As I said, these comments are well-intentioned, and there are ways to breathe from your belly that can help. Now, first of all, let’s just talk about the fact that  you don’t breathe with your belly!  That needs to be clear. Your lungs are here (demonstrates), your digestive organs are here (demonstrates), you don’t breathe here. It doesn’t happen, but what happens is you move things on to create space for the lungs to expand. Your main muscle is the diaphragm  and it’s underneath the ribs, so it’s actually much higher than we think it is.  A more healthy way of thinking about breathing from the belly is breathing in a way in which the abs, especially the rectus abdominis are not holding. So when you breathe in for singing, you don’t want to over-contract these abs. You don’t want to be like this (demonstrates), not good for singing, but equally, you don’t want to stretch them too much like this (demonstrates).  Either way is bad. So you want to breathe in a way in which the abs are toned, available but  out of the way. So a healthier way to think about it is if actually if you put your hands in the lower back that is a part of your body that you want to be expanding.

 As a result, the rest of your belly area is going to move.  It’s not going to be locked but it’s more about the low back and the ribs that we are thinking. So I’m just going to do that now to show you. So my ribs are expanding this sideways. And my lower back is expanding (demonstrates). And there is some expansion here as well, but it’s not dramatic and I am not locking the spine. I have to have my spine quite long to be able to do that.  That kind of breathing it’s deep breathing and it’s toned.  But it is also a breathing type that allows your larynx to descend naturally without force.

So it promotes healthy and differentiated singing, which is what we want to do when we sing from a holistic and integral approach.

 If you’re interested in singing in a healthy way that promotes choice and agency in your singing, subscribe to this channel because I post content like this pretty much every day.  

Now as I said, I do have a resource for you today. If you go to the description below,  you are going to find access to my 20-minute introductory to singing, free lesson. So this is a 20-minute lesson that works on exploring breathing quite a bit.  So it will help you to make a connection between the way you breathe and the way you sound and therefore give you control over the way you sound. Go ahead and download it. It’s free!