This question is for anyone who's coached or trained Vocalists?

Question

How do you sing from your chest and not from your throat. I know it's hard to describe verbally and I've done it once, but I think I still sing from my throat, and I know that's very abusive to the vocal cords.

Answer 1

Hello there. How are you? I am a professional vocal coach in New York City. Here is the most simplistic, yet detailed explanation I can give you:

Breathing is the single most important element in singing. In order to control your voice you have to put out exactly the amount of breath you need for the sound you want. That breath needs to be as focused as a laser beam. How you exhale controls the quality of the sound, the volume, the pitch and the tone. How you inhale governs how you exhale.

Most people, as they walk around in their daily lives, inhale into their upper lungs i.e., their shoulders go up as does their chest. When the air is in your upper lungs, you don't have the kind of detailed control you need. A singer (or a swimmer or runner--anyone who has to control their air) should fill their lower lungs. This means that instead of a breath that is vertical, with your body expanding upwards, the breath should be horizontal, expanding outwards.

Put one hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your back, both at about waist level. Inhale by filling your lower lungs with air so that your stomach sticks out. Your hands should move apart, the air filling the space between them. As you exhale let your stomach go back in gently. Think of your stomach as a balloon that inflates and deflates. Your chest shouldn't move, not even an eighth of an inch. As you get better at this, your back will also move out when you inhale. Try putting your thumbs one on each side of your spine, at about waist level. Relax your shoulders. Now inhale into your thumbs.

Once you put the air in the right place, you must learn to control it with your diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle that sits below your lungs and causes them to fill and empty. If you exhale out all of your air down to the absolutely last drop, you will feel your diaphragm under your rib cage as it pushes up against your lungs. On the outside of your ribs you will feel your abdominal wall pushing in; inside your ribs your diaphragm pushes up. Not only does your diaphragm need to be strong enough to push hard when you want lots of power, but it needs to have even more control and strength when you want to sing a fast and accurate lick, or a big jump in pitch, or very, very quietly. Building the strength and control of your diaphragm begins with proper breathing.

To strengthen the diaphragm, again put one hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your back. Inhale into your abdomen and exhale forcibly so that your stomach muscles push in and the air comes out rapidly. Repeat this--inhale, abdomen out, exhale forcibly, abdomen in--thirty times picking up the tempo as you get comfortable with it. Breathe through your mouth. As you go faster you may find that you've fallen back into the old habit of breathing vertically again. In that case, stop and start over by breathing slowly and gently into your lower lungs until you have the feeling again.

Initially you may feel that you can't get enough air, but that is because your lung capacity is small from disuse. All infants breath into their lower lungs, but as we age and our stress levels increase, our breathing tends to move upwards. With practice you will find that your lower lungs stretch out and that your ribs in the back will loosen up and make room for the larger inhalation.

Be patient with yourself. After breathing vertically thousands of times a day all the years of your life, a new way to breathe takes lots of concentration. Remember that your voice is an instrument like any other. It takes time to learn to play it--time and patience and practice.

Please let me know if you need any more help in the future! :o)

Answer 2

Air flow should be controlled by you diaphram not your chest.
The throat should be kept open as much as possible.

Your vocal cords make sound in a manner similar to the functioning of the lips on the mouth piece of a trumpit: The lips vibrate as air passes through them when tightened. If you squeeze too hard it constricts the sound and if you open too much you get no sound. In between you'll get different pitches depending on how much air pressure you apply and how open you make the hole. The vocal cords in your throat work in an almost similar way.

You should breath into the diaphram and learn to let the air out while keeping it in at the same time, while keeping your throat relaxed and without closing the throat.

Practice doing this with an "AH" vowel sound, as this is the easiest one to do and keep the throat open.

Answer 3

When you sing, the support should ultimatly be coming from your diaphram and your air. You make sound when your diaphram pushes the air through your vocal chords. The higher the pitch the faster your chords vibrate, the lower pitches have a slow vibration. In order to give longevity to your carrer, you must learn not to strain your chord by pushing with your throat, rather bring a good sustained amount of air up from your (tummy area : if that helps to locate your diaphram) and let it release. Start of by practicing your breathing. when you breath deep you should feel your lungs and chest expanding, not rising, so if your shoulders are going way up, your breathing wrong. The more air you have the longer, stronger and more on pitch note you will sing. It all about the support. Next, and this is difficult to explain without being in front of you, uhg! and feel it resonate in your chest. Put your finger in the middle of your chest and make sure you feel vibrations where you are pointing. Now, are you close to a piano, just start at low or middle C and do that up and down the scale as low or as high as you can go and make sure you keep feeling the vibration in your chest and that you are supporting the sound with lots of air. Move on to humming and then to a sustined AHHH up and down the scale.

This is going to take practice, please be patient. If you do find your throat is hurting or you start getting raspy when you sing, stop immediately and breath. Drink lots of water and hot tea, you'll get it. Good luck with your vocal stylings. :);)

Answer 4

It all comes from your breathing. An exercise you can do to train your breathing that one of my vocal coaches used to have me do was to lay on the floor on my back with a few heavy books on my stomach and breath in and out, making sure to make the books rise with each breath I took in and lower each time I exhaled. This teaches you to breathe properly through your diaphragm and not from up in your chest. Then, once you have that down, use the same force of air to push through your vocal cords that you used while practising your breathing.

Another thing was keeping the throat fully open. My teacher told me to imagine an egg in my throat to get the shape to open up fully. Also, when you yawn your throat opens up, so try to imitate that feeling when you sing.

Answer 5

It's supposed to come from the diaphragm. It is as if you were yawning. Make it come from deep within. So look in the mirror and first yawn the song out and as loud as you can. This is to get you out of the habit of singing through your nose or nasal passages.

Answer 6

Breathe all of your air in through your lungs. Exhale and sing while your exhaling. Thats the easiest way to describe it in words.

Answer 7

when i first started singing my coach told me that i was singing through my nose. i have never heard from your throat.
but w.e
idk how to tell you its really hard to explain.
just takes time and practice i guess.
i eventually got it.
just like practice with holding notes and stuff.
i guess.

Answer 8

Absolutely. Voice teachers can help you in any style of music that they are experienced in.