Some Good Breathing Exercises for Singing

The skillset of a vocalist goes way beyond their ability to pitch or harmonize right. Vocalists go through intense training to train their bodies along with growing their vocal skills in order to get the best out of their abilities. Today, singing classes online help students learn the required techniques to improve their vocals.

Learning the right posture, breathing the right way at the right intervals and letting the voice come out from within, all help in delivering the words out in the right manner. Vocalists need to develop these techniques in order to make the best of their capabilities.

How does one control their breath the right way?
How do you improve their breath control?

Here are some examples of good breathing exercises:

1) Practice good posture:

It's common to hear people say “you need to sing from within” or “let the voice come out from your diaphragm”. What is uncommon is people telling you how to do it. The very first step to let your voice come out powerfully and without any hindrance is to have the right posture. Shoulders wide and not drooping,firm chest and chin and an overall lack of stiffness in the body is required. A trained instructor from an online singing class can help you rectify your posture issues. Learning the right posture can release a lot of tension even in everyday life and having a good posture can help you push your voice out in the right way while you try to belt out any of your favorite songs.

2) Breathing drills:
There are many breathing drills that can help you warm up and open your inside for smooth passage of your voice. Some examples include:

1. Inhale from the nose and exhale from the mouth. Repeat but vice-versa. Sometimes a vocalist may require to take quick breaths from either their nose or their mouths and this exercise will make the act of taking quick breaths a lot more natural due to regular practice.

2. Straw Breathing; pucker your lips(like you hold a straw) and inhale in a few times until you feel a strain. Hold it for a few seconds and then exhale in the same manner. Increase the number of breaths gradually. This will help build lung capacity and will also help in improving your overall breath control.

3. Hissing Breaths: Take normal breaths while inhaling but while exhaling let your air out through a hiss. Common ways to do this exercise include inhaling a few times and then exhaling twice the times that you have inhaled. So 3 breaths in and 6 breaths out. This will help your lungs to grow the capacity to hold more air in and will increase your capacity to hold your breath too.

3) Stay Healthy:
Maintaining an active lifestyle filled with adequate physical exercise will go a long way in keeping the lungs healthy as well. A healthy system and a fit individual will always have a higher capacity to control their breath. Exercising regularly will keep your system healthy and this in turn will definitely help to bring your voice out on command and also to have a strong posture while you sing.  

4) Warm ups:
No matter how successful a singer may get, they never go into a performance without the right vocal warm up. Vocal warm ups need to be learned as they are crucial in both performing to a high level and also maintaining a high level. Vocal cords just like any body part require proper warming up and rest before and after training. There are countless examples of artists at the top of their game who never go onto the stage without warm up exercises. These exercises can be learned from a professional instructor from any online singing classes. Just like any skilled professional, every vocalist needs a great warm up routine.

The lead vocalist of any band is the face of the whole act and thus they need to have a high level of quality and charisma for the act to be successful. To become a top vocalist and maintain that spot, one needs to learn the right breath control, vocal techniques and also needs to know the right way to warm up their cords. A vocalist is so much more than technical ability, it's an entire package that starts from learning the very fundamentals of music and focusing on the minute details of singing.