How to Sing From Your Diaphragm?

How can I sing from my diaphragm is a question that gets asked lots when it comes to singing. Many singers and teachers talk about the diaphragm and how important it is. There are others who refuse to talk about it entirely and don’t have any focus on it. Here we’re going to go through what it is, how it works and if or why you have to use it to sing correctly.

In this article you’ll learn how to sing from your diaphragm: What it is, why it’s important and how you gain control over it when you’re singing. You’ll get some tips and exercises that you can practise to take your singing to the next level.

What does a diaphragm have to do with singing?

It’s important to know how you breathe when it comes to singing and the reason is pretty simple to me. The more you know about what you can do, the more you’ll be able to perform. Knowing your limits is essential in singing. Whilst you can (and should) experiment and push those limits to expand your range, when you perform you definitely don’t want something akin to a mouse squeak when you’re on the stage.
What are the bits of the body you need for breathing?
I’m not going to get all technical here, I’m not a doctor and I don’t want to be. However, we need to know about a few different areas:

1. Diaphragm: This is a dome shaped muscle that goes directly under your lungs
2. Lungs: The two big things that hold the air you breathe ?
3. Abdominals: Something to do with a six-pack. About there
4. Intercostals: Muscles in-between your ribs

If we look, you’ll see that the diaphragm is a very large muscle and its purpose is to get the lungs to open and close so that you’ll be able to breathe. It’s important to stress here that it’s actually an involuntary muscle. It works whether you like it or not. This being the case, how can we answer the question that we started with?

Singing from the diaphragm- the smart answer

In truth, we don’t aim to “sing from the diaphragm.” We aim to create a big space from which you can allow the voice to vibrate and really allow the power to come through. Think of a cave. You don’t need to speak loudly in order to get a really good echo. The sound is bouncing around there and coming back with something extra. If you use an analogue megaphone (not electronic) you’ll get something similar. The sound gets magnified as it has more area to get out to. This is what we are trying to accomplish when we sing. Get the maximum out of your air in order to produce the best possible sound.

Wanna sing like this or actually enjoy it??

We’ll use all of the above muscles to sing. The diaphragm often gets the biggest mention because it’s the biggest muscle. However, it’s a combination of everything working in harmony that will allow you to sing loudly, clearly, and for longer that will get you singing correctly.

Now that we know that it’s important to understand where your muscles are, it’s important to know how to use them in the correct way. I’m not going to suggest that you should start working out and getting a six pack. This isn’t necessary at all. However, there does have to be some strength training in order to get your abs and other muscles working well for your singing.

OK, so how do I go about learning how to sing and breathe this way?
Below you’ll find some exercises that I use for my personal students and have had great success with them.

Exercise number 1

In this exercise all I want you to do is lie with your back on the floor and looking straight up at the ceiling. Now put your hands on your belly and breathe. I want you to try and concentrate so that your belly moves up and down and not your chest. Just relax and breathe. Feel your tummy going up and down as you take these deep breathes. They don’t need to be super long, just imagine that you are filling up a balloon with air and you should get it. do this for one minute

Next, ensure that your shoulders are staying down and relaxed whilst keeping your tummy going up and down. Keep breathing. Don’t try and take super big breaths, just normal. In through your nose and out through your mouth. (it’s important to breathe in through your nose. I don’t want you hyperventilating!) do this for a further minute.

1. Lie on your back
2. Put your hands on your belly
3. Breathe and ensure your hands go up and down with each breath
4. Keep your shoulders relaxed – don’t move them
5. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth
6. Relax and enjoy the sensation

Method to the Madness

Why should you be doing this on your back? I could have said that you should be doing this standing up or sitting down. However, I didn’t and there is a good reason for this. When you breathe in a normal way, you almost definitely breathe by moving your chest up and down. Whilst this is OK, (after all you are alive) you will not be able to have any control over the breath if you do this.

This is definitely not singing through your diaphragm.

It’s much easier if you are doing this lying down. It’s the natural way of breathing. If you look at how a baby breathes, you’ll see that it’s coming from their little tummy’s, not somewhere else. That is what we are trying to replicate. We start our lives breathing properly but unfortunately form bad habits along the way and these need to be sorted out to get us to function in the best possible way. When you sleep, you breathe better because there is nothing stopping you. The stresses of life melt away when you are unconscious to the world. You can breathe more deeply and this is much healthier. Lying down helps stimulate that type of breathing and that’s why I recommend doing this exercise lying down.

However, if you prefer you can try and do it standing up or sitting down. It’s your practice, not mine and you have to be comfortable, especially at the beginning or you’ll just give up.

Getting a Lesson For Life

When I had just started out on my singing journey, some 20+ years ago, I had had just a few lessons from my teacher who turned out to be my mentor and had been able to breathe and belt out my voice correctly. I was so excited by this new found ability. I suddenly had so much power it was amazing. I was at a wedding and took the microphone for a song. I decided to show everyone what I was made of and just let it go. The notes I hit and with the power I had were great. However, because I wasn’t practised and my muscles weren’t strong enough yet, by the end of the song I was absolutely exhausted, doubled over in pain. I didn’t understand why this was happening to me. I know I sounded great and that I was singing correctly, so why was I feeling so sore?

I asked my teacher and he told me that the reason is simple: You’ve just started your journey and you’re not ready to start singing with full power for any length of time. Just keep practising and you’ll get better. Singing is a bit like lifting weights. At first you cannot lift big. However, if you keep at it and slowly increase the resistance, you’ll see great results. The diaphragm, intercostals, abdominals, and other muscles are just that, muscles. They need working out in order to make them stronger. You don’t need conventional weights to get them stronger, you just need to keep working at it.

Exercise 2:

The humming game. In order to control your breath I want you to see how long you can breathe out for. Get out a stopwatch and start timing yourself to see how long you are able to keep a solid sound coming out. I want you to do this every day at least once. Find a quiet stop and just hum quietly. You should be able to start to 10 seconds. Slowly build it up to 25. If you can get to 30 plus it means you have got a serious set of lungs on you and should really be able to belt out those notes.

Exercise 3

In this exercise we’re going to breathe in and out in ascending counts where you breathe in for a set number and then out for a set number. Get out your stopwatch again.

1. Breathe in for a count of three.
2. Breathe out for a count of five.
3. Whilst you’re breathing out sing a note. It doesn’t matter what one, just any kind of sound will do the trick.
4. Build this up until you get to a count of 15 in and 17 out.
5. This will give you a really good base to start from and a great step in the right direction

In Conclusion

Whether you want to say that it’s a myth about singing from your diaphragm or not is almost completely irrelevant to singing. Yes we use it to breathe. Yes we also use our throats, vocal chords and a whole variety of other areas of our bodies. The discussion on a diaphragm is a great starting point to learn how to sing correctly. Relax, enjoy the journey, and I guarantee that you will see results and be able to sing better, with more power, more control, and with more enjoyment.

There is so much information available on the internet and I want to ensure that you get the best.

Let me know what you think of this in the comments section below. Looking forward to hearing from you.