Proper Breathing from the Beginning

Hello, My name is Caitlyn, I am a classically trained vocalist. Andrew informed me that some people were asking for singing help, and asked if I could give some input. So it’s always best to start from the beginning:

1) Stance- Keep your feet about shoulder width apart, make sure that your feet are balanced, but do not lock your knees, make sure that you can move them, if you are sitting (which I do not suggest, but if you must: ) make sure that your feet are flat on the floor, and that you are sitting on the edge of your seat to give you better posture. Posture is very important while singing, do not slouch or it will make your ribs/ lungs collapse, and make it more natural to breath shallowly.
If you are just beginning to sing it is best to stand with a hand on your diaphragm (pretty much upper abdomen) , and some times keep one hand on your upper chest

2)Make sure that your entire body is RELAXED, you do not want your body to be tense, or it can cause you to lose tone, this includes keeping your jaw relaxed.

3) Now take in a deep breath so that your ribs expand, let your breath out slowly but do not let your rib cage deflate with your breath, as difficult as it is you need to keep your rib cage expanded! This often requires practice because our bodies are used to letting our rib cage go with the breath, but do your best to keep it expanded, and try to exorcise your self by keeping it expanded for ten minutes a day and as your body gets more and more used to expanding your ribs, keep upping the time.

4) When you inhale again push your stomach out, let the air fill your stomach, and your lungs will be completely filled. When you exhale let your stomach go in with your breathe (preferably slowly) using your diaphragms muscles to push it out. When breathing make sure that your chest does NOT rise and fall with your breathe, keep your ribs expanded, and don’t let yourself collapse.

5) When singing do not let your throat tense, when it is relaxed the voice should flow through, instead of having to push your voice which could cause injuries to your vocal cords

PS. in the beginning breathing properly can make you light headed because your body is getting more oxygen then it's used to!

Wow awesome to have somebody experienced to help out with this. I kind of like writing songs, and I've got some preetty good material laying around here waiting to get recorded. But I'm trying to learn to sing properly... I was kind of wondering, some people got this "rusty" effect to their voice.. Do you know how it's acheived without thrashing your vocal cords?

I actually do not know how to achieve that with out possibly causing harm to the vocal chords, different people use different techniques to obtain that raspy/ rusty sound but none of them are good for the throat or vocal chords.

that's good info, I actually had no idea about that breathing OR the stance!! Yay!! thank you so much!

Caitlyn Voice Major wrote:I actually do not know how to achieve that with out possibly causing harm to the vocal chords, different people use different techniques to obtain that raspy/ rusty sound but none of them are good for the throat or vocal chords.

Oh okay . Do you have any good excercises on belting ?

Thanks for all the help by the way.. This is some amaazing stuff for me. I have alot of really good material lying around waiting to be recorded...

Caitlyn Voice Major wrote:Hello, My name is Caitlyn, I am a classically trained vocalist. Andrew informed me that some people were asking for singing help, and asked if I could give some input. So it’s always best to start from the beginning:

1) Stance- Keep your feet about shoulder width apart, make sure that your feet are balanced, but do not lock your knees, make sure that you can move them, if you are sitting (which I do not suggest, but if you must: ) make sure that your feet are flat on the floor, and that you are sitting on the edge of your seat to give you better posture. Posture is very important while singing, do not slouch or it will make your ribs/ lungs collapse, and make it more natural to breath shallowly.
If you are just beginning to sing it is best to stand with a hand on your diaphragm (pretty much upper abdomen) , and some times keep one hand on your upper chest

2)Make sure that your entire body is RELAXED, you do not want your body to be tense, or it can cause you to lose tone, this includes keeping your jaw relaxed.

3) Now take in a deep breath so that your ribs expand, let your breath out slowly but do not let your rib cage deflate with your breath, as difficult as it is you need to keep your rib cage expanded! This often requires practice because our bodies are used to letting our rib cage go with the breath, but do your best to keep it expanded, and try to exorcise your self by keeping it expanded for ten minutes a day and as your body gets more and more used to expanding your ribs, keep upping the time.

4) When you inhale again push your stomach out, let the air fill your stomach, and your lungs will be completely filled. When you exhale let your stomach go in with your breathe (preferably slowly) using your diaphragms muscles to push it out. When breathing make sure that your chest does NOT rise and fall with your breathe, keep your ribs expanded, and don’t let yourself collapse.

5) When singing do not let your throat tense, when it is relaxed the voice should flow through, instead of having to push your voice which could cause injuries to your vocal cords

PS. in the beginning breathing properly can make you light headed because your body is getting more oxygen then it's used to!

Hi And welcome to the forum!! I cant sing at all
But then I know who to contact if I need a female vocalist, If I decide to write lyrics to a piece or something!!

Feel free to post a recording or a performance in the performance-topic

Thanks,
and I will post a performance or recording for sure

pianohama wrote:I was kind of wondering, some people got this "rusty" effect to their voice.. Do you know how it's acheived without thrashing your vocal cords?

Have you tried singing through a Guitar effects processor? I heard Marco Hietala (bass player and back-vocalist from Nightwish) does that to increase his already "rusty" voice
It might be fun, I'm gonna try that later and see if I can do that

wamaral wrote:

pianohama wrote:I was kind of wondering, some people got this "rusty" effect to their voice.. Do you know how it's acheived without thrashing your vocal cords?

