Learn to Sing Tips: Breathing

Breathing is the absolute essential skill in singing. If you cannot control your lungs and how you breathe the force that creates sounds is crippled leaving you without power, without pitch and without the capability to develop your own style!

To teach yourself to sing you must learn how to breath from the diaphragm and not from the chest as so many people do. The diagram to the right explains a little more.

The diaphragm is located below low on the ribcage and when you breathe in properly the air goes deep down into your lungs rather than just into the higher parts of the lungs. This is the difference between deep breathing and shallow breathing.

The advantages of this for singing is that you will have more air to sing louder and longer with. It also forces your posture to be more correct which helps with the expulsion of air through your vocal cords giving a better sounds and helping you achieve the right notes.

To become proficient at this you must practice however. To do this you simply need to breathe in and out being mindful of how deeply your are breathing. Stand up straight but relaxed and slowly breathe in deeply and hold the breath for a few seconds then exhale slowly until you are empty then repeat for a number of times. When you do this however make sure that it is your diaphragm that is moving and not your chest. Hold your hand on your chest and your diaphragm to measure this ... your chest hand should remain still the whole time.

This is a good warm up before singing and it will ingrain good breathing technique as you go. On of the Voice Training Software downloads i highly recommend has an excellent section on breathing and posture that explains this further ... this is a quick summary:

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Audio Lesson 3: Breathing and Posture

Your breathing will affect your vocal tone as well as your pitch. That's why today we are focusing on Breathing and Posture. In Lesson 2 you will have learned some incredibly easy and effective warm ups that will help to strengthen your voice and give it more flexibility This 3rd lesson is about breathing technique and correct posture for singers.

In the last couple lessons we talked a little about breathing and just how important it is to have the correct support and control. Your breathing affects you as a singer so much because the reason you can even produce your sound in the first place is through the flow of air!

So the goals for this lesson are to:

• Understand the importance of correct breathing technique and posture,
• Learn how to breathe from your entire body,
• Learn the effects of using proper breathing techniques, and
• Learn how to “ground” yourself to produce a fuller sound.

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More on this great download here: Sing-O-Rama

Singing Talent - Overrated!

As i mentioned in my first post i believe that natural talent is not the be all and end all of singing. I apply the same philosophy in life to singing in fact which is that anything can be achieved as long as you put your mind to it ... 'talent' as it is referred to just makes this journey a bit easier.

So, if you can speak and you are not tone deaf you can learn the skills of singing. Breathing, posture, volume, tone and pitch can be explained and learned. The basics are the foundation of being able to sing well and people with talent often 'get' these things intuitively. For those who may struggle more with the application practice and knowledge will get you there and for some will unlock talents they didn't think they even had!

Now you can learn these things from a book or from a singing teacher but if you want the most flexible and cost effective way to get that knowledge almost like having your own singing tutor i highly recommend learn to sing software that can give you online singing lessons.

I reviewed some of these vocal training software kits a while back on this site: Learn to sing software reviews

So whatever your level of 'talent' you can get a great voice ... some singing tips next time I post!

So You Want to Sing Better?

Being able to sing is a great skill and a joy to be able to do. Some people may want to sing better to be a professional singer and musician and many other just want to be able to hold their own at the local karaoke bar. In any case having a great singing voice can be a big advantage and something worth learning!

Learning how to sing however can seem like a tricky business. There is often a misconception that you have to have a natural talent or you can never be a good singer but i disagree. Singing like anything in life is a skill and a skill can be learned and improved over time with the right tuition.

Natural talent may help those who are lucky enough to be blessed with it to learn much quicker. However those who may not be as blessed should never despair because success does not just come from talent but comes from persistence and a willingness to learn, adapt and develop their own style.

In my experience teaching kids and adults to sing i have never seen someone completely fail, everyone can be a singer if they know the basics and practice practice practice!!

So if you want to sing better never despair, it can be done if you are willing to search for that knowledge and apply it to the best of your ability!

One reason i set this blog up was to give some of those tips on how to sing properly and to help anyone who wants to develop their own style and increase the confidence it takes to be an amazing singer too.

I am also a big supporter of online singing lessons and while it may take some business away from singing teachers like myself i have sen so many people who simply cannot afford ongoing lessons or very often have no good qualified singing coaches that live near them.

I did a review of some of the better guides on the net that you can download here if you are interested.

Keep on singing!