Breathing Exercises for Vocalists

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is David Kingery, and I am a professional vocal coach, here in Miami, Florida. Let's talk a little bit about breathing exercises for vocalists. In singing, breathing is one of the most important factors, in letting you execute a good song, so I start out again, thinking that singing is a sport. Using other exercises, such as biking, swimming, running, control your breathing. You breathe in full, and breathe out full. That will help you as a singer. Swimming is probably one of the best exercises to do, that compliment singing, because you need the biggest amount of breath, in the shortest amount of time. If you can swim, try to dive underwater, and see how long you can hold your breath, as you're underwater. That will help develop your diaphragm, and help expand your lung capacity, which is essential to becoming a good singer. Some other breathing exercises you can do other than sports, is by taking a deep breath, as full as you can, and letting it out slowly on an s-h sound, until you have absolutely no breath left. For example, s-sssshhh, and push it all out, until you have absolutely no breath left. Another great exercise to do, is take a deep breath and let it out in spurts. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Feeling that diaphragm pushing up the air out of your lungs, almost like little crunches in sit-ups, that will definitely help develop your lung capacity, and strengthen your diaphragm. Another great exercise to do, to help you have great breath during singing, is yawning on a note. For example, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. A yawn helps instill an open throat and a lifted palate, and it's a great way to breathe in singing. One more final exercise, to help just really build that lung capacity, is take a deep breath, and choose a note on the piano, and just hold that note as long as you can, until you're out of air. Ah--------------------, and push it all out until you have almost no air left in your lungs, and those are some great ways to strengthen your diaphragm, and help you have good lung capacity, as a singer."