Have you tried singing through a Guitar effects processor? I heard Marco Hietala (bass player and back-vocalist from Nightwish) does that to increase his already "rusty" voice
It might be fun, I'm gonna try that later and see if I can do that

Haha that sounds cool dude ^^ But I want to learn things clean from the beginning, dont want to rely on to much technical things =)!

This is some great help. I'm going and try to control my breath as much as possible in everyday life, if only for the extra oxygen
But do you think everybody _could_ sing if they learned the proper technical stuff. Because when I sing it sounds REALLY horrible and I'm not wishing to have the best voice in the world, but it just has to be in tune so people won't run away screaming. Is that possible or do you have to have some physical requirements? Oh how I wonder...

The Royal Nobody wrote:This is some great help. I'm going and try to control my breath as much as possible in everyday life, if only for the extra oxygen
But do you think everybody _could_ sing if they learned the proper technical stuff. Because when I sing it sounds REALLY horrible and I'm not wishing to have the best voice in the world, but it just has to be in tune so people won't run away screaming. Is that possible or do you have to have some physical requirements? Oh how I wonder...

Singing in tune is only getting used to your voice, and learning how to hit those tones... So yes you can definetly.. In fact you can become a GREAT singer by learning proper technique gl

The Royal Nobody wrote:This is some great help. I'm going and try to control my breath as much as possible in everyday life, if only for the extra oxygen
But do you think everybody _could_ sing if they learned the proper technical stuff. Because when I sing it sounds REALLY horrible and I'm not wishing to have the best voice in the world, but it just has to be in tune so people won't run away screaming. Is that possible or do you have to have some physical requirements? Oh how I wonder...

Basically its genetically... You have to have a good voice for it to be really good.
If you have naturally a horrible singing-voice all the techniques in the world cant save you... hehe

But If you really have a good voice, and the reason it sounds awefull is cause of your lack of technique, thats good news since you want to sing fairly good or great one day. Only way to find out if you got a descent voice is to try to do exercises

Btw: I got an awefull voice - Im good at hitting right tones and so, but I wasn't born with a descent singing voice hehehe

I think that almost everyone could sing if they did it properly. Im not saying that everyone is going to sound like the next Andre Bocelli, but if you put in the time, and practice, and patients, you can most likely learn to sing, and sing well. But singing is so physical, if you in the least bit ill your voice can be deeply effected. Also things you eat, or what times you eat can have an effect on your voice, I dont have any dairy in a few days of a performance, also I personally practice about 3 hours a day, I do from an hour to 2 hours at school, and another hour at home, but you have to build up to singing that long, your dont want to strain, or damage your vocal chords.
ps. Being sad, upset, angry, any emotion can gave an effect on the voice
pss. When I started singing, I had no technique, and didnt sound like anything special, but I worked m way up. It's just you cant get down on yourself.

I do believe that everyone can sing pretty decent if they do practice. Because to get the best out of a voice, practice and the right technice is essential.
But there will be people who sound more pleasing to the ear than others, just because the sound of their voice sounds better.

Bag pipe vs piano.....

Say we have two humans, one 5 feet long, the other 7 feet long, they are running marathon. If both has identical health and identical exercise, and everything spec in their body are the same, the guy with the longest legs will win. Because he's longer, not because he has a better technic or more practice. We are all born different, and that's why we got different abilities, some are better some are worse, but the gap between good and bad wont be that huge if they both have the ability trained.

I personaly dont sing, because I dont like to sing

Caitlyn Voice Major wrote:I think that almost everyone could sing if they did it properly. Im not saying that everyone is going to sound like the next Andre Bocelli, but if you put in the time, and practice, and patients, you can most likely learn to sing, and sing well. But singing is so physical, if you in the least bit ill your voice can be deeply effected. Also things you eat, or what times you eat can have an effect on your voice, I dont have any dairy in a few days of a performance, also I personally practice about 3 hours a day, I do from an hour to 2 hours at school, and another hour at home, but you have to build up to singing that long, your dont want to strain, or damage your vocal chords.
ps. Being sad, upset, angry, any emotion can gave an effect on the voice
pss. When I started singing, I had no technique, and didnt sound like anything special, but I worked m way up. It's just you cant get down on yourself.

how do you know if you've strained your voice or not? Because I'm scared to have strained mines and I don't want to lose it

how do you know if you've strained your voice or not? Because I'm scared to have strained mines and I don't want to lose it

If you have to squeze the notes out you have a strained voice

If you get a sore throat you have a strained voice

Just simply by feeling unnatural and getting pain you can tell you have a strained voice

Well said
Sometimes your voice hurts after, or your throat feels tight, or you start to lose your voice.
Like have you ever been to an event where you have to yell a lot and your voice feels like poop after? Basically the same feeling.

ooh i see, I've heard that you can loose your singing voice easily if you strain your voice too much, is that true?

You can cause permanent damage. But if something feels wrong when your singing dont do it, just be patient and work your way up. Then you dont have to worry about straining. It's like a weight lifter, on their first day they didnt curl 100 lbs, they prolly started with maybe 10lbs and worked their way up so they wouldnt hurt themselves.