Music- How Breathing Works For Singing

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding in terms of how breathing works when we need it in order to sing. I am not a doctor, but I can share the knowledge I have gained over time as a singer and working with other singers.

The biggest misconception that many singers seem to have is that they can get a louder or more powerful sound by squeezing their abdominal muscles and pushing harder. Breathing is an automatic process and we really don’t have as much control over it as we think. Singing longer notes is really about the amount of air we inhale and nothing about pushing from our gut.

One important thing to remember is that when we sing, we want as little tension as possible in every part of our body. Tension can actually be heard in your sound. One thing I always tell my singers is if a vocal sounds like it hurts, most likely it does. When you, as the singer, feel pain, you need to stop singing right away and rethink how you are creating your sound. Tightness in your throat leads to fatigue from overusing muscles that are not actually needed. It is very difficult to only tense your abdominal muscles and not react in other places in your body.

The process of breathing, as you know, has two parts--inhalation and exhalation. The major muscle at play is the diaphragm. Unlike many muscles that seem to get larger (think biceps) when contracted, the diaphragm actually collapses when active. By collapsing, it creates a vacuum in the lungs. In a sense, your body is not working hard to pull air in, the vacuum in your lungs is filled by nature. Think of scenes in a movie when a character is sucked out into the vacuum of space, except the vacuum is now your lungs.

Other active muscles during inhalation are the intercostal muscles. These lift the rib cage, which gives the lungs space to expand. 

If you hear wheezing or a groaning sound when you inhale, it means that your throat is not as open as it should be. A moan or a groan means that the vocal cords are causing resistance against the air. For inhalation, the vocal cords should not be working at all.

When it is time to exhale, the diaphragm then moves back up to its larger position. As you can see, pushing with your abdominal muscles will not make nonexistent air suddenly appear. All it will really do is make you uncomfortable.

If you want to be able to sing a note longer, it really does you more good to focus on the full inhale and keeping an open chest and abdomen so that your lungs can fully expand. Instead of squeezing your abdomen, your stomach will actually appear to pop out when you inhale completely. Society tells us to always “suck in your gut” so you do not appear chubby, but proper, healthy singing requires us to pop out our belly. Besides, people will be too amazed by your incredible voice to watch your stomach move when you breathe.

If you only notice your shoulders moving when you inhale, it means you are filling the top portion of your lungs. If you breathe like this normally, it is in your best interests for singing, exercise, and general health to retrain your body to breathe to the bottom of your lungs. If it’s easier for you to remember “breathe from your stomach” that is fine, as long as you remember that no air is entering your stomach.

Hopefully this brief explanation has provided some clarity and useful things for you to focus on when singing.