Lung support for singing.

N

Notebook.

New member
Hm, I've been practicing singing for months and months and I've gotten really good. But, this may sound stupid maybe lol, but I've been using my lungs for volume/control and my voice has gotten SO MUCH better. Like, instead of coming up from my diaphragm right up to my throat, I kind of incorporate my lungs and everything's so much smooother and controlled.

does anyone else understand what I'm saying?
because I COULD just be crazy and not know what I'm talking about, XD.
 
I've always been told "Sing from the diaphragm, sing from the diaphragm, fill it with air....".
I don't know where I sing from but it doesn't feel like there at all. I feel like a chest/lung singer. I think I know where you're coming from and if it works for you, keep that as part of your arsenal. I'd be interested to know of the long term effects of singing this way. I don't think you're crazy. There are often different ways of doing things that the experts disregard.
 
yeah dude like, I look at it this way: your stomach is the gas tank, the air is the fuel, the throat is the gas pipe, but the air travels through the many structures of the "machine" before it reaches the gas pipe such as: the lungs and chest.

haha, idk, I just thought of that.
but, I'm sure you understand me.

like, when I sing, I fill up my stomach and it feels like the POWER is coming from my lungs. but, it doesn't feel forced. it's a greeeeat feeling, because when I'd hit high notes before,I was YELLING with no control. Now it doesn't feel like a flat note. It's almost like I'm compressing the air with my lungs and altering it as I please.
 
There's a lot of misconceptions about "singing from the diaphragm".

Your diaphragm is a flat muscle under your lungs and when it pulls down it makes air go into your lungs.

Your lungs are pear shaped. The top smaller part is for getting air fast like if you were being attacked. When you use mainly the top part your chest sticks out like Superman. It doesn't hold much air.

The bottom part of the pear shape holds way more. The #1 problem singers have at first is running out of air. It makes your notes quiver. If you "breath in through your navel" your belly will go out. Your belly should feel like you're holding a basketball under water. That will give you way more air, especially if you combine it with the top part of your lungs.

The top part comes quick, the bottom part takes practice. That's what helped me a lot. Plus Seth Riggs' lessons.
 
The lung bottle

I have been to a few vocal sessions over the years [usually run by Folkworks over here in NE UK]. I have learnt a lot from the various teachers but I always remember the first sessions I did when the tutor watched us breathe deeply and all of our shoulders rose. So he told us we had to learn to breathe [we all thought we had learned that naturally but we were wrong]. He told us to imagine we were filling an empty milk bottle when we breathed in [i.e. from the bottom up]. Once we practiced it a few times we got better and had a lot more air to use in singing and no shoulder rise. I guess that then lets the diaphragm give some control to the release of air.

Eric
 
Kvasirsblod said:
I have been to a few vocal sessions over the years [usually run by Folkworks over here in NE UK]. I have learnt a lot from the various teachers but I always remember the first sessions I did when the tutor watched us breathe deeply and all of our shoulders rose. So he told us we had to learn to breathe [we all thought we had learned that naturally but we were wrong]. He told us to imagine we were filling an empty milk bottle when we breathed in [i.e. from the bottom up]. Once we practiced it a few times we got better and had a lot more air to use in singing and no shoulder rise. I guess that then lets the diaphragm give some control to the release of air.

Eric
Click to expand...

That's it. You're using the bottom part of your lungs which holds way more air than the top part. To me the "filling an empty milk bottle... from the bottom up" thing feels like breathing in through your navel.

It's all in the land of increasing the volume of air you have so you let it out in a controlled way instead running out all the time.

Running out all the time makes you panic like you're drowning.
 
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