One of the most important vocal techniques that is often overlooked is one you practice every single day: breathing. Proper breathing can be the key to unlock the greatest potential in your voice. The video below is a online voice lesson. In it, the young woman featured is an experienced vocalist who still struggles with clarity on certain notes. The instructor demonstrates how altering her breathing pattern holds the key to mastering her high range.
As you watch the video, notice the simple technique that the instructor utilizes to bring attention to her breathing patterns. You can use this same technique to assess your own breathing pattern by placing on hand gently on your stomach and engaging in three short inhalation/exhalation sequences during the video.
If you can’t feel your stomach expanding under your hand when you first inhale, you are not alone. Many vocalists struggle to develop proper breathing and it may time some time and further instruction to master. However, the time it does take to acquire this skill is well worth the many benefits that proper breathing offers your voice.
Not only is breathing necessary for your life, but also for the “life” of your voice. Proper breathing skills can:
-Help you increase your vocal range
-Allow you to project farther
-Give you more power to your voice
-Manipulate your voice at that higher range without cracking or wavering. or “dropping off” at the end of notes.
-It protects your voice by helping you to prevent straining your throat.
The following video demonstrates three techniques you can use to help improve your breathing skills and attain greater power and range in your voice.
Proper breath support is necessary at all levels of singing expertise. Even celebrity vocalist like Miley Cyrus and Keith Urban recognize the importance of proper breathing and use these same techniques used in Singing Success, the program that produces the videos above.
Many celebrity artists accredit this program to their success as vocalists and Hayley Williams from Paramore boasts that after working with Brett Manning (the creator of Singing Success), she will never trust her voice to another instructor.
