Breathing Exercises for Singers

 

Singers should spend 5 minutes on breathing exercises before singing begins. Exercises should be done daily to attain elasticity, to strengthen muscles and establish a feeling of coordination.

 

1- Inhale and Exhale with the “permission of the diaphragm”. Easy but full breath in and out. Do this 5 times.

 

2- Inhale in 3 even sections and exhale in 3 even sections using the action of the diaphragm.

 

3- Repeat #2 in 5 sections. Don’t overfill, just pace the breath differently, taking smaller breaths in and exhaling smaller breaths out.

 

4- Inhale and “hiss” out in one steady stream of air. Without pressure, keep the hiss steady with the action of the diaphragm.

 

5- Inhale and then exhale short “belt hisses”. This will increase awareness of abdominal support of the muscles used in breathing.

 

6- Short, easy pants (like a dog). Work up to 30 seconds of fast panting without stopping.

 

7- Take a low slow breath and exhale on a lip trill. Repeat and this time on exhale, lip trill on a tone. Repeat again and siren from bottom to top of range and back down on voiced lip trill.

 

8- Slow inhalation through the mouth and exhale counting numbers. Do this one once a week, seeing if you can increase your breath management from week to week.