You may have heard the phrases ‘sing from your belly’ or ‘sing from your centre’ or ‘breathe from your belly’. Am I right?
But what do they really mean? And are they actually good advice?
Well, from my extensive training, experience and performing in singing, I’d say definitely YES.
But you may still want to know what, and why.
From my perspective, I believe, and very much feel, physically and energetically, that 3 important things come from the belly, or the centre.
Your in- breath.
Both the inbreath and the outbreath are connected to your centre.
When you breathe in, freely and deeply, like you need to for singing, you should be feeling a ‘bounce’, the very start of the in-breath, deep in your abdominal cavity.
(Not everyone does, many people breathe shallowly, which is why so many singing leaders say ‘breathe from your belly’. To make it deeper.)
Where is ‘the centre’?
Well it’s an area in the abdomen you can feel when you make the strong sound ‘ssshhh’. Or when you cough.
The muscles you can feel working are the abdominal muscles. ( or more specifically the lower rectus abdominis. The name doesn’t matter too much, what matters is that you can feel it.)
It’s also pretty much the centre of gravity of the human body.
Your out-breath
When you sing, especially in the second half of a phrase or long note, or on a loud sound, you start needing to push air out. This is when the abdominal muscles swing into action.
Again, you can feel it when you sing or call a loud sound like ‘Hey!’
During the first half of each breath in singing, the air is easily flowing out from your full lungs so you don’t need to squeeze it out. But when you have less air left, and you still want to keep singing, you do need to push the air out.
You can most definitely feel that as ‘singing from the belly’ or rather, singing from the centre, from that deep spot inside the abdomen. Try it out with a long or loud note.
Feel it?
So, there’s the answer: Since singing is powered by breathing, you need to breathe into and out of, and sing, from the centre.
It also gives you a lot of control in pacing the air.
Your vocal power
The power of the voice, physically, comes from breath power, not from the throat.
(If you’re using your throat for power, as if it’s the engine of the voice, you’ll be causing a lot of wear and tear, and not getting the outcomes you want)
Vocal power is about the connection between the breath, the throat (vocal folds) and the resonators.
You want your breath to be working strongly and steadily from the centre, and the vocal folds to be vibrating in response to the airflow. Your resonators help with richness of tone, and projection. When these all work together, vocal power feels effortless.
So here again, you get vocal power – both projection and volume - by singing from the belly, not the throat.
Emotional expression
Obviously when singing we want to communicate expressively and make people feel, and be moved by, the emotions in the song.
When we express emotions authentically, we get the sensation that they emerge from the belly, the gut.
Interestingly, when we sing from a place of genuine feeling, it naturally causes the breath to also work from that deeper place.
So is it right to sing from the belly?
Absolutely yes. It will increase your vocal power, reduce throat strain, enhance projection, make your breath deeper and more controlled, and in the right place, and help you sing more expressively.
One focus
So if you want to focus on one thing to help you achieve all these benefits, then tap into authentic emotions when singing. It will activate all the rest.
You can do that by really stepping into character.
‘Become’ the character, or persona, that tells the story and feeling of the song.
Enjoy that real sense of presence in, and connection to, the song.
Your audience will feel it, I tell you!
Get personal help with your singing
If you’d like to get some personal feedback, guidance, or coaching for your singing, so you can use your voice with ease and become a confident, powerful singer, I’d love to help.
Just get started by booking in a Free Consultation.
