How To Sing From Your Diaphragm: 13 Tips

As singers, somewhere along the way, we’ve heard the phrase, “Breathe from your diaphragm!” However, my guess is that unless you have taken an in-depth course in vocal pedagogy or anatomy and physiology, this concept may have eluded you. In this short in this article we hope to shed some light on the idea of diaphragmatic breathing, in a way that’s easy to understand and apply.

According to Webster, the diaphragm is, “A large flat muscle that separates the lungs from the stomach area and that is used in breathing.”

If you were to look at the diaphragm within the human body it is positioned right under the lungs and looks like an upside-down cereal bowl. When we breathe in, the diaphragm contracts, descending and becoming flat, while simultaneously the rib cage expands and the muscles of the abdomen expel outward.

To experience this for yourself, place one hand on your stomach and inhale deeply. If done correctly you should feel your stomach expand. Go ahead, try it! It is the sensation of a full, deep breath, that maximizes the amount of air to be exhaled or to be used in speech or singing.

If you’re not experiencing an outward pressure against the abdomen, you might be expanding your chest and raising your shoulders. The result would a shallow breath, that only minimally engages the diaphragmatic muscle.

 

Tips for singing with your diaphragm

The reason breathing from the diaphragm is important is because it enables us to maximize our oxygen intake and harness more power in supporting our sound. The alternative to diaphragmatic breathing is shallow breathing.

Shallow breathing entails an inhalation that doesn’t quite affect the diaphragm, and remains only in the upper portion of the lungs before it is expelled. Evidence of a shallow breath is:

• The chest cavity and/or shoulders are raising while inhaling.
• Tone quality becomes shallow as a reflection of the shallow breath.
• The vocal cords are weakened or strained due to a lack of air supply.
• Abdominal muscles have very little activation.
• Lack of deep breathing affects the singer because we want to utilize our maximum amount of breath support, and don’t want to be running out of air when sustaining long phrases in songs. (Kind of like this sentence!!!) Before committing to any vocal method, read this breakdown on whether Singing Success might hurt or help your voice.
• Also, shallow breaths could be the result of poor posture.

Stand Up Straight

The very first, most obvious step in learning how to sing from the diaphragm is to stand up straight. However, this does NOT mean stand rigid. Think comfortable, tall, yet relaxed.

Also, sit up straight!! Just as our teachers told us in middle and high school. They were right!!! You see, whenever you slump, you make diaphragm singing much more difficult. Taking deep breaths becomes laborious and uncomfortable. Typically, the diaphragm relaxes and the thin muscle has to press downward against the internal organs.

The diaphragm moves downward when there is room to move. Standing or sitting slumped leaves very little room to contract the diaphragm muscles.

Good posture is imperative to proper singing technique.

However!!! There are very good singers breaking the rules. Singers who have no idea how the diaphragm works. Somehow, they defy their bad technique. But every singer I’ve worked with became a better singer after a few singing lessons. Their vocal control was drastically improved, and the ability to sing high notes was clearly evident. And finally, when singing from your diaphragm, long notes become long breaths and are a result of an expanded thoracic cavity.

In this article, I’ll give you some diaphragm work that will begin transforming your tone quality and musical capability.

First, find a comfortable upright standing position, with your feet shoulder-width apart, keep your knees and shoulders relaxed, and place your hands on your upper belly where your diaphragm is located. Now….

Take Deep Breaths

Exhale, and feel your stomach contract. You may even want to lightly press on your stomach, as if the air were going into your stomach (more on this later), and then inhale deeply. You should feel your stomach press outward; a sensation occurring during diaphragmatic singing.

Again, release the air out of your lungs, letting your stomach relax under your hands as you exhale. Be sure not to lift up your chest or raise your shoulders. The idea is to allow the lungs to expand downward, displacing your viscera, or your stomach organs forward.

One more time. Slowly, take a large breath through your mouth and feel your stomach expand under your hand, and relax your throat as you take in the air. Do not tighten your throat or try to force your throat open. Feel your entire body start to relax!

As you slowly inhale, keep your upper chest neutral.

Voice lessons should also be taken to refine the discipline of these diaphragm exercises. Although, you shouldn’t expect voice lessons to be only about breath control and diaphragm singing exercises. I’ve coached many singers who’ve complained that all or most of their previous training was spent just breathing deeply. No singing! Sometimes for months!

