How to Sing from Your Diaphragm | Vocal Lessons

Hi. I'm Cari Cole. I'm a celebrity vocal coach and artist development expert. And I help artists find their voice, craft their music and create successful music careers. I've worked with Donald Fagen from Steely Dan, Courtney Love from Hole. I've worked with the band Journey. I'm gonna teach you how to be a better singer and performer.

So, I'm gonna teach you an exercise for how to sing with your diaphragm. Now, I can't go into all the details here, and it's a bit more complicated than I'm gonna show you. But for a quick peek into how to use the diaphragm, and what the diaphragm is, this is gonna help you understand the subject.

So, the diaphragm is a muscle that's inside the rib cage, okay? So, here's one side of your rib; if I had another hand it would be over here, right? The diaphragm is inside that rib cage. The diaphragm doesn't have any nerve endings, so we can't feel it. So, it causes a lot of confusion for singers, or wanna be singers, when we start talking about singing with the diaphragm, because it's not a muscle we can feel. But, we can control its movement by the surrounding muscles.

So, when the ribs open, the diaphragm has room to go down. When the ribs are too tight and locked, so it has a lot to do with your breathing, of course; when the ribs are too tight and locked, that diaphragm isn't gonna go down. So, of course, breathing and learning how to open up the middle of the body, not breathe up into the chest, but breathe down into this area, right here. And it really is 360 degrees around the body that you want to move, when you breathe. This is how you start to control that diaphragm movement, and get it to move down.

Now, when the diaphragm moves down, it pulls air into the lungs. That's why so many people, when they take a deep breath, they do this, and they breathe into the upper chest. Singers have to keep the chest lifted, elevated slightly, more than normal and then reach down below the chest, for the breath. And this is how we get that diaphragm movement going, like so.

So, for those of you that are very tight in this area, particularly dancers have a hard time with this, because they're always tucking their stomach, or for those of you that have very tight abdomens or work your abdomens out a lot, this is going to be a little bit tougher for you. So, with this hand that's being place on your upper stomach, I want you to apply more pressure in the areas that don't move. If your ribcage doesn't move or your upper stomach doesn't move or your back muscles where my thumb is wrapping around to, if any of those areas feel tighter than normal, apply more pressure. So, if your stomach feels tighter, apply more pressure as you breathe.

So, I just want you to keep that chest elevated, hand here on the upper stomach with your fingers pointing in, hand on the ribcage; exhale your air, but don't drop the chest. So, you don't want to go like that, right? Chest stays up. Try that again. Take a breath in, blow your air out, keep the chest elevated. This is the first step to using the diaphragm correctly.

The second step is trying to open down here. So, breath down into your abdomen, and your ribs, and your back; all the way around into your back. Blow the air out, chest stays up; it doesn't drop. And then take a breath in, reach down into your abdomen, ribs, and back. Imagine that diaphragm going all the way down, blowing the air out, keeping the chest elevated. You're on your way to breathing into your diaphragm.

[Xplicid]

so many videos talk about breathing from the diaphragm but not singing from the diaphragm. It's easy breathing into the diaphragm and humming out basic sounds. but actually singing words is a bit more challenging to do when trying to concentrate on words and staying on pitch. I guess I'm wondering how to actually use the support from the diaphragm WHILE singing instead of using it to breathe FOR singing. Does that make sense? Any insight?

[marianospears]

she is such and amazing voice teacher!! i love her so warm

[curtin]

I have been wanting vocal lessons for a long time, but cannot afford them. I LOVE these tutorials. Of all the tutorials I have seen, Cari's is by far the best! It is great how you actually do full lessons and not just a short explanation. Thank you!

[josefinaself-lovecoach]

Awesome details on describing how to breathe for singing! You can use this on playing a wind instrument as well!

[ljmotivateD]

Thanks a lot Cari! I'm really blessed that you did these videos... You're saving dreams that were almost dying! God Bless!😉

[ragnarkisten]

This is like a blue print of what I do when I breath in singing. However a lot of singers, and schools hold this technique as incorrect as far as I know. They talk about the belly out, and that you should press out the stomach and so on, which has never worked for me. This makes much more sense, considering you are freeing the diaphragm

[padmaranidasi]

thanks! 25 years of singing and finally I understand whats diaphragm exactly )))

[musicisgreat]

Hi Carrie. Wow I have been using your methods for breath control for some time now. Your method has made me realize I can really sing! Yesterday was a major breakthrough for me when I sang Lean on me and Right here waiting for you. It almost brought tears to my significant other. He was amazed after working so hard on my voice. I also am a home study piano student. Thank you sooo much. Aaron

[shogoyamada]

Really great explanation. I'm watching this to better my breathing for running.

[selda_KZ]

Ur amazing ma'am🧡u describe the lessons all too well✨🧡

[redhighlight]

i really want to be a singer when i grow up i have bin to some singing lessons but thoses kind of confuse me.so i was searching youtube and i found you thank you so much cari.this will help me alot in singing and to try my best to acomplesh my dream.i like pop and r&b but i like r&b more thank you and have a nice day.

[BbabydoolL]

Think you cari for the sing exercises :)

[montrealbudd]

Hi Cari. My name is Montreal. I'm extremely passionate about singing. In fact, I hope to one day become a huge pop star. I love all genres of music and I even attended a performing arts school called Rogers when I was about 13. I majored in vocal for 2 years. Now I'm 20 years old and I feel like I've let a lot go with my vocals. My coach in Rogers really helped me to see my true potential and he made my voice 10 times better but now that I am picking it back up, it seems like I am

[ryunayujo]

Thank you very much! It did work! <3 I saw the improvements and it goes my vibrato :)

[thrasstefan]

TO FIND YOUR DIAPHRAGM: When you breathe, pretend you are breathing through a straw. That way you will notice that no air is getting into your chest, instead all the air goes to your diaphragm. Then you will fully understand what/where is the diaphragm. Then just practise singing notes with the same way and then try singing full words. It needs practice but it is worth it. Same applies to people want to learn how to scream without hurting their throat.

[Itsbrax]

I have been using my throat voice to sing and I can tell it’s made my voice more raspy and I wanted to learn how to sing out of my diaphragm but when I try singing out of my diaphragm I have to yell and I lose my breath too fast

[echy]

when I use my diaphram I sing as if I am constipated. Idk if I am doing it wrong

[shaquettastewart]

So basically, since singing happens on the exhale, the stomach should push downwardly as I sing, as part of breathing from my diaphragm?

[MykSau]

I get dizzy when i breathe from diaphragm :/

[rubendez]

Thank u, I cant sing if I dont do situps 2 or 3 times a week, so sometimes its not tight or strong enough.