Diaphragmatic Breathing Technique

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Hi, I’m Roger Love, celebrity voice coach and top-selling author. I’m working to make the world a better place, one singing voice at a time, starting with yours.

Today I’m going to reveal a method that’s helping amateur singers transform their voices! In my thirty-plus years of working with celebrities and the not-yet-famous, it’s shocking how many people start out their singing journey by just opening their mouths and listening for nothing but if they are on pitch. Their whole attention is centered on, “Am I hitting the right note?”

If pitch is all that matters to you, you won’t develop the super star potential you have inside of you.

Why? Because great sound is the outcome of great inputs! That happens when the right amount of air meets the right amount of vocal cord. If your posture is bad, your breathing will suffer. When your breathing suffers, your sound is “deaf” on arrival. That’s why focusing only on pitch is defeating your progress.

To explain it another way, imagine you’re driving a racecar. Yes, how you steer matters but if you filled the gas tank with orange juice, your steering is only going to get you so far. The same thing is true for your voice when singing. Some people spend years practicing their scales but never get the voice of their dreams because their breathing technique is as misdirected as orange juice in a car engine!

But I won’t waste another breath telling you how important breathing is.

Let’s do an exercise so you can see for yourself!

I’m going to teach you diaphragmatic breathing, an effective way to enhance your singing voice so you can control your breath and move audiences emotionally with the sounds coming out of your mouth.

The main thing to know is that regardless of whether you are singing or speaking, you should inhale through your nose. Why? Because then the air passes through filters called turbinates and becomes moist. This prevents you from drying out your throat or vocal cords.

First, see what happens when you don’t breath through your nose. Open your mouth and take a slow, deep breath in. Do you feel the dryness? Now close your mouth and breathe in through your nose. See? No dryness at all. From now on, breathe in through your nose and you’ll be able to use your voice all day AND night.

So now that you know how to inhale, let me show you how to exhale most effectively. To do this, we need to focus on good posture. Please sit or stand up straight with your chest up and your shoulders back. On the count of three, take a big, deep breathe in through your nose. And then let it out.

Many of you raised your chest and shoulders. That’s called accessory breathing and it’s the least effective way to get air into your lungs.

But watch what I do: I breathe in through my nose and pretend that I have a balloon in my abdomen. Then when I speak, I exhale and let the balloon come back in slowly.

Let’s do it together. Breathe in through your nose, fill up the balloon, and as you exhale say, “Roger only wants me to sing while my abdomen is coming back in.”

Together again, “Roger only wants me to sing while my abdomen is coming back in.” Great job.

I’d love for you to practice until this becomes second nature. Singing only while your abdomen is coming back in gives you control over volume and projection. That sends the perfect amount of air out of your mouth to carry your amazing new voice to your listeners.

When you apply this breathing method, the sound of your singing will be richer, more impressive and more powerful so you can wow your audiences and move them emotionally.