• Singing with your Diaphragm

    Those new to singing tend to draw breath on a note-by-note basis. Singing, however, is generally more fluid. Your voice is a wind instrument. Constant air circulation from the diaphragm, as though someone were pushing on your chest until you deflated, provides power for your voice while, much like fingers on a flute, your throat and mouth provide pitch.

    |tension - pitch| = -pitch quality

    Loosen your throat as much as you can and try to sing a very high pitch. The wind should pass right through you, or otherwise make a very "scratchy" sound. Now tighten your throat and sing a low pitch; same effect. As you have probably deduced, throat tension has a direct relationship to the "quality" of your pitch. The closer your throat tension is in relation to the pitch you are trying to hit, the higher quality your note will be.

    Try the basic "low to high and back" singing exercise with this new information in mind. do re mi fa so la ti Do - Do ti la so fa mi re do. Three main factors are in play when fine tuning pitch quality - Muscle/Tone Memory, Speech Tension and Fatigue:

    Muscle/Tone Memory - Even if you understand pitch's relation to tension, your voice may still suffer from "scratch"-iness. With time and practice, automatic tone/muscle memory should help resolve this problem.

    Speech Tension - In natural speech, throat tension tends to change unconsciously. In song, throat tension should never change involuntarily. Practice singing complex lyrics, making sure that your throat tension undergoes only minimal change to accommodate lyrical song.

    Fatigue - Practice makes perfect, but the throat is easy to overwork. Once you feel like you can no longer control your throat tension, it's time to give yourself a rest and maybe drink some water before singing again.


    With enough practice and self-discovery, mastering your voice will still be work, but it will be a lot less of it.

    Good Luck!,
    Pritchard