5 Vocal Techniques to Improve Breath Control and Sing With More Power
This post helps you get started, but that’s only the beginning. What would it feel like to sing your heart out with a transformed voice performing to thousands of people by the end of the year? Come join the tens of thousands of singers who have already transformed their voices with my Singers Gift Warmups. Set your voice free in just 20 minutes a day with these revolutionary techniques found only here! Click here to find out how.
The breath is the fuel of the singing voice. It powers the voice. The breath comes up out of the lungs, hits the vocal folds, sound and vibration occurs, and resounds in the resonators.
Singing is a coordination of the air and small muscles of the voice. Singers can make the mistake of singing on muscle versus air
1. Breath deeper into the lower triangles of the lungs
The lungs are shaped like triangles. To access a more complete breath to fuel the singing voice sufficiently, you need to access the lower parts of the triangle. This is what is meant by “diaphragmatic breathing”.
The diaphragm is a muscle that sits underneath the lungs. As you breathe diapragmatically the diaphragm moves downward sucking air into the lungs. The further the diaphragm goes down the fuller the breath. The diaphragm doesn’t have any nerve endings so we can’t feel the muscle, but we can control it by controlling the surrounding muscles.
The muscles to target are the ribs, upper stomach, abdomen and back. The ribcage is surrounded by 28 muscles that surround the ribs called the intercostal muscles. These muscles need to stretch outward as you breathe. The ribs swing slightly outward making room for the diaphragm to descend getting the air into the lower triangle. Imagine you have a hulahoop circling your body just underneath the chest. As you breathe this hulahoop expands outward.
Start with this:
- Put your hands on your ribcage.
- Exhale and squeeze your ribs together.
- Slowing inhale into your hands and avoid breathing into the chest. Did you feel the ribs swing outward?
- Now press your the fingers of one hand into the upper stomach while keeping the other hands wrapping around your ribs.
- As you inhale try to get the upper stomach and the ribs move outward together.
- Often the upper stomach goes inward. Focus on gently puff out the upper stomach as you fill it with air.
- Continue to practice until you can move the ribs and the upper stomach outward.
- This frees the diaphragm to move downward collecting more air in the lower triangles.
2. Slowing the breath down
The next step is getting control over the breath is to slow the breath down. As we slow down the breath we reduce the anxiety surrounding our breathing and start to get more control over it to power the singing voice.
During this exercise inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
Try this:
- Sit in a comfortable position
- Exhale to start
- Inhale for 4 counts
- Hold for 4 counts
- Exhale for 4 counts
- Continue for a total of 5 repetitions focusing on evening out the breath on the inhale and exhale.
As you slow the breathing down, you will have a better quality of breath in your body and experience more ease and fullness with your singing voice.
Getting control of your instrument is achieved by practicing The Cole Vocal Method 5 days a week for 20 minutes a day. Start with my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups to get these motions programmed into your voice!
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3. Double the exhale
This breathing exercise starts to slow the breath down and to develop more ease and support for your singing voice. Revisit this exercise every day to build your breath control.
If you’d like to follow a guided exercise you’ll find the exercise here: https://www.instagram.com/p/C1HoZjSOLii/
The goal is to keep your body relaxed during the exercise and don’t tense up. You can direct your body to relax by feeling a heaviness in your muscles. Do this every day to build your breath.
During the exercise – inhale through your nose and blow the air out through your mouth. We will work our way to doubling the exhale.
The exercise goes for 8 repetitions and takes 2 minutes.
To start – Exhale for 4 counts. – blowing all of the air out gently.
- Inhale for 4 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 4
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 4 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 6
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 4 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 8
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 6 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 12
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 6 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 12
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 8 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 16
- Hold for 4
Two more repetitions – you’ve got this!
- Inhale for 8 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 16
- Hold for 4
- Inhale for 8 counts
- Hold for 4
- Exhale for 16
- Hold for 4
For a longer breathing exercise to slow down the breath and double the exhale grab a copy of my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups here where we do diaphragmatic breathing exercises that go longer to build the breath.
4. Relax the body during inhale and exhale
The key to breathing is to practice relaxing the body during the inhale and exhale. The body initially tends to tighten up. You can effectively relax your body by feeling a heaviness in your muscles as you breathe.
Try this:
- As you practice your breathing exercise above, work on relaxing your body throughout the exercise, especially at the top of the inhale and end of the exhale.
- The holds in the exercise above are opportunities to suspend the breath and relax the body at the same time.
- Start with any areas you feel tensing up. Relax any muscles in the throat or body that feel tense during the process of breathing by feeling a heaviness in those muscles.
- You can slump a little or imagine those areas melting like hot butter in the sun.
The more you can relax your muscles when they want to tense up will help you break through the limits in your breathing and be able to extend your exhale with more ease.
5. Getting comfortable with the end of the exhale
Dr. Carl Stough was an expert in breathing who worked with many Olympic athletes and well known singers. He was often referred to as the “breath doctor”.
His work hinged on improving the “end of the exhale”. He believed that once we get control over the end of the exhale we free our breathing.
Try this:
- Sit in a comfortable position
- Exhale to a comfortable end of the exhale
- Hold for 4-8 counts relaxing the body
- To keep the air from coming in you can continue in a little bit of an exhaling motion
The more comfortable you get with the end of the exhale, the more relaxed your breathing will become and the more ease and power you will have for your singing voice.
To master your breath and open your voice for singing, grab a copy of my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups here.
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To work on mastering your mix voice and smoothing out the register shifts, start by practicing my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups (see below). These are the starting point for my technique. These exercises will open and free your voice while developing vocal tone and the right alignment that leads to power. To sing with power, your voice needs to be free of tension, have good alignment practices (long neck and a raised chest), as well as have great breath control by breathing diaphragmatically to support a powerful sound.
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Hi, I’m Cari Cole.
You’ve got talent, but you want to become great at it. You’re in the right place! My mission is to help you refine your unique artist vision to bring to the world.
About Cari Cole
Cari Cole is the CEO / Founder of caricole.com and CCVM: Label Without Walls. She is a Holistic Vocal Coach, Artist Development Expert, A&R Director, and Songwriter based in New York City helping artists for the past 38 years. She is a mentor for Women in Music and The Association of Independent Music Publishers.
Her latest venture, CCVM a label services company, provides artists with a seamless path from creation to completion. After 30+ years of observing the overwhelm and challenges that artists face, Cari pulled together the best top creative professionals and designed a new approach to supporting our artists.
Disclaimer:
The information provided on Cari Cole's website is informational only and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. Those seeking personal medical advice should consult with a licensed physician. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health provider regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on Cari Cole's website. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room immediately.
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