Top 3 Reasons Why Diaphragmatic Breathing is #1 for Preparing Your Voice for Training

If you have only experienced difficulty with your breath control when you sing, then you might be missing out on a very simple technique that only deep diaphragmatic breathing exercises can help you develop.

I hate to have to sound like a broken record at times, but breathing is everything—if you want to hold your notes like a pro. I know it might sound a little basic, AND predictable, but it will make a world of difference to your singing.

The more your breathing gets in the way of your ability to sing flawlessly, the more you’ll want to learn the secret to good breath control. In this article, you’re going to be amazed to find just how effective a simple breathing exercise is for preparing the voice for training.

The most common complaint with novices is “I just don’t seem to have enough breath!” Well, it only takes regular breathing exercises to correct that.

I wonder if you’ve noticed how nervous and somewhat anxious you feel with the prospect of running out of breath when you sing. Which brings me to point number one: when you do your deep diaphragmatic breathing exercise before you train, it not only relaxes you so that the anxiety and tension go away, it also prepares you to breathe correctly for the exercises you’re about to do. And the second reason why it is so important for singers to build this into their training regime is because it opens up your breathing system so that it functions the way it should—when you sing.

I always tell my students—and this is the third reason diaphragmatic breathing is of critical importance to preparing the voice for training—it quintessentially enables your breath control.

When breathing comes naturally, it becomes the last thing you ever need to think about when you sing. I would liken it to removing the roadblocks so that you travel free of worry on the highway. The less you have to think about breathing the easier it is to sing with good breath control—because your mechanism to breathe-to-sing is functioning optimally.

My favorite breathing exercise, therefore, is breathing in to the count of eight, holding your breath for the count of eight, and then exhaling with a hiss for sixteen. And you could either sip it in (in the first couple of rounds), and then gradually drop the jaw to let it in nice and easy into your abdominal area in subsequent rounds. You'll find sipping in is especially effective for quickly building your capacity. A little challenging for some, but the more you do it, the easier it gets. To get started with your deep diaphragmatic breathing exercise, click here!

You are the instrument, learn to sing like a pro!

JOETT

Vocal Coach & Author
"Letters from a Vocal Coach"
Private Singing Lessons
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Top 3 Reasons for Songwriters to Invest in Intellectual Property

If you are a musician or songwriter, and you think you’ve got what it takes to write great songs for the international market, then it’s about time you consider investing in intellectual property. This article will not only aim to expound on the term intellectual property, it will also elaborate on the three reasons why creating music is a perfectly viable business proposition in itself. And then in keeping with the thrust of my newspaper column “Letters from A Vocal Coach”, I will tie all of that in with the advantages of learning the basics of singing to expand your musical horizons. So let’s begin.

You will probably be wondering why I specifically mentioned ‘international market’. The reason is pretty simple. It is for the copyright laws in place that protect your work, and performing rights societies that pay you royalties on your works. That is reason number one for you to, especially, target creating music for markets that protect your musical work and by so doing, your bread and butter. The second reason why intellectual property is key to your success in the music business—even when you do not perform your own songs—is because you get to earn residual income. One of the big sources of publishing revenue you’ll earn as a songwriter is performance royalties. But an even bigger income stream comes from music publishing in mechanical royalties. In other words, every time a song you’ve written is manufactured to be sold on CD, downloaded from a digital music retail site, given radio airplay, streamed through services like Spotify, television, film and even played in bars and clubs, you are owed a mechanical royalty.

So how does all of this tie-in with the advantages of voice training for songwriters? Being a trained singer myself, I can tell you this for nothing: with a trained voice your ability to craft the songs you envision becomes a whole lot easier and helps bring your imagination to life in dimensions way beyond your wildest dreams. I suppose the simplest way to put this is to say, if the magic is in you and your vocal instrument is able to deliver what you visualize, the sky truly is the limit. An even more brilliant way to explain this is to compare an artist who can only imagine beautiful images but is unable to draw that on canvas, with one who can.

And now here’s the third reason for songwriters to invest in intellectual property. Not everybody is of the ideal age or visual appearance to make it as an artist, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on your dreams. Writing great songs for other artists is another, perhaps more subtle way, to a splendid income doing what you love best, creating music. I hope this article has helped shed light on what else you can do to achieve your dreams in the music business.

You are the instrument, learn to sing like a pro!

JOETT

Vocal Coach & Author
"Letters from a Vocal Coach"
Private Singing Lessons
BUY Online Singing Lessons Course