Sing Sustained Notes

Sing a single sustained note using a simple vowel sound (“aah” or “ooh”) and feel the controlled expansion creating pressure in your stomach, and not your throat! Keep your stomach feeling full and and don’t try to ‘push’ your air out.

In fact, when you start singing from your diaphragm, you really need to quickly forget your diaphragm singing. As soon as you experience better breathing and a sensation that your diaphragm holds in the air, your air supply will be just enough air to keep the vocal cords vibrating freely.

Finally, as you breathe out, remember to push your stomach out slightly to expel every last breath of air, the more slowly you can feel the air releasing from under your hands, the more control you have over your diaphragm.

Always Warm Up

Warming up vocal exercises and breathing exercises before you sing is the a great way to improve your diaphragm control and protect your singing voice. Eventually, some mild physical exercise will be sufficient to engage the diaphragm and make your singing more efficient and free.

Practice singing tips from our Youtube Channel. However, if you haven’t learned correct breathing yet, you may want to make the exercise of the diaphragm important in your practice habits.

Relax Your Body

It’s essential to relax your body—especially the vocal cords—as you sing from your diaphragm because any tension in your body impedes your diaphragm muscle’s ability to contract and release.

Maintain good posture and make sure your knees have a slight bend, drop and roll back your shoulders, relax your abdominal muscles and lift your head to speech level as you sing!

Experiment with Vocal Range

Often a vocal coach will instruct you, “As you reach for high notes, remember to keep sending breath to your diaphragm and give more support.” In other words push more air. But this is problematic. Throughout the years, I’ve had to explain that singing high actually require less air because the vocal cords are dampening (zipping up) as you sing higher. So the word “reach” is a faulty one that will poison the way you think about singing.

Check out this free tip from our YouTube channel. You should have a lot cleared up immediately.

Top Breathing Exercises for Warming Up Vocal Cords

We warm up our voices so we can stay healthy, sound our best and protect against damage. Warming up will bring you into your coordinations and prepare your vocal cords for all extremes.

Yawn-Sigh Technique

Yawn (take in air) with your mouth closed, then exhale through your nose as if you are sighing. This will deepen your oxygen intake and naturally expand your diaphragm as you sing.

Humming Warm-ups

Place the tip of your tongue behind your bottom front teeth and hum up and down the major scale while keeping your mouth closed. Be sure to check your diaphragm while singing.

Vocal Straw Exercise

Also known as straw phonation.

Take a straw and hum through it starting at the bottom of your range and slide up to the top slowly and evenly, then hum your favorite song through the straw.

You can also place the straw in a partially full glass of liquid and blow controlled bubbles in the glass. This will wisely regulate how much pressure you place on your diaphragm.

Lip Bubble/Lip Trill Vocal Warm-up

See the above video on singing high. The one minute mark will give you a visible demonstration of this singing drill.

Vocal Sirens Exercise

Make an “woooo” sound and gradually go from the lowest note of your range to the highest and back down, like a siren for an emergency vehicle.

Vocal Slides Technique

This technique is also known as a portamento, which is Italian for, “The act of carrying.”

Much like the siren exercise, you slide from one note to the next in your range, but you don’t sing the in-between notes. In fact, you let go of note delineation, much like a blues slide guitar. Or Blues vocal slide. Except the portamento allows vibrato. This increases freedom and ease, but relies on lung capacity for extended length.

These are just a few basic exercises. But, for complete vocal workouts with the highest level of pro voice demonstrations (many of them Grammy award winning singers), be sure to check our Singing Success courses. Each one is designed to unlock a particular part of your voice and the convenience of streaming allows instant access, so you can sing better in 20 minutes from the time you start.

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Now, all that being said, I’m going to give you some advice… Don’t worry about the phrase, “Sing from your diaphragm!” Some vocal training methods over train the function of the diaphragm, to the point where it becomes the main focus, when really it is just one-fourth of the overall singing process concerning respiration. The four parts of the voice are: respiration, phonation, resonation and articulation. Here’s a little tip: Your diaphragm knows what to do and it does its job twenty-four-seven, whether you are paying attention to it or not. It is good to be knowledgeable about the breathing process, but unless you are singing and constantly running out of air, then don’t over stress about it… Just sing!

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