragm control and breath expansion exercises, you can reach MUCH higher, and lower notes, with either a lot, or smaller amounts of power emphasis, to your desire. Practicing tone placement is definitely still required for this, however, it all starts from one place… the Motor…. THE DIAPHRAGM!!! Here is an exercise that I teach my students that just get them beginning to even KNOW if they “know how” to use their diaphragm.

Candle Blow Out Exercise:

1. Drop the jaw down so it is completely relaxed.

2. Breath in through the mouth, into the tummy (make sure that it looks like you are getting pregnant..hahah…make your tummy as big as you can)
HINT: you shouldn’t HEAR your breath. If you can… it is likely that you are breathing into your chest (which is bad)
HINT 2: Your chest should even sink, just a little bit, while your tummy is getting big.

3. Shape your mouth in a small “O” position (as if you would to blow out candles on a cake) Make small little separated blows. Blow- Stop- Blow- Stop etc… REPEAT until you’ve used all of the air from your big breath.

HINT: When during your stop times RELEASE YOUR TUMMY from pressing in, however DON’T TAKE ANY LITTLE BREATHS DURING YOUR STOP TIMES!
HINT: On your breaths out, your chest should actually come up, while your tummy is now getting skinny.

4. Repeat this exercise for 5-15 mins. Try to do this everyday. The goal is with in a week to be able to do more candle blows within just one breath. So to keep track count how many times you can do them at the beginning of a week, and then again, at the end of the week. Then compare it to do this for one month.

Good luck! and remember to do this PROPERLY, otherwise… don’t bother doing it at all. Hopefully after this exercise… you will now become more aware of how to take breaths into your diaphragm, instead of your chest, and have more diaphragm control as well.

Mandy Ebel- Vocal/Piano Instructor at Elite Music Academy