[Theme from Rocky]
Yo singers.
Welcome to episode 83 of Voice Lessons To The World.
The show where want to help you as singers by
answering your questions from all over.
I'll give you a chance to ask questions later
but our question for this week starts our Vocal MythBusters series.
And this question is from Matt M. in Birmingham, UK.
Matt writes, "Dear Justin I've been told I should
sing from my diaphragm and not from my throat?
How do I sing from my diaphragm and also strengthen my diaphragm?"
Well Matt, you've been fooled my friend.
Because in fact it is... [hits piano] whoa...
impossible to sing from your diaphragm.
So, wait a minute Justin, what you're saying is
that everything we've ever been told about singing is a lie?
Yes, yes that's exactly what I'm saying.
Because the diaphragm is an inhale only muscle.
It only inhales.
What is the diaphragm?
It's a sheath-like muscle that divides your torso in half.
It runs from your sternum all the way
to the back part of your ribcage.
When this muscle contracts, when it does its work,
it creates a vacuum for the lungs.
That vacuum pulls air into the body.
When we exhale the diaphragm is passive
and other muscles perform the exhale.
Now we don't sing on an inhale, we sing on an exhale.
Unless you want to sing this
but I don't know if that will work out too well.
Usually we sing on an exhale.
Now the diaphragm's not getting any stronger.
It works 24/7, you're not gonna be strengthening your diaphragm.
That's a muscle that's voluntary and involuntary.
It's always working.
So then Justin, what does this mean?
What do we do with this?
Now that this vocal myth has been busted
and we know that we can't sing from our diaphragms,
what are we going to do?
Well we need to redefine our terms.
Since we can't sing from the diaphragm,
how about we maximize our diaphragm's efficiency
when we inhale.
We've been talking about this since episode 1 of the show.
Episode 1 The Four Breathing Types.
There's two breathing types that help our
diaphragm to be efficient.
One is the belly breath, which takes place
below the diaphragm and helps it to descend.
The other is the ribcage breath which takes place
on the sides of the diaphragm and helps it expand and also descend.
Putting those two breaths together set you up
for really efficient singing.
Remember it's not about taking lots of air,
that actually makes singing a lot harder.
We just need our diaphragm to be efficient.
So we're going to look at a song and then an exercise
that's going to help you with your diaphragmatic efficiency.
I racked my brain to think of a song that had
maximum diaphragmatic efficiency and came up with a fun one.
This is "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun.
You guys remember this one!
♫ Any note you can hold, I can hold longer ♫
♫ I can hold any note longer than you ♫
No you can't.
♫ Yes I can ♫
No you can't.
♫ Yes I can ♫
Ribs, belly...
♫ Yes I ♫
♫ Can ♫
Now it's just a silly song but you can see how that takes
maximum diaphragmatic efficiency to hold those notes.
It's interesting, it doesn't take a lot of breath.
It's just about where the inhalation takes place
and how efficient it is.
Now sustains are not the only benefit of maximizing your diaphragm.
There's other benefits as well.
This kind of efficiency is not just going to help
you hold notes for a long time.
It's going to give you greater stamina
and greater vocal health.
You're going to last longer in practice and in performance.
And you're not going to be putting strain on your voice of any kind.
It's also going to give you higher notes.
If you don't blast air you're going to be able to go higher.
Vocal registration- you're going to have more
evenly blended registers when the air flow is steady.
Also a lot of special skills will start to develop.
Legato, smooth phrases, and vibrato.
Cords moving through a very steady stream of breath.
All of these things can be yours if you increase this efficiency.
That's why we're going to do an exercise next to work on it.
This is S-H Z-H on a 1-2-3-2-1.
It sounds like this...
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
So that's an S-H first, with no voice.
And second, Z-H with voice.
Alternating back and forth.
Now remember, it's all about how you take that inhale.
That's what matters with this exercise.
Guys are going to be down here...
♪ Zh ♪
Ladies up here...
♪ Zh ♪
And let's try it!
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
Nice job.
♪
Good for you!
♪
Excellent.
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
Nice.
♪
Really good.
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
Excellent.
♪
That's the way, take the low breath...
♪
And deep...
♪
Great.
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
♪
Excellent work! Two more...
♪
And last one...
♪ Sh, Zh ♪
♪♪
Awesome work!
So you can feel how that works out your breathing system
and makes you think about how to
have that diaphragmatic efficiency.
So I'm so glad, Matt and all, that we could
bust up some vocal myths.
This is a larynx by the way.
[Hits piano]
And we've really figured this out that you
cannot sing from the diaphragm
but we can learn to use the diaphragm
to its maximum efficiency.
It's going to help you guys so much.
So if you've got questions that you'd
like to see us answer on the show,
you can send an email to Questions@VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com.
So I encourage you, don't lose the joy,
don't lose that passion.
Get with a great voice teacher in your area. [♪]
Or if you're in New York or you'd like to Skype [♪]
with one of our staff, visit www.NewYorkVocalCoaching.com. [♪]
If you'd like a vocal course that you can work on at home [♪]
you can check out our Voice Lessons To The World Vocal Course. [♪]
A 12-part course that takes you on a journey from [♪]
beginner to master level vocal exercises. [♪]
Check that out at VoiceLessonsToTheWorld.com. [♪]
If you'd like free daily vocal tips sent to you every single day [♪]
you can sign up at DailyVocalTips.com. [♪]
I'm Justin Stoney. [♪]
Until next time, make a joyful noise. [♪]
♬
Yo, you bench pressed a cat? [♬]
♬