- I don't think there's a singer alive who hasn't been told to
sing from the diaphragm. But, what does that even mean? And, more importantly,
is it an instruction you should even take any notice of? - [Voiceover] Soundcheck. Check one, check two. (cheering) - Hey there, welcome to Voice Essentials. My name is Dr. Dan, and I'm so pleased you chose to click on my video. Have you ever been told to
sing from the diaphragm? From my experience, it seems
to be an age-old instruction that many singers associate
with singing well. But, when I ask beginner students to locate their diaphragm for me, not only do most people
not know where it is, they often don't even know
how it works or what it does. So, firstly, what is it? Well, the diaphragm is
a rather large muscle, the second lodged in your body, actually, that literally separates
your thoracic cavity, containing your heart and your lungs, from your abdominal cavity,
the lower-half of your torso. The diaphragm has a dome shape, and is often labeled as
having two divisions, left and right. Unlike other voluntarily
controlled muscles, the diaphragm is connected to
the autonomic nervous system. This enables you to breathe without having to think about
it, even while you sleep. But of course, singing is
a very conscious activity requiring intentional management of the diaphragmatic movements. So, how does that all work? - [Voiceover] Soundcheck. (cheering). - Well, the best way to think
about the diaphragm's work is to simply ignore it. That's right. You see, firstly, you can't really directly control the diaphragm anyway. In fact, you'll never hear me telling you to learn breath control. The word control, to me at least, suggests that the singer needs to learn to consciously move the
diaphragm up and down, just like you choose to
move your arm or your hand. No, we don't have that kind
of control over our diaphragm. What we can learn to do is manage the diaphragmatic movements
via other muscle sets. So, with this in mind, let's briefly talk about the two events of breath management: inhalation and exhalation. The diaphragm contracts during inhalation. That means it's moving downwards. Now, the only way your
diaphragm can fully contract is when your abdominal
wall fully releases. I often say to my students, "Good singing "is frumpy singing" Sorry, girls. You need to learn to let it
all hang out when you inhale. To make my point, do this for me. Hold your tummy. Get your tummy muscles and
hold them in really tight. Now, try to breathe in. Notice how little air you can take in when your abdominal wall is too tight. So, that's the first step. You need to release the abdominal muscles, which you can directly control, in order to manage the active
descent of the diaphragm. One small point before we continue. Try and avoid the temptation to push your tummy muscles out. The word release should
denote a letting go of tension through your midriff,
not a purposeful push. Okay, now let's talk exhalation. And, this is where we
put that old instruction to sing from the diaphragm
to rest, once and for all. When you exhale, the diaphragm is, for the most part, passive. That's right. At the very moment when
you are creating sound, the diaphragm is inactive. When you follow the fact
to its logical conclusion, it's an anatomical impossibility
to sing from the diaphragm. It simply can't be done. The muscles that we need learn to manage for exhalation are mainly the abdominals and the obliques. - [Voiceover] Soundcheck. (cheering) - So, now, we understand
that you can't sing from the diaphragm. The facts are, that your sound is created at the level of your vocal folds, and is fueled by your breath stream. With this knowledge in place,
we can confidently state that we sing with our whole body, not just the diaphragm. Actually, we sing with
our body, mind, and soul, but that's another video for another day. Before we sign off, allow
me to give you an exercise that is designed to empower you with a heightened sense
of kinesthetic awareness connected to your breath. I often refer to this exercise as developing a biological
fuel gauge for the singer. Imagine driving a car with no fuel gauge. You'd literally be driving along, fully expecting the car to
run of petrol at any moment. This, in turn, is probably gonna cause you to pull-in to the gas
station far more frequently. Probably, more than you need to. And, that's what I see
singers doing all the time. Because, they haven't developed
good breath management, alongside a heightened physical awareness of their breath capacities, they either run out of air prematurely, or need to inhale at the
most inopportune times. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way, and that's where this exercise comes in. Many of you have my exercise CD, Dr. Dan's Voice Essentials, and this exercise is found on track 12. All we're going to do
is breathe in for eight, suspend for eight, and exhale for eight. Now, some quick instructions. When you breathe in, I want you to reach your full point at eight,
not five, six, or seven. Also, don't allow your shoulders
to rise on the in-breath. Remember, we wanna release
the abdominal wall (exhales), allowing the diaphragm to descend fully. And, when we suspend the breath, it's important to do that
by engaging your obliques, they're down here, and your abdominal wall, which should feel a bit like firm jelly. Do your best to avoid the temptation to lock your larynx down in
order to hold your breath. This is called valving,
and we don't wanna do that. At this point, we are literally suspending the motion of the diaphragm. And then, when you exhale,
do so using an SH (exhales). And do that over the
full count of the eight. You should reach your empty
point on the count of eight. And, the exhalation should
be even and consistent from beginning to end. Okay, let's do the exercise together over the count of eight. - [Dr. Dan On CD]
Inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Suspend- - Suspend. There should be no tension. It should be all feeling good, nice and engaged through
your abdominal wall. (exhales) - [Dr. Dan On CD] ... two, three four, five, six, seven, eight. - How'd you go? Most of you will have found the activity relatively straightforward. So, if you have the exercise CD at home, I want you to let the track run. It works its way all the way up to 20. That's right, 20 in,
20 suspend, 20 exhale. One word of caution, however. Only move on to the next level once you've mastered the preceding count. That is, for example, don't go to 12, until you're doing a solid 10. Also, at no point should you feel tension through your shoulders, neck, or larynx. The whole idea of this exercise is to activate your whole
breath management team. And, that should result in
the significant reduction of tension throughout the
upper-half of your body. Importantly, this exercise is not about increasing your lung capacity. So, be sure to take the
exact same amount of air in during inhalation phase,
regardless of the count. You're simply learning to
move the same amount of air over differing amounts of time. And finally, take the opportunity to physically monitor your body, your instrument, throughout
each of these three phases. How does your body breath? Where are you feeling movement? Where do you feel tension? It's all about developing a better sense of how your instrument is using the air. I hope you've learned something today. I'm always keen to dispel
age-old myths about voice, replacing them with
fact-based information. Leave me a comment, and tell
us all here at Voice Essentials whether or not you've received instruction to sing from the diaphragm. Please don't name and shame. We're not out to ... Not on a witch-hunt here, but I am keen to learn about your experiences. And, if this is your first time to Voice Essentials, welcome. I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial. I upload videos just like this one every Tuesday and Thursday. So, if you think information like this will be helpful to you and
your vocal development, I'd love you to subscribe, and join our ever-growing community of singers from across the globe, who just like you, want to raise their voice in song. Hopefully, I'll see you in the next Voice Essentials video. I'm Dr. Dan. Sing well. (cheering